Accepting a new job—especially in uncertain economic times—can be one of the most exciting and optimistic moments of a project manager's career. The reality, however, is that not all new jobs work out. In fact, some turn out to be downright disastrous.
When a project professional realizes that a new position is a bad fit, the experience can be awkward and potentially excruciating. You might not want to leave a project too early and have it become a blemish on your résumé. Then again, no one wants to have a miserable work life.
Performing proper due diligence before accepting a position can help ensure you don't land in a job that falls short of your expectations, says Eoghan McDermott, head of the careers division of The Communications Clinic, a career and public relations consultancy and training firm in Dublin, Ireland.
Too often project managers assume they should ask detailed questions about project scope, budget, control and autonomy at the interview stage. All that's important, but it can be hashed out later, he says.
“In an interview, the candidate's objective is to persuade the people sitting across from them that they're the best person for the job,” Mr. McDermott says.
> Project managers should discuss the nitty-gritty of project particulars only after they have been offered the position, but before a formal agreement has been signed.
He suggests that project managers discuss the nitty-gritty of project particulars only after they have been offered the position, but before a formal agreement has been signed. That way if you learn something about the position that is unattractive, you can try to work it out before it's too late.
“Have complete clarity on everything,” Mr. McDermott says. “Will you be able to hire your own team? How will you be able to discipline them? How will you be able to motivate them? Will you be able to choose your key partners? Will you have sole management of stakeholders?”
After you have the conversation, make sure that you're in agreement about the details, he insists. “If issues do come up, you're then able to reference the agreement you made on the front end.”
A BAD EXPERIENCE IS STILL EXPERIENCE
Lacking a concrete understanding of a new job's expectations can pose a myriad of problems.
Brian Vinson was brought in to lead an IT overhaul for a massive not-for profit disaster-relief organization. The new position quickly turned into a nightmare: He deemed it nearly impossible to design a system that would meet the organization's specifications within the budget it had set.
Mr. Vinson lacked sufficient information to design an appropriate infrastructure, and questions remained over file sizes, information retention and traffic volume. Furthermore, there was no vendor application and initial proposals were judged to be too expensive.
In situations like this, organizations can refuse to take your suggestions because they might be hesitant to take advice from a newcomer. When Mr. Vinson attempted to offset some of the project's expense by using second-tier equipment, executives rejected the solution, saying the hardware was not up to industry standards.
Just when he thought things couldn't get worse, Mr. Vinson was informed that his project's labor budget was slashed 75 percent and the equipment budget was cut by 33 percent.
“This was simply one of those projects with a no-win solution,” says Mr. Vinson, now director of IT and telecom operations manager at TRC Engineering Services Inc., a telecommunications consultancy in San Antonio, Texas, USA.
While it's nice to think that open communication with your boss could remedy the situation, broaching the subject of being a poor fit in a new job could land project managers in trouble. After telling his supervisor about his issues with the project, for example, Mr. Vinson was told that being a dissenting voice within the organization would put him on the fast track to job termination.
Sometimes the best thing to do is stick it out long enough to get the experience and then leave the position, as Mr. Vinson did.
The experience wasn't all bad: It taught him a great deal about himself as a project manager and how not to run a project. “I worked, learned, adapted my style and sought new employment,” he says.
DON'T GO DOWN WITH THE SHIP
There are times, though, when the best advice is to move on as quickly as possible—such as when a project is so unbearable or in such disarray that it could prove detrimental to your career to remain associated with it.
Such was the case for Suhail Iqbal, PMP, PgMP, professor at Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology, a graduate school in Islamabad, Pakistan.
He recently accepted a position to manage a project for the United Nations Development Programme, which strives to reduce poverty, increase literacy, create jobs and enhance technical cooperation between industrialized and non-industrialized countries.
mis-hires
Poor fits can be a two-way street. Even with the best due diligence, an unsatisfactory candidate can sneak through an organization's interviewing and hiring process. But that bad fit can still be discovered during the onboarding or orientation stage—“a natural extension of the vetting process for project managers,” says Robyn Odegaard, PsyD, president of the organizational development firm Champion Performance Development, East Millstone, New Jersey, USA.
