r/projectmanagers

Good morning all, I’m about 4yrs out of college (30yo, military caused a late start) and have been working at a defense prime since graduation. Currently only have a BS in Comms & Journalism and realize that to improve marketability and practical knowledge, I’ll more than likely end up pursuing a master’s degree.

Right now, I’m only looking at 100% (maybe 80%+ if necessary) online program as I work full time with a wife and kids at home. Only problem is that I have no clue what kind of masters program would make the most sense for me and my goals.

What kind of masters programs make sense for PMs? Obviously CAPM/PMPs are viewed highly, but I’m really trying to get a masters knocked out before life gets even more busy as the little ones grow up.

Are MBAs worth it? MBAs in Project Management any different? Masters of Prof Studies? Organizational Leadership?

Background: Current Finance & Comptrollership O3/CPT in the army reserves (8yrs time in service, prior enlisted too). First job was a Program Integrator (think project/program specialist - leading w/o authority / supporting program performance by coordinating the different functional area leadership / Chief of Staff type role). Current job is as an aviation program sustainment manager (think ensuring parts availability / coordinating with military program leadership, supply chain & vendors to ensure stock and maintain aircraft readiness).

Doing the first job really opened my eyes to PM and loved the overall mission. Now I’m trying to branch transfer into the Army Acquisition Corps and get more formal training in that area.

Just trying to find the balance between rigor (not a STEM major and not a huge fan of taking mathematical heavy degree like engineering / Data Science, etc.), value to career, and knowledge gained.

Ever had a project conversation that started with:

"Wait, I thought we already agreed on this?"

Maybe a client remembered a commitment differently.

Maybe a decision was made months ago, but nobody could recall what led to it.

Or someone spent hours piecing together old conversations just to understand what had happened.

What's interesting is that the information isn't always missing.

Sometimes the people, decisions, and conversations are all there. It's the connection between them that's been lost.

And that can lead to some pretty frustrating situations.

I'm curious to hear your experiences. What's a time when missing project context caused confusion or unnecessary work?

It doesn't have to be a major project failure. Sometimes the smallest incidents are the most memorable.

I’m a 35F and am at a crossroads in my career. I got an MBA in Project Management and passed my PMP last year but had a really hard time finding a job in project management. I was consistently told I just didn’t have the practical experience that companies were looking for.

After many months, a position opened up in my company for commercial project management. it’d be high volume, low valuation projects. I don’t know what the salary/title would be. Most likely a project coordinator.

At the same time, I’ve received (surprisingly) an external offer at a world-known national lab as a project leader. However, this wouldn’t get me the commercial experience.

any advice would be helpful.

In all seriousness. I have my bachelor’s in business administration. I served 8 years in the Navy as an Aviation Electrician’s Mate, and continued 4 years in defense contracting continuing on with maintenance roles. I’ve seen people state the PMP exam prep simplified book by Andrew Ramdayal is worth getting. Is that true? I appreciate any help!

Requirement changes are normal, but constant changes can make planning extremely difficult. I'm interested in how experienced PMs handle this without creating unnecessary conflict with stakeholders. Do you rely mainly on change-control processes, impact analysis, documentation, or more frequent communication?

Hi guys,

Please help me, I have done b.tech in cse and got an agile program manager internship at a good consultancy but i really don't know what does project manager do.

How do i prepare myself for this job, how to start learning project management?

Please tell me everything from basic

Hey everyone,

I’m curious to see how many people in this sub are working in Project Controls or Planning & Scheduling, and use Primavera P6 combined with Power BI as their ultimate stack.

Lately, I’ve been focusing a lot on automating data extraction from P6 (whether through Excel exports, XER parsers, or direct database connections) and transforming it into interactive Power BI dashboards for executive reporting, S-curves, and delay analyses.

If this matches your daily workflow, I’d love to connect and chat about a few things:

• How are you pulling your P6 data into Power BI? (Excel dumps, SQL, or specialized third-party tools?)
• What is your favorite custom visual layouts for tracking SPI/CPI or look-ahead schedules?
• What is the biggest headache you face when trying to refresh your data?

Looking forward to hearing about your workflows, tips, or any cool dashboard setups you've built!

Im going through anxietyandstress despite being efficient, proactive PM who does everything to control the project.

On the projects a contractor who is architect and developer doesn't like to work and progress the work at least possible slowest and its me who have to justify the budget burn to the client and EV and variance. Everyday I have to confront him and he doesn't change his ways. I don't want to lie to clients. My managers upon escalation say you deal with it. Managers also are rude and try to blame me for everything. Other restrictions are PM billing is only 4 hrs a day though I do pretty much full day.

I am thinking to quit this job .. don't know how to handle this situation. Please suggest.