How to advertise yourself as a project manager

Posted by Anna on May 28th, 2019

If you are just beginning on your path as a project manager, perhaps you have just completed your project management apprenticeship,then the next step you will be looking to undertake is finding a job in which you can use your new qualifications and really spread your wings. 

With an increase in the popularity of the role of the project manager you really need to be able to show potential employers why you are the person they should be looking to employ, and that means being able to advertise yourself to the best advantage, ensuring people looking to employ notice your availability and can see just what you have to offer them. 

The experts at Parallel Project Trainingunderstand just how difficult this can be for some people, especially those who are just starting out on their chosen career path, but these are our handy tips on how to advertise yourself to get the job you want.

Create a need for your skills

There are plenty of project managers out there looking for a new role, so you need to make potential employers aware of your particular set of skills in order to stand out. You want to be able to let a potential stakeholder know what your skills are that will help you to make their project a success. Be bold and advertise yourself fully, this is no time to be shy and hold back on letting them know what you can do. At the same time it is also important to remember that it is never a good idea to over exaggerate your skills because the truth will find you out eventually and if your over exaggeration leads to the failure of a project you could do significant damage to your future prospects. 

Any social media profiles you create should be done with keywords in mind that prospective employers will potentially search for. LinkedIn particularly allows you to put a heading on your bio, where you could essentially advertise that you are looking for your next challenge.

Ensure you network in the right way

As a project manager, you will constantly have a need to sell yourself and ensure that people are aware of you and networking is one way to do this but you have to strike the right balance in how forward you are about what you can do. If you don’t advertise yourself and the skills that you have nobody will be aware of what you can do for them. However, it’s important not to be arrogant when you meet people at networking events or when you’re networking online. Being known to a company is one thing but they also have to like you. Remember, this is a competitive world where lots of people will offer very similar advantages to a company. If they are not able to make the choice based solely on skills, then they will also look at how well a project manager will fit into any existing project teams that they have, and, of course, how they would feel working with them as well.