During this time, clear roles and responsibilities should be defined and big-picture ideas shared, she says.
The organization must take the initiative. “The process of talking about the culture it wants to create, how personalities fit into it, plus drawing the lines to make the roles and responsibilities fit into the skill sets is very complicated,” Dr. Odegaard says. “Assuming the person who is handling the high-level requirements for a project is going to think about those details is a mistake.”
Once he was on the job, the sponsor expected him to maintain the status quo within the U.N. corporate culture— expectations that were far below his ability to produce, he says.
“I couldn't live with the fact that I could deliver less and still be rewarded,” he says.
He couldn't persuade even a single stakeholder to trust his expertise: “There was nobody I could convince that what they were expecting from me wasn't enough and would be detrimental to the system in the long run.”
Ultimately, Mr. Iqbal cut ties with the project.
“If it is clear to you that a project is leading to disaster and there is no way you can put it right, stop remaining part of the disaster,” he says. “I do not want my name to be associated with such projects.”
» Dream Jobs Sometimes project managers on the job hunt find the perfect fit. Read more at career central on PMI.org.
MAKING THE BEST OF A BAD SITUATION
In other cases, project managers can find themselves in over their heads at a new position.
Joseph Zaarour, PMP, a Beirut, Lebanon-based independent project and portfolio management and IT consultant and trainer, ended up in an undesirable job situation at IBM Global Business Services. He was handed a very technical IT infrastructure project to lead—even though he had very little knowledge relevant to the job.
> If project managers are willing to remain in a situation they're not 100 percent comfortable in, there's often the potential to transfer to another position within their own organization.
“It definitely gets you into a state of sleepless nights and anxiety-filled days,” Mr. Zaarour says. “Our job as project managers is to inspire, motivate and try to be visionaries. It makes life more difficult at the beginning of the project when team members cannot see or visualize how the next piece of the puzzle will fit.”
If project managers find themselves in this situation, they should initiate a conversation with the project sponsor to voice their concerns. It's a good idea to bring potential solutions to that meeting, Mr. Zaarour advises.
If project managers are willing to remain in a situation they're not 100 percent comfortable in, there's often the potential to transfer to another position within their own organization.
Ron Taylor, PMP, spent several years working in the U.S. Census Bureau. At one point, he quickly realized his new role wasn't a good fit because it wasn't as intellectually challenging as what he had been doing previously. He spent about a year in that position before getting transferred and promoted to a more suitable job at the Census Bureau.
But during that year, Mr. Taylor knew that he still had to perform well— even though he didn't enjoy it.
“I had a long talk with myself and realized that I‘m getting paid to do this,” says Mr. Taylor, now principal of The Ron Taylor Group, a Fairfax Station, Virginia, USA-based project management consulting and training firm. “You need to do the best job you can, whether it's your bliss or not.”
That being said, “You owe it to yourself to find something that is better for you,” he adds.
Facilitate an in-office network to help you land where you want to be. And don't ignore the work at hand— your efforts at transferring won't bear fruit if you come off as someone who can't get the job done.
“You develop relationships, and you know who you can trust and who you can't,” Mr. Taylor says. “Confide in people whom you can trust to tell that this position isn't working out, but you're doing the best you can while you're there.”
Executives will probably take note “that you're doing well even though you might not be totally overwhelmed with joy,” he adds.
With unemployment numbers still high in many parts of the world, project professionals might have to be willing to make the best of a bad job.
“I never said no to a project or asked to be removed off a project as a project manager,” Mr. Zaarour says. “This is how project managers learn and grow their knowledge base. Of course, I do not expect a project manager that has worked all his or her life on website design projects to deliver a core banking project for a start-up bank. But there are certain disciplines that can be ported or shared between projects.”
While it's never a good feeling to realize you've accepted a position you know you're not going to enjoy, it's important to remember that as a project manager you have options. After all, life's too short to be stuck in a job you hate. PM