Anyone here a Project Manager? (PMP or CAPM)

[Drew Dowdell]

As some of you know, I've been in I.T. for a long time, but I'm working towards a career change. My employer is paying for all the training needed for me to get my (CAPM) and eventually my PMP certificate.

I'm really not helpdesk, but some of the VPs, and SVPs like to come to to me for help because they like me better. Yesterday was really a kinda day already, but this conversation on the phone with an SVP has really inspired me to accelerate the career change.

Picture me with a headset on, head in my hands on the desk saying "no... power off the computer..... no... that's the screen.... power off the computer...... yes I know the error message came back when you rebooted.... you powered off the screen.... I need you to power off the computer......yes... the box on the floor."

So... if any of you are in a project management career or have taken the test, I'd appreciate some tips.

my....

sanity...

depends...

[GMTruckGuy74]

You need a certificate to be a pimp?

[Z-06]

I am planning to take PMP test. I have a good understanding of construction management. Call me and we can discuss.

[Chris_Doane]

Picture me with a headset on, head in my hands on the desk saying "no... power off the computer..... no... that's the screen.... power off the computer...... yes I know the error message came back when you rebooted.... you powered off the screen.... I need you to power off the computer......yes... the box on the floor."

At what point did blood shoot out of your ears?

[Drew Dowdell]

I waited till I got home.

[siegen]

Lol! I deal with this sort of stuff at work all day. I am the unofficial IT guy and it sometimes drives me nuts. Half of the employees here have computer literacy at or near the level of not understanding the difference between a monitor and a computer.

In addition to helping all employees with every computer-related problem, sometimes problems with their computers at home, I also wired the new building for network, phone, and smoke detectors/alarms. No I am not really qualified for any of that, but because I'm the "IT guy"! New computer sourcing and installation too. Great work experience, but it gets irritating because I don't have the time and everyone takes it for granted.

I don't keep a phone at my desk because I don't want to end up being on the phone all the time.

My actual job is online sales and web development. I am seeking a job change soon as well. Going to apply at Google. They're only 20-25 minutes south of me. Would be nice working with computer literate people for a change.

[Justin Bimmer]

Somebody I work with keeps getting XP Anti-virus installed on his computer. He claims all he does is get email with his computer . . .

[Drew Dowdell]

The manager of desktop support in Canada

Me: We're having a problem where the user isn't getting the Gateway setting in VPN.

Them: Try flushing the DNS cache.

Me: What?.... no.... the DNS settings are fine. The computer isn't picking up the Gateway setting.

Them: Well you could try flushing the DNS cache.

Me with my head in my hands: Well yes I could do that... but it's not going to fix the problem because the problem is with the Gateway not with the DNS.

Them: why don't you just try it?

Me:......

me: ok, I flushed the DNS and I still don't have a gateway, what now?

them: what about changing the DNS server?

me: ok, I gotta go.

[Robert Hall]

I'm glad I've never had to directly do IT support for end users.. most of my career has been in new development (both as a developer and software architect) and extending/updating existing systems. But I've had to do a fair amount of level 3 support for production systems, and it's never fun..phone calls/pages at 5am to help diagnose why my enterprise reconcilement system is off by $32 million dollars relative to the general ledger, why policy statements are printing out with blank customer addresses, why batch jobs keep crashing, etc...

Working as a development lead on a few projects over the years, I've spent a lot of time working with project managers and business analysts translating business requirements into technical requirements and estimating level of effort and figuring out development schedules. Project management is one career direction I've contemplated pursuing, but I think my comfort zone is still more in the code, in hands-on application design and development...back in the hired gun contractor mode these days. I've thought about taking a Scrum Master certification class, since more and more of the places I've worked at in recent years are trying to do Agile/Scrum development.

Edited May 11, 2011 by Cubical-aka-Moltar

[FAPTurbo]

I think you misunderstood. In Canada, flushing the DNS actually means flushing the gateway down the nearest toilet.

[Nick]

I'm not an IT guy, but somehow I have taken over that roll in my office because I am young and somewhat technologically competent. I find it infuriating sometimes. Some events are laughable...I remember some coworkers trying to get a printer to work. They could not figure out why it wasn't working. They approached me frantically asking me for help. As I walked up to the printer I could clearly see the problem. I plugged in the power cable, and suddenly I was the office hero. I was truly at a loss for words...Well, I did tell them that I'd send them my bill.

When I get pissed off is when I have to deal with old reps who hate technology and complain about it every chance they get. Some are very aware of the pace of change that technology brings, and they are very easy to work with. They admit that they aren't tech savvy. I have patience when working with these types and I give them a lot of credit.

Then there are the others...the old assholes that bitch and moan...the ones that, despite writing out clear, illustrated instructions on how to perform a basic task will still call you and bitch because, well, they clearly didn't read the instructions (the funny thing is I can track what documents they see, and I know they have seen these documents, but they swear they don't know what I am talking about.) It is also humorous because they give me credit for developing all these programs, interfaces, and technology. They somehow think that I am the one who created it, and it is all my fault that I bring this change upon them.

I remember one guy who was tolerable...I had to walk him through finding certain keys on the keyboard...that was fun.

