I took some time out to interview one of our members Suzanne, a technical project manager based in the UK with 10+years experience in project management and service delivery. Suzanne has worked via Hyerhub for the last 4 years.
1. Walk us through a typical day in your life as a project manager
I am the EMEA project manager for a US-based software company managing software deployment projects and POCs around the globe. My role also extends to some account management and service delivery responsibilities and I am currently working on about 10 projects now with a globally based virtual delivery team.
2. How did you become a project manager?
I spent many years working as a network engineer in different Enterprise environments where I also managed and ran my own projects, so it was a fairly easy transition to fulltime project management.
3. What do you like most about project management?
I enjoy the organisation and logistics side of the role. Being given an end goal and breaking it down into the steps and components required to meet the end result.
4. Where's the best place or project you've worked on as a project manager & why?
I don’t think I can break things down to a single project, but my current role is probably my most challenging and enjoyable. Having customers around the globe means being exposed to a lot of different environments and we’re working with a constantly evolving product, which can be difficult at times but also very interesting. And despite us all working remotely, the team is quite tight-knit and very supportive.
5. Tell us the biggest lesson you've learned on the job
Log everything and don’t respond to things straight away. I work quite quickly, and in the past, if someone asked for something or raised an issue, I would often immediately shoot off a response. It took me time to learn to work with speed and not haste. To take a step back and digest or explore things before addressing them. Also, learning to not take things personally, as a PM you are customer facing and you have to adjust to being the person that gets all of the complaints and demands laid on you.
6. What's the biggest challenge the industry is currently facing?
Technically, the biggest challenge we are working on at the moment is virtualisation. The development of the product we are delivering, what we can deliver, and how customers are transitioning between on-premises solutions and public and/or private cloud offerings. There’s a lot of diverse issues going on, such as with security and compliance complications and that changes from customer to customer.
7. What advice would you give someone considering a career in project management?
Don’t just manage things from an outside position. It’s easier to plan and manage things where you have some technical understanding and be flexible but firm.
8. What do you live for outside of the office?
Sailing, reading, relaxing with friends, being outdoors. I have quite a few hobbies.
9. What would you tell someone thinking of joining Hyerhub?
Definitely give it a try, you can always go back to full time work if you find it’s not for you.
Contracting allows you to have more control over your roles and can open up opportunities to work in areas that you may not have thought of previously.
The guys at Hyerhub have years of experience in IT, so they know the industry, and they know how hard we work, and that’s why I believe they put together the model they did; trying to put us, the skilled staff, first.
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