Similar to a gift, 2015 has been wrapped up - its
lessons to be remembered and utilized.
At the close of one year and beginning of another, we
reflect upon the year behind us and look forward to the
year ahead. Let me express my deep gratitude for
all your participation and support in 2015.
I want to give heartfelt thanks to everyone who helped
make 2015 a great year for the PMI New Jersey Chapter –
the volunteers, members, committees, and the Board of
Directors. Your loyalty to the chapter is uplifting.
We started 2015 with sadness in losing Board Member
Barbara Fuller, yet rallied to accomplish great things.
As a chapter, we expanded our reach into schools and
corporations to provide project management expertise and
support. We offered basic PM training to students
competing in multiple state science fairs and Boy Scouts
pursuing an Eagle Scout award. PMINJ participated
in multiple Project Management Days throughout the state
at various corporations.
The NJ Chapter hit high marks with an outstanding
Customer Service Center to answer member’s queries in a
timely manner. PMINJ offered stellar PMP / CAPM
prep courses, two sold-out symposia, numerous workshops
and matched multiple mentor / mentee teams. The
chapter continued monthly program meetings with engaging
and thought-provoking speakers, and will continue to
increase the number of satellite locations for members
to remotely attend monthly meetings. Chapter
volunteers planned community outreach events throughout
the year, built homes with Habitat for Humanity, and
facilitated coat and food drives. The
chapter recognized Excellence in Project Management in
awarding the Project Manager of the Year and Project of
the Year Awards. The chapter also awarded and renewed
scholarships to children of members attending college
and awarded a scholarship to a chapter member pursuing a
Master’s Degree in Project Management.
The chapter didn’t forget to thank the chapter
volunteers who make all the chapter offerings possible
with a Volunteer Recognition Dinner that had a Mardi
Gras theme! The volunteers do this all for the
members with the goal to build a stronger PM community.
We closed out 2015 with great pride by announcing that
the New Jersey Chapter was awarded two PMI Chapter
Excellence Awards – PMI Leader of the Year to Past
President John Bufe and the PMI Chapter Excellence Award
for Volunteer Programs.
I want to thank each of our members who attended events
and offered comments and suggestions. Each and every
interaction is a gift that you have given me.
Please do participate in as many events as possible in
2016 and volunteer to get the most from your
chapter. To the volunteers, I want to say a
heartfelt and sincere thank you.
2016 will be an extraordinary year with so many more updates and offerings to come! Wishing you all health, happiness and success in the New Year.
Alvin Chingcuanco joined the PMINJ Marketing team in March
2015 and was charged with improving the chapter’s social
media presence. In a few short months, Alvin made
significant contributions to our social media sites which
has helped to increase attendance at various chapter
meetings and workshops. Over the summer, he led an
initiative with Montclair State University students to
create a social media strategy and calendar of postings our
new chapter year. With very limited supervision, he
managed three student teams to create a social media
strategy and identify content for these sites in six
weeks. He now manages two volunteers to coordinate
regular content updates.
Alvin was also instrumental in the update of the chapter
brochure. He faciliated the necessary meetings to
collect content from board members and redesigned the
brochure with a new format and graphics.
Alvin is a Project Manager / Office Manager for NBP Holdings
Group and an academic tutor for DeVry University. He is
working on completing his MBA with a concentration in
Project Management at DeVry’s Keller Graduate School of
Management.
Dennis Ryan joined the PMINJ Chapter Audio /
Visual (A/V) team as a volunteer in 2009. He has now
successfully supported more than 10 major symposiums and
50 monthly meetings. As part of the A/V team, Dennis is
responsible for soliciting, selecting, managing, and
working with the A/V subcontractors for the monthly
meetings, annual symposium and IPM day events. Every
facility has different challenges in terms of ensuring
that the presenter can be seen and heard by everyone in
the audience. He works with presenters to make sure they
are comfortable with the microphone, video screen, moving
presentation on the chapter laptop and music for the
event.
Dennis began his project management career while working
for a contract manufacturing firm in the 1980s where he
was responsible for new product launches and seasonal
promotions in the personal care industry. In 1998,
he jumped to the pharmaceutical industry and has been with
Bristol-Myers Squibb for the last 10 years. He works
on R&D projects supporting the development and
clinical trials of new medicines. Dennis earned his PMP in
2006 and immediately joined PMINJ to network with other
project management professionals and enhance his
expertise.
Dennis’ A/V experience goes back to his days as a student
leader in high school and continues today through his
volunteer work for several organizations. He has
kept his skills fresh by working with one of the most
successful bands in history – hint: they were just
inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame!
Dennis can always be relied on to keep his cool during
emergencies like equipment malfunctions or unforeseen
presenter requests. Over the years, Dennis has shown
leadership, patience, perseverance, adherence to the
highest standards of quality – and he brings good music
and cheer to each event. Please stop by the A/V
table at the next meeting and thank Dennis for his years
of contribution to successfully managing A/V for the
chapter events!
