My New Gig As A Project Manager In Training In NYC!

Hello everyone! I wanted to share my journey to becoming a project manager for the largest electrical contractor in the city of New York. I was nervous going to the interview back in the spring of 2014. I had almost no office experience when I did the interview. I felt like I was the only coming in with some field experience. I did earn an MBA and have my OSHA 500. My OSHA gave me the ability to teach and issue OSHA 10 and 30 cards. I also teach part time for Empire College. This college offers our apprentice electricians a degree in labor studies. I was hoping my extra efforts would pay off and help me get this job. I sat in for 2 interviews; one for engineering and the other for project management. I thought for sure that I was not going to get the job. The project manager job was what I really wanted. I had a very tense and awkward interview with the project manager executive. I left that interview pissed that I didn't have the experience and annoyed that this man didn't want me in the job since I was a woman. However, the boss liked me and put me in engineering making the blueprints. I vowed that I would figure out how to get that job one way or another. I was given a 1 week tutorial with a coworker on how to use autoCAD. From then on, I was given my first job to get started working and learning on the fly. I was so nervous learning how to use CAD and learn engineering at the same time!! I was thinking how am I going to pull this off! I started getting more and more comfortable with my job as time went on. I started asking questions about project management. One guy told me to focus on engineering. I said that I had my eye on getting knowledge and work experience. I could not believe that I finally got the opportunity to learn project manager skills. I had a project manager on the job whose family member passed away. I offered to help him work on some tasks since he was dealing with grief. I then started doing some of his work and my own work. Sometimes I felt overwhelmed but it was necessary to get my job that I wanted. It was noticed that I was doing his work. I eventually received more and more work. Before I knew it, I was approachedby a coworker that I am going to eventually get a project manager position. He was campaigning for me for months to get that job. I was happy at the thought. Until I actually get the job, I can't get too carried away. It took a few months to actually get the position. I was excited to move my things to my new desk. I have been working and learning in my new job for the last two months. I am working on learning the most so I can be the best project manager that I can be. I will do updates in the future to give progress reports. I do feel overwhelmed in the learning process. As always, thank you for stopping by my blog. Cheers! Leslie M Jasper