About two years ago, a young engineer reached out to me and shared his confusion. “I am having two offers in hand, one from a Fortune 500 company based in India and another from a service-based company that will place me in Europe with a Manufacturing and Technology Giant for about 12 months. I am interested to move to Europe, but it is a project coordination role, and I am concerned about moving away from Project Planning which could impact my future career. Can you please guide me to choose the most appropriate opportunity?” I reviewed both the Job description, he was right, the European job was indeed a project coordination role for interfacing between stakeholders, follow-up and expedite deliverables, documentation etc. The role also required to understand contractual requirements, facilitate payments, coordinate change orders and variations. The second job was essentially a project planning and scheduling role. He added that he was more inclined to grow as a Project Manager in the future. I observed that the Project Coordination role offered better opportunity in managing the stakeholders and execution of deliverables. It also provided exposure to Technical knowledge as well as contractual and commercial experience. This could help him in his pursuit to develop into an accomplished Project Manager. However, if he wanted to grow his career in Project Controls then the second offer was more suitable. Based on our discussion, he chose the European opportunity. Recently I interacted with him. "I think you have guided me in the right direction. It was the life changing decision I made" and expressed his appreciation for the guidance. After completing his 1-year tenure in the service-based company, he is now well settled in a permanent position in a European Manufacturing company. Do share your thoughts.... #projectplanning #projectmanagement
Interesting view Naveen Lopes as you helped him with a suitable discussion around his choices and his likings as well as what he wants to achieve at a later stage which indeed was a life changing decision for him. Mostly people dont involve in such discussions which is part of counselling to understand and help in making a choice. When the word counselling comes, they tend to think it differently as if there is any mental issue with them that's why such recommendation made, which is not. It is more important to share your thoughts with some one to get a different perspective other than what is going in your own mind. Keep it up. 👍
I agree!
Interesting view
Strong opinion!
Good insight!
Planning Engineer |Projects Control and Monitoring | Licensed Engineer, CAPM
1moMost of us are giving preference to those jobs whose hype in the market is very high! Ignoring those which can give us permanent role and a stable life.