What do the NJ Turnpike Widening Program, Atlantic Health
System Chilton Integration, and Solix Design
Connect2Compete Program have in common? They are all
past recipients of the PMINJ Project of the Year Award!
The purpose of the Award is to recognize, honor,
publicize, and celebrate the accomplishments of the
Project Team involved in the Project of the Year (POY) for
superior performance and execution of exemplary project
management.
Any project with some or all team members located in New
Jersey, coordinated by a NJ-based company, or completed
within NJ that is perceived as having effectively applied
project management principles and techniques is eligible
to submit.
If you have any questions regarding the POY, please send
an email to
or contact Louis A. Vazquez (Director, Project Awards) at
908-799-3006.
Find additional details and nomination form on the PMINJ POY site.
ADP held its third Annual Global Project
Management Conference on November 13. The day was
co-organized by PMINJ VP-Marketing Elaine Tanimura.
The agenda was full of fantastic information and knowledge
sharing for the ADP Project managers.
The morning was focused on Project Managers
as Leaders and the Importance of Strategic Business
Execution. Elaine led a group discussion on the
upcoming changes to the PMI Continuing Certification
Requirements (CCR) that were introduced in December.
The latter part of the program was focused
on PM Career Growth and Development along with a session
on Increasing Influence, Commitment, Accountability
without Authority and the day closed with a session on How
to Build your Professional Brand.
It was a very successful day for the ADP
Project Management team and PMINJ was there to encourage
membership and participation in all of its upcoming
events.
Pictured above: Elaine Tanimura, Kevin Fitzpatrick and an ADP employee
For the third
straight year, the PMINJ School Outreach team spent a day
teaching project management skills to Boy Scouts of America
(BSA) Eagle Scout candidates. The training course was
delivered by PMINJ members Dennis McCarthy, Kevin
Fitzpatrick and Mike Vitale at the Patriot's Path Merit
Badge Workshop in Parsippany. The Scouts were introduced to
project management fundamentals as they relate to their
Eagle Scout Service Project. The interactive sessions were
interactive and well-received by the Scouts and BSA
leadership alike.
If you know of an organization that can benefit from the
introductory course, please contact Mike Vitale at
.
Pictured:
Above - Dennis McCarthy and Roger Gallo
Below - Kevin Fitzpatrick and Michael Vitale
Who are you – a project manager, IT person, marketing
expert, e-commerce specialist? What do you
do? Where do you want to go? How do
you fit who you are, what you do, and where you want to
go into a LinkedIn profile?
The November
PMINJ Career Networking Local Community of Interest
(CNL) session provided great advice for how to showcase
your career on LinkedIn from two guest speakers:
Gail Rolls and Michael Milutis. Gail is an
award-winning Senior Recruiter at the global IT services
firm Computer Aid, Inc. and Michael is the Executive
Director of the IT Metrics & Productivity Institute.
Gail started by
walking the audience through how to professionally craft
a résumé by using sample résumés to point out common
flaws. Among the most egregious flaws: not
crystallizing who you are and what position you want at
the top of the page and neglecting to include your
LinkedIn URL and contact information at the top of the
page. In today’s market, the LinkedIn professional
account is so ubiquitous that if you lack a profile,
recruiters may wonder what you might be trying to
hide. Experienced recruiters read résumés in 30 –
60 seconds so be concise. While your aim may be to
appear suitable for many positions, leaving recruiters
to wonder about your goals could take you out of
contention.
Michael opened with a walk-through of his own LinkedIn
profile. He admitted to agonizing over each
section and its unique challenges. He explained
that each section changed as he refined his personal
objectives. According to Michael, LinkedIn is a
branding tool. You need to decide how you want to
be seen. As he transitioned from programming to
lobbying Congress to marketing, Michael had to learn to
sharpen his goals and describe himself accordingly.
Michael advised to “program your profile as a
heat-seeking missile” to find those specific
opportunities that represent your dream job. Don’t
succumb to résumé paralysis – instead you should plunge
into an audit of your life and create your brand.
Did you know that the first things a potential employer
see in LinkedIn are your photo and title? Think
about the image you want to portray and what it says
about your suitability for the position you want.
Consider the Summary section your fundamental career DNA
and not a condensed résumé. Use it as your
personal mission statement instead of a recounting of
your past. Describe yourself in the first person
instead of in the third person. This is your
vision of who you are partnered with finely crafted
stories of what you have done. As you describe
accomplishments in your profile, Michael suggested
embedding the company mission statement to provide
context for the achievement.
Both Gail and Michael had similar advice for members
whose aim is to target a related but different career
path. Be sure to capitalize on strengths,
minimize what you are moving away from, and play up
those skills that would be important to a hiring manager
in your target field. If you’re in transition,
then describe what you’re doing to keep yourself
marketable.
Michael shared one last tip – consider contributing a
LinkedIn article that demonstrates that you are a
thought leader in your field. This could
significantly increase connections and one of those
connections just might be the link to your next job!