A rep I dealt with the other day said he couldn't print out his e-mail. He says he has to forward the e-mails to his other personal e-mail so he can print it out from there. The compliance officer of the firm brought this up to me as it is a major compliance concern that needed to be addressed immediately. The rep was using Outlook Web Access to access our e-mail. That's fine...many reps do. He had the reading pane turned on and thought that because the messages would appear in the reading pane that the message was "open." But he didn't have any option to print. I assured him that it wasn't the case, and the message wasn't technically open (that was fun trying to explain). I told him to double-click on the e-mail to open it...He asks how to do that. I said click twice on the e-mail...Stupid me, I guess I should've specified which mouse button to click as he asked me "right or left?" He does it and says nothing pops up (I know he didn't do it right). He's getting frustrated and pissed off and starts rambling about technology and how I can't just leave it be. I somehow walked him through how to turn off the reading pane. I knew this would force him to double-click on the e-mail which would open it up in a separate window, giving him the option to print. He finally did it, bitching the entire time. I really wanted to ream this guy through the phone and tell him he should probably consider retirement as he is clearly too incompetent to function in a business environment in 2011. Somehow I managed to retain a modicum of patience...it was wearing very thin, though.

I can't wait until some of these old, incompetent morons die off...or at least retire.

/endrant

[Robert Hall]

I really wanted to ream this guy through the phone and tell him he should probably consider retirement as he is clearly too incompetent to function in a business environment in 2011. Somehow I managed to retain a modicum of patience...it was wearing very thin, though.

I can't wait until some of these old, incompetent morons die off...or at least retire.

I can relate..it really irrates me to work w/ people that let their technical skills freeze 25-30 years ago and didn't keep up and evolve..

At my last gig, I had to deal w/ a mainframe developer that was 20 years older than me and went out of his way to avoid the more modern systems or even basic knowledge of modern development environment tools like FTP, Sharepoint, Toad or other database clients, etc. He had Level 1 support responsibility for a complex enterprise application that had a mainframe part, a database part, and a web application front end..for anything remotely related to the database or web app, he acted helpless and passed the buck to me..

[FAPTurbo]

Probably posted here before, but sums up some of the sentiment in this thread quite well.

<iframe width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/fa9DLxDtPtc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[ocnblu]

There are definite footprints on my lawn.

[Paolino]

Send me your resume. I'll see what I can do.

[SAmadei]

I can't wait until some of these old, incompetent morons die off...or at least retire.

Not going to happen. Detroit's functional literacy is at 47%... its computer literacy is likely at 90%... and the rest of the country is trying to catch up in the race to the bottom.

I don't do helpdesk... Yes, I have the No, I will not fix your computer T-shirt. Actually, I have several of Think Geek's classics and I am horrified needing to explain the shirts to people working in IT at various "Internet companies".

But I do computer and network security... and so any really inane question is followed up with questions concerning an inquiry as to "Are you even allowed to do that?" That stops inane questions pretty quickly.

[Robert Hall]

I can't wait until some of these old, incompetent morons die off...or at least retire.

Not going to happen. Detroit's functional literacy is at 47%... its computer literacy is likely at 90%... and the rest of the country is trying to catch up in the race to the bottom.

I don't do helpdesk... Yes, I have the No, I will not fix your computer T-shirt. Actually, I have several of Think Geek's classics and I am horrified needing to explain the shirts to people working in IT at various "Internet companies".

But I do computer and network security... and so any really inane question is followed up with questions concerning an inquiry as to "Are you even allowed to do that?" That stops inane questions pretty quickly.

LoL....I love Think Geek's stuff... I used to have their 'LNX' and 'JAVA' car window decals until they peeled off...have a couple of their coffee cups..

[regfootball]

One of the courses I took during my 'hiatus' was a weeklong Project Management 'Mini Masters' course which provided the credits applicable to PMP test, if I chose to use it for. So much could be improved with proper discipline.

As an Architect, there was a large amount of 'baked in' informal project management sense of discipline. But I knew it was not formal or structured like it is in the I.T. industry.

PMP was something I thought I could apply to maybe getting into construction managment. I also have heard of CAPM.

I do think at some point I may resume my path towards a project management certificate, but really was undecided on which trade to go with it.

Basically it would require more school, which i could not fit in or pay for right now.

I was very impressed with some of the planning methods and tools I learned.

For being an Architect, it would not benefit me....so many architects resist the value of certifying a vital skill (project management) because then it would choke off their overwhelming desire and need to squelch common sense for impulsive inherent bad decision making and management.

What I did learn in the weeklong course was very valuable and really just focused on the core skills at the heart of being a great PM.

I also left thinking that perhaps a career in lean mfr. may be something for me, with 6 sigma or whatever, etc. yadda yadda......

But right now I sell cars, go figure.....

Edited May 13, 2011 by regfootball

[Dsuupr]

[Drew Dowdell]

I'm driving up to Toronto tomorrow for another PM course.

[Drew Dowdell]

One person trips and falls over a mouse cable, so now they want to replace 4,000 wired mice with wireless versions.

Uh... what about their keyboards?

and how were they walking under the desk? (the way the desks are shaped, we don't understand how this even happened in the first place.)