How much can you make as a Entry Project Manager?
New York City is offering up to ~$65k for their Junior Project Manager role. If you’re working 2,080 hours per year, that comes out to about $31 per hour.
I’m not sure, from the job listing, if there are health benefits included but working for them does provide access to programs such as the Public Service Loan Forgiveness.
How much would access to that program be worth? For some, a lot more than others — let’s say an extra $10/hr. That would make this position worth (in our imaginary world) ~$45/hr.
Can I make $45/hr as an Entry Level Project Manager?
I wouldn’t get your hopes up. The $20-$30 per hour range is a better expectation. For the NYC post, they also require at least a master’s degree.
Let’s say you don’t have a master’s, or even a bachelor’s, degree…I would expect a lower hourly rate than someone who does.
The NYC post lists a range of $56k-$65k. Therefore, the lower-experienced Entry Level Project Manager (who is already scraping for real-world experience) would only be adding about $27 worth of value per hour.
The NYC job listing is just one post but it serves as good benchmark from a public institution.
How can I find an Entry Level Project Management role?
To start, you’ll need to understand the different elements of being a Project Manager. You can read more about the tools I use as a Project Manager with 7 other stakeholders (2 CEOs, 2 EA/QA, 1 Jr Dev, 1 Sr Dev, and 1 Designer).
Here are some of the responsibilities listed by NYC:
Junior Project Manager duties will include assisting with the following tasks:
- maintaining a project management information system to provide data for the planning and control of project development;
- establishing project timeframes and cost schedules;
- determining and coordinating project activities required between the client agencies, contractors, and departments responsible for project completion;
- reviewing all schedules, reports, and orders prepared by consultants, contractors, and client agencies to assure compliance with project completion dates;
- checking contractors’ work performance via field visits and on-site inspections
I think this job listing does a great job at highlighting what it means to be an Entry Level Project Manager. Let’s go through each of them.
Maintaining a project management information system to provide data for the planning and control of project development
Data is a most important word on this sentence. What data does a Project Manager care for?
- Who is available today? Who is available this week?
- What blockers are new? What blockers have been open for a minute?
- Who is holding the team back?
- etc…
All of this data is important to decision makers of all sizes. As an Entry Level Project Manager, you should continue asking yourself these questions at the beginning and end of your work day.
Establishing project timeframes and cost schedules
With the data mentioned above, you’ll start should aim to get a feel for the delivery cadence of each stakeholder in your team. This will give you a sense of how ‘quickly’ your team delivers.
Once you understand the speed of your team, you begin to make more realistic time estimates. The longer something takes is often related to how much it will cost.
By remaining confident that your team, and therefore decision makers, have as much relevant data as possible, you will excel as a Project Manager (not just at the Entry/Junior level).
Determining and coordinating project activities required between the client agencies, contractors, and departments responsible for project completion
This one is simple. As the meetings or communication units get pushed around, it’s your job to make sure that your team maintains a steady flow of information.
If a meeting gets cancelled last minute, are you sending a follow-up email with main topics for your team to discuss through text. Given what you knew prior to the meeting, are you able to ask specific stakeholders for specific feedback/direction/etc?
A lot of the time, information is kept to a single stakeholder. As a Project Manager, connecting the dots is a key job responsibility — and you need that withheld information to do so.
Reviewing all schedules, reports, and orders prepared by consultants, contractors, and client agencies to assure compliance with project completion dates
As your project(s) take shape and matures, many changes will be made to everything. Designs, technical requirements, User journeys, and etc are all fluid during project progress.
When there are blockers, how does your team react to those blockers? Are there trade-offs that need to be made? Does your team need more help? If so, how will the time spent on recruiting/interviewing/etc change the schedule of your team.
By collecting a constant stream of project management data, you will best serve your team and it’s stakeholders.
Checking contractors’ work performance via field visits and on-site inspections
You may be thinking to yourself: “This is what stand-ups are for”. Yes. Stand-ups help your team stay on track. These meetings are for you and you only. At the end of this meeting, Project Managers should have clear next steps and updated schedules/timelines for all stakeholders.
If you don’t have stand-ups with your team, like us, then you should make use of common management tools like Trello, Slack, Async Management.
I wrote more about how you can use these project tracking tools to maximize your remote team.
Summary
A Project Manager should aim to “connect the dots”. By remaining in sync with the delivery cadence of each stakeholder, you can reallocate resources where needed. Written documentation/communication is always your friend.
Entry Level Project Manager jobs are slim. If you’re really looking to get your foot in the door, I recommend DM’ing some business owners and project manager to pitch coming in with a part-time role.
It's gonna' take time but if you stick with it you should see more opportunities open.
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