How much does the Project Manager role vary between companies/industries?
Hi all,
I’ve been working as a Project Manager for around 3 years, having moved into the role from a design engineering background.
In my current role, my understanding of project management has mainly been based around coordination, communication, and making sure information moves between the right people at the right time. I review project specifications, help prepare technical submittals for the client, attend and lead meetings between our internal team and the client, chase client information required by our designers, chase internal drawings and deliverables required by the client, contact suppliers for budget pricing before passing things over to procurement, and generally keep things moving across engineering, procurement, production, accounts, and the client.
In simple terms, I often see myself as the person joining the dots. I go to engineering to make sure drawings are progressing, procurement to check materials are being ordered, the shop floor to confirm production status, accounts to check invoicing, and so on.
I recently completed a Certified Project Management Diploma through the Institute of Project Management, which gave me a broader view of the PM role. It highlighted that PMs can also be involved much earlier in the project lifecycle, including tender-stage input, budget development, contingency/risk allowances, resourcing, and team setup.
I also had an interview recently with a structural steel company that works on international projects, and the PM role sounded quite different from my current position. The interviewer explained that the successful candidate would be expected to manage a site team abroad, decide how a steel frame should be split for delivery to site, check loads before dispatch, make sure all nuts/bolts and materials are included, negotiate steel prices, organise crane lifts, check that the site is suitable for the required crane, and manage the overall schedule and stakeholders.
Some of those responsibilities surprised me. This was not a very small company where I would automatically expect one person to cover several functions. Given the scale and international nature of their work, I would have assumed areas like procurement, logistics, site management, production planning, and lift planning would sit with dedicated people or departments, with the PM coordinating the overall delivery and making sure the right specialists had ownership.
So I’m trying to understand how much the PM role varies depending on the company, industry, and project type.
Am I currently in a more coordination-focused PM role than normal, where other departments own their specialist areas and report back into the PM? Or are some PM roles, particularly in structural steel, construction, or site delivery, genuinely expected to be that hands-on across procurement, logistics, site setup, installation planning, and commercial decisions?
I’m not saying either approach is right or wrong. I’m just trying to understand where the boundaries usually sit between “owning the project outcome” and directly carrying out tasks that might otherwise sit with procurement, logistics, engineering, production, or site management.
I’d be interested to hear how other PMs have experienced this across different industries or company sizes.
Thanks in advance.