To be a Project Manager

Requirement
As usual, academic background is almost a must in today’s working field. But this is not enough. Mindset and experience are also important. Technical knowledge is a base in the telecommunication field. There is so much aspect we have to consider and look after, such as customer’s expectation, time constrain, equipment involved and limitation on local providers.

Knowledge
We can look into two aspects, hard skill and soft skill. Hard skill refers to technical knowledge, including the modern technologies in telecommunication, which is developing at very fast speed. No one could foresee the broadband speed of 1 GB for home use in 20 years ago, not saying the vast bandwidth in commercial areas. This is considered the most important factors on knowledge as a project manager. However, many has overlooked the soft skill.

Soft Skill
I would refer this to human relationship and emotion/stress management. Many people would become stressing when a deadline came close. We have to learn how to calm down. Some courses may help on this but self-control is more important. In fact, some people are really not suitable for this job due to character bias.

Experience
Working the related area with longer years is most welcome. However, there are always newbies in every job area. Everyone needs to prepare to work hard and be open-minded to accept options from others. We cannot accept all options but need to filter which is more appropriate for the job and task. There are no fixed forms on experience learning. This is one of the soft skills accumulating with time.

Management
Time management is one of the key factors. Besides of setting key points on the calendar, we have to watch every aspect as well. Some local providers and customer may have special limitation and expectation. We need to monitor the condition regularly; I would say at least twice a week. Updating customer is also required with this frequency. Physical line and device availability is required to monitor once a week.

Flexibility
This aspect is not easy. We need to follow the regulation strictly but condition would change rapidly that we must shift a bit from the normal regulation to suit the real time condition. Negotiation is always difficult to deal with the local providers, especially on remote areas in the world. As a bridge and coordinator among customers and providers, we are expected to work out the result, rather than just following the hard target.