Last week I came across one of those periodic emails sent by professional social networks about new and interesting job openings.
An erratic view to the list before deleting the message made me focus on a particular vacancy.
The post sounded like the following:
SALES TECHNICAL PROJECT MANAGER: we are selecting an experienced Project Manager for an important company specialized in manufacturing special components for naval industry. She/he will be responsible for the design of instruments and offer preparation, dealing with suppliers and customers [bla ... bla...].
Deep knowledge of CAD/CAM software is mandatory. Good leadership, negotiation skills and project management through knowledge are a plus [...]
This made me think a lot. That ad seemed everything but the description of a project manager.
That description may be the definition of an excellent technician, flexible enough to bear additional duties to face a company workload peak. Maybe it will be filled in by a newly graduated engineer, to be trained on-the-job looking at various aspects of that business.
Sparkles of management, I'd say. But nothing relevant to the bombastic job title they used to attract readers.
In my point of view: not necessarily.
An organization may entitle a person to do his/her job, for which is talented and skilled, and also affitional work on behalf of otherswork that others should do. Probably, that company is going to temporary save money in paying one salary rather than two.
But, long term, the choice will definitely lead to get worse results than engaging the right number of people to fulfill company needs. Ultimately, they risk to end up having a good resource more and more frustrated by doing something he is not well prepared for.
Meaning, can a nurse fill in for a doctor without preparation? And a scrupulous student in law can really act as an experienced judge? Nope.
Invest that penny
If we feel worried thinking to a novice in engineering be allowed to design a bridge or to a legal assistant be required to sign an agreement on the assumption s/he masters T&C because archived many contracts, well....if we feel uncomfortable with that..we should be puzzled in realizing that some companies still underestimate the risks associated with a confused organization.
A project being managed by a resource called to act part time as the leader... and part time as one of the functions which that leader should control or impartially interact with is destined to fail sooner or later.
A genuine advice: stay far from companies which hire people to fulfil project management duties along with other confusing duties. A "sales technical project manager" is just a non-sense.
A project being managed by a resource called to act part time as the leader... and part time as one of the functions which that leader should control or impartially interact with is destined to fail sooner or later.
A genuine advice: stay far from companies which hire people to fulfil project management duties along with other confusing duties. A "sales technical project manager" is just a non-sense.