I
recently began my journey into the diverse world of
project management and this is the first in a series
of articles on my and many others’ transition into the
field. As a new project manager enters the field
or into a new position, it’s easy to assume that the
process will be clear-cut: plan, execute,
monitor, and close the project while meeting budget
and deadline constraints. But in practice, the process
is hardly straightforward and project managers are
confronted with unexpected challenges such as handling
conflicting deadlines, producing complex deliverables,
meeting demanding expectations, adjusting to project
amendments, ensuring stakeholder satisfaction, and
everything else that comes with the chaos of the
profession.
Previous to my project manager position, I held a
highly technical role within a toxicology laboratory
that epitomized a strong matrix organization. I was
involved in several coordinated projects, but only at
the functional role where I delivered specific
components under an established work breakdown
structure. Most of my work was methodical,
straightforward, and protocol defined. Aspiring for
more challenging work, I transitioned to the project
management group within the pharmaceutical development
division. Looking back, it was less a transition
and more a baptism by fire. Previous to this role, I
held project manager volunteer positions for nonprofit
charities and established a decent network of veteran
project managers through the Project Management
Institute as well as from other personal
relationships. Despite having these resources
available for consultation, nothing prepared me more
and helped navigate through my role better than the
PMBOK Guide and courses I’d taken towards the Project
Management Professional Certification.
The immediate challenges going into the role consisted
of managing the client’s immediate expectations,
overdue deadlines from previous projects, stakeholder
complaints, and building relationships all while an
acquisition and merger was in progress. All internal
training sessions were expedited or postponed so I
could start working to balance the team’s overall
workload demands. The project management
division was facing challenges due to PM attrition and
operational cost reduction initiatives, which resulted
in managers trying to do more with less people.
This left me in the position of being the first to
support the workload of many ongoing projects of
previous PMs. The environment was initially hectic as
most of the remaining PMs were awaiting relief on
their added workload, especially on the complicated
projects where the stakeholders were demanding and
aggravated. While I was excited to take on the
responsibility and resolve ongoing issues, the
challenge came with constant pressure and
stress. I embraced the chaotic environment and
looked to thrive in it, but my resources were limited
and there was no given methodology from the company to
approach these issues.
Fortunately, I had a senior network to consult with on
many challenges who supported my implementation of
several key PMBOK processes. Specifically, I applied
the process templates on project communications,
project scope, and stakeholder management in creating
sub projects to handle the immediate demands of each
project. Thanks to the communications template I was
able to realign communication channels that addressed
previous breakdowns where external inquiries didn’t
reach internal teams responsible for the deliverable
in question. The stakeholder register provided a
tool to input and track requests and the responses of
the applicable functional teams. When faced with a
functional team with competing priorities and timeline
estimates that far exceeded sponsor expectations, I
facilitated an in-person meeting with the team and
together we were able to create a micro work breakdown
structure to prioritize and expedite tasks to meet the
sponsor’s deadline.
As I move forward, I realize that the challenges will
come and go. There is no doubt that my
professional and personal networks along with my
foundational PMBOK knowledge have been key in
navigating my first 90 days as a professional project
manager. Based on conversations I’ve had with
many senior project managers, it seems that the
culture shock of the transition from a technical role
into a project management role is very common, no
matter the industry.
In the coming months, I will continue to share
experiences from my and other project management
professionals’ transition into their respective fields
and highlight how they overcame their early, mid, and
senior career project management challenges.
It’s that time again – time for New Year’s
resolutions. While many of us will resolve to
eat healthier food or to lose weight, we may want to
add resolutions for our careers, too.
How does your expertise stack up against
these desired project management traits?
Resolutions to build on these skills won’t succeed overnight or on their own. You already know how to design and execute a project plan – it’s time to make a plan to implement your career resolutions. Good luck!
| Michele Adams Alison Angilletta Anupama Baliga Sharyn Belle Alex Chunakara Shireen Davis James Delrocini Paul Dunlap Ian Eccles Edet Ekpe Oluyinka Fadahunsi Valerie Fahey Ulrica Freeman Daylis Fuentes Sanjay Galgali Donna Garmendi Allison Gervolino Heba Guirgis Anna Harmaty Rohit Keni Matthew Kennedy |
Renee Kole-Emmanuel Jee-Hoon Krska Ramona Lauture Felix Leyderman Lokesh Lingaiah Frank Maniaci Judi Mansilla Joe Marotta Megan Mauceli Aaron Michaluk Duanne Moeller Laura Moyer Liz Nolan Eileen ONeill Krishna Patel Chaitra Patil Cesar Perez robert pletchan Adrian Plummer Afna PovvalThayath Nina Premnath |
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|
None PgMP Louis DiBella CAPM Lisa Dahl Luis Grueso Emmanuel Pena |
Karl Cheney Amberine Saldanha None PMI-RMP None PMI-SP None |
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