Posted By: Jason
The first person to be featured in the series is our new Project Manager, Heather MacArthur. Heather has only been working at Lexel for a couple of months but is already a solid, valuable member of the team. We caught up with her to find out a little bit more about what the life of a busy PM entails.
Project Manager
Cookie Crisp with very cold milk
Turn up as early as possible, check emails, check that the developers have work to get on with when they arrive, organise client tickets, plan my ‘to do’ list for the day.
The rest is usually a mixture of investigating tickets, talking to clients about projects, assigning new jobs to developers and drinking lots of tea. It doesn’t sound very glamorous but I actually enjoy spending 8 hours organising stuff, so it is OK.
1. I like seeing other people - I use to be freelance and work at home so after a few years I ended up a bit like Shirley Valentine and talked to my walls a lot. (They are also a nice bunch of people which is handy too)
2. Being able to get in early and leave early is very handy…if you can manage to escape on time.
3. The company is very busy which makes the days go faster and the learning come quicker - which is never a bad thing.
I once got paid to do a sexy voice over for a late night ‘basestation’ type advert.
Kind people
I am not that modest to have a secret talent that I haven’t gloated about… but things that people might not know are, I can complete a Rubik cube and I can throw really far.
Currently, looking for houses to buy, but usually I like to spend time drinking wine, and watching documentaries. I have a tendency to watch a documentary over and over again in a week although it really annoys my partner who usually has to sit through them with me.
Get as much experience as you can, even if it is for free, and always try and learn about what you are project managing as you can gain other skills along side your day to day job.
That the fear of change is a lot scarier than the reality of making changes.