It's Tuesday afternoon. The client wants artwork by Friday, and your designer is fully booked for the rest of the week. The account lead messages the freelancer they always use: 'Any chance you're free Thursday and Friday?' - and it's sorted.
"So you do what, exactly?"
30/10/2024
You must have been there - at a wedding or dinner party, or (more likely for me, these days) a whole-class village hall birthday party...when the 'what do you do?' question comes up.
Not very glamourous, is it – as a job title, I mean.
For a long time, for me the easiest answer was simply, "I'm a project manager. I manage projects".
Well, I'd think, at least it's got the feel of Ronseal to it!
Albert Einstein once said something along the lines of 'if you can't explain it simply, then you don't understand it well enough'.
But I'm not sure that's the case for project (or programme, depending on your preference) management.
What we do isn't simple. We simplify complex things.
Granted, I may not be invited into school on 'careers day' with all the doctors, fire officers and chefs. Nor will I have anything 'real' to admire at the end of the day - other than a Gantt, if I'm lucky.
But I do love my job. And I know that good project management can effect real change.
And that's enough for me.
Most agency ops leaders spend their whole day in conversation. The resourcing clash on Thursday, the project that's out of scope and now unprofitable, the new starter whose laptop still hasn't arrived, the month's revenue forecast that needs a reality check.
Agencies are good at diagnosis. You walk into a client's business and within a few conversations, you can see it.