Specialists develop in-demand skill sets.
“There are huge benefits to being a project manager with a specialty in human resources,” says Kristie Evans, Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, USA-based CEO of HRL (HR Logistics), a project and change management consultancy. “My human resources expertise has enabled me to communicate with other project stakeholders in their own language. Not only can I understand project-related questions from stakeholders, users and IT professionals alike, but I'm able to translate the key concepts behind a project in a way that everyone understands, whether that person is a techie, a subject-matter expert, or a project or account manager.”
Specialists can help with the nitty-gritty.
“As IT projects progress, for example, and it comes to selecting the technical tools to support project and portfolio management, this process often requires a more specialized professional to proceed with the software implementation,” says Daniel Amaral, PMI-RMP, PMP, executive director at UMI (Unimix Management for Improvement), a project, program and portfolio management consulting firm in Recife, Brazil.
Specialists can stand out in a narrower playing field.
“Project professionals who stick with the same projects often have the opportunity to be promoted to more senior positions, especially in technical fields,” Mr. Bosman says.
Generalists have project management down pat.
“Specialists tend to have fewer broad-based project management skills,” attests Carl Bosman, business development manager at GIS (Global Integrated Solutions), an enterprise resource management software maker for the mining industry in Mapou, Mauritius. “Generalists, on the other hand, view the project management qualification as an important career requirement, whether they're in construction or civil engineering, for example.”
Generalists can work across silos.
“A broader perspective ensures you understand the impact a project can have on other departments or related workflows,” Ms. Evans says. “There is a danger in being a specialist. For example, you can become isolated in your discipline and forget that the decisions you make as a project manager can have a ripple effect on others outside your domain of expertise. Whenever you're making sweeping changes, you need to consider their impact on others and solicit other people's opinions so that you don't become too wrapped up in your own world.”
Generalists have plenty of opportunities.
“Specialists tend to stay with the same types of projects and probably do not deviate,” Mr. Bosman says. “If they happen to be in a technical field, narrow skills may hamper further promotion.”
Which Wins for You?
I DECIDED TO GENERALIZE. My experience within IT project management is very broad. I know something about software development, application deployment and support, IT infrastructure and IT service operations. This strategy has proved effective in making me very marketable and hirable at a wide variety of industries, corporate sizes and cultures. The primary downside is that technical specialists seem to earn higher salaries in the current job market.
—Glynis Watts, PMP, president and owner, Highpass Management Consultants Inc., San Francisco, California, USA
I STARTED AS A SPECIALIST with a career as an instructional systems designer. After six years, I was asked by the director to become a project manager, but I did not have a background in scheduling, human resources, budgeting, resource management, etc. I had to learn entirely new skills. The benefit from starting as a specialist is that I truly understand the issues my employees face, as I was once in their position. I know the true time it takes for tasks to be accomplished, what can realistically be created with ambitious, creative types and how to manage expectations.
—Vincent E. Flango, CAPM, program manager, General Dynamics, Orlando, Florida, USA
THE MARKET WANTS US TO SPECIALIZE—at least as far as I have observed in the field of IT, such as virtualization, network, agile, etc. But that is a fast road to unemployment and pigeonholing that prevents a quick rehire or recontracting. I am absolutely against specialization of project managers within a given industry, as I think the ones with the broadest exposure have the most diverse base of wisdom to bring to any given project.
Let the subject matter experts handle the particular subject fields. We are the conductors or connectors, who need to keep the big picture and only zoom down to resolve issues or conflicts using our ability to triangulate the truth among multiple specialists.
Trying to cover multiple fields, which require different temperaments and focuses, will just make you mediocre.
—Gregory Ellis, PMP, project manager, Dell, Tokyo, Japan
JOIN THE DEBATE IN THE CAREER CENTRAL GROUP ON LINKEDIN.
THE “GENERALIZE VS. SPECIALIZE” CONCEPT CAN BE MISLEADING. I am a software engineer and have worked as a developer, tester, test manager, quality assurance manager, project coordinator and project manager in software development projects for three industries: government, car manufacturing, and business and financial services.
I am currently trying to get work. For one staffing company, the fact that my résumé shows jumps through different positions was a “major problem” because it did not show a clear project management path. A second staffing company, though, said those changes of positions were a major plus because it wants people with end-to-end knowledge of the system development life cycle.
—Jorge Andres Ramirez, St. Louis, Missouri, USA