Gone are those days when people could use their college degrees to start a career with almost no competition. Your parents or grandparents might have enjoyed working at one place for their entire lives peacefully. But today, with the unemployed population touching all new heights, things are not that simple anymore. The ongoing pandemic has worsened the job market situation even further.
Now if you want to stand out from the competition and advance in your career, you need not depend solely on your college degree. Learn skills that are in demand and improve your chances of living a financially abundant life in the post-Covid world.
In case you want to know more, here are two widely popular skills that have stayed relevant for decades, and can quickly improve your career graph in the future:
- General Management
- Project Management
General management is all about administering different tasks and processes all at once to ensure they contribute towards attaining short-term and long-term business goals.
Project management, on the other hand, helps you master the art of accomplishing a project with the help of a team. It prepares you to be a leader who can handle responsibilities, such as:
- Accepting a raw project prototype
- Delegating work to the team members
- Communicating with clients
- Understanding their expectations
- Overseeing the progress
- And finally delivering them the finished project without missing the deadline (as well as budget)
Both general management and project management are crucial to an organisation’s success. So, you can choose either of them and learn all the related concepts to become an expert.
Before you make the final call, let’s dive deep into general management and project management concepts, various opportunities they offer, and how you can grab them without leaving your current job.
General Management & Its Benefits
Regardless of the industry and job you are in at the moment, there is nothing better to grow as a professional than learning general management and corporate administration. It prepares you to take senior leadership/executive roles in a company by explaining some of the most critical management skills in a precise manner.
Unlike functional managers (leading a small departmental team in an organisation), general managers are expected to have a broader perspective about the business and take care of the company’s profitability.
Besides, they are also required to maintain a good relationship with shareholders, strategic clients, banks, and other external parties to ensure that the business keeps growing without hitting any roadblocks.
Since the duties of a general manager are way more than a department or unit manager, you need to put in a lot of effort to learn them. There are two ways to go about it—either spend the next 15-20 years in an organisation and learn things as you grow in the corporate hierarchy or enroll in a Master of Management program offered by a recognised university.
If you are not ready to spend the next twenty years to be a leader in your industry, then take the alternative route to make your journey to the top smooth and hassle-free. An institute like UNSW, having a solid track record, can help you get an edge over others and ensure that your career progression is quick and smooth.
An specialization in general management teaches you concepts like financial management, business economics, principles of marketing, corporate law, corporate governance, the role of digital technology in business growth, business analytics, corporate communication skills, and much more.
As part of the curriculum, most leading universities let you learn management skills from industry experts having decades of experience as general managers, vice presidents, and business owners. It’s something that no ordinary job can teach you regardless of how many years you spend in a company.
The minimum requirement to be eligible for such a program is a bachelor’s degree in any discipline and work experience of a few years. So, if you have been working somewhere for the past few years and want to bag a leadership role in the same company or another, then applying for a master’s program in general management is the best way to move forward.
The duration of this program varies from 1.5 to 2 years, depending on the university you choose. During this period, you don’t have to leave your current job. Instead, you can opt for online learning and take lessons at night or during weekends as per your convenience.
After completing the course, you can either ask your leadership team to consider you for a promotion or apply to other organizations looking for people with a similar background and skills for leadership roles.
Project Management & Its Benefits
While general management helps you learn skills that are required to run an organization successfully, project management offers you skills that are needed to become a perfect manager who can take ownership of a project from start to finish and deliver it before the deadline. Every organization needs one or more project managers who are great at leading teams and can give results every time without missing deadlines.
In case you are already working in tech, civil engineering, or a similar profile and wish to head a team of like-minded professionals soon, then consider enrolling in a project management course.
Typically, universities across Australia, the United States, Europe, and the rest of the world offer PMP (Project Manager Professional) certificate programs for those individuals who want to have an in-depth knowledge of the project management process.
The first and the most talked-about benefit of this program is quick career progression. You can easily climb up the ladder in your organization’s corporate setup or even look for fantastic job opportunities outside.
According to the Anderson Economic Group’s survey, career opportunities for project managers are expected to grow at a whopping 33 percent through 2027. The study also mentions that nearly 88 million new project management related roles with attractive pay packages will be created in the next seven years.
Now is the best time to enroll in a PMP certification program and start learning the basics to advanced level concepts of project management in a structured way. Doing so will help you get recognized as an expert in your field and cash-in on all the opportunities that come your way.
Along with new opportunities and expertise, a PMP certificate also ensures that the next job you accept pays you a lot more money than what you are getting right now. Given the rising inflation and healthcare cost, you need a stable income that can take care of your lifestyle expenses, insurance premiums, and investments. A PMP certificate or master’s degree in project management can help you achieve this feat smoothly.
Like general management, you don’t have to attend a Project Management Institute full time to get a PMP certificate. Most leading educational institutions in Australia and other countries allow students to attend lectures and give exams online. So, no matter where you are based or what job you are in, you can easily enroll into a project management course of your choice and take your career to newer heights.
The Bottom Line
Expert knowledge in either of these fields serves a unique purpose. When you opt for a General Management Program, you give yourself a chance to learn about everything that general managers, VPs, and CEOs do to run their respective organizations successfully. A certificate in project management, on the other hand, opens doors for you to become a highly-skilled and well-paid project manager.
You can pursue either of them depending on your current job profile and where you want to see yourself in the future. Both are highly rewarding and offer great opportunities. So, think carefully and make the ongoing global economic crisis work in your favor by preparing yourself to grow as a working professional.
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About us: Career Karma is a platform designed to help job seekers find, research, and connect with job training programs to advance their careers. Learn about the CK publication.
