I’ve always had the feeling that there was something missing in my life. Like most 20-somethings, after finishing school, I was completely lost. Throughout my career, I dabbled in different roles, but nothing really stuck except for content writing, and that’s what I’m currently doing for a living.

That said, I was more of “a jack of all trades and master of none”. Deep down in my heart, I knew that I needed to be more focused and find my own thing. I went through a lot until I finally found my purpose in project management. I got hooked on it during the second year of my master’s program. I was in my early thirties back then. This master’s was part of my journey as a mature student going back to education.

At that moment, I quickly realized that I figured out the career I was made for. Project management was a subject—albeit minor—that I had a real affinity with, unlike anything else. I’ve been so interested in it that I’ve passed all my class assignments with flying colors. Even better, my professor was impressed with my work. All of this fueled my desire to continue on this momentum and learn more.

So, I’ve read a lot of articles and completed a bunch of online courses on project management, both free and paid. To have a more solid and authentic proof of my deep interest in a career as a project manager, I decided to step up my game and invest financially and intellectually in a professional certification. After weighing the pros and cons of my possible options, I went for the one offered by Google.

With a series of 6 courses approaching a total duration of 240 hours, including a lot of activities, quizzes, assignments, and assessments, the program aims to teach the ins and outs of project management for beginners with no prior knowledge or experience. Personally, it took me 3 months of intensive study to complete, while still working full-time. The knowledge I’ve acquired from the previous courses allowed me to progress a little faster.

Link to the verified professional certificate on Coursera

As someone with no project management experience, I particularly appreciated how this certification program leveraged the range of skills I had already developed in other ways throughout my career. It also gave me the knowledge and tools I needed to take my career in this new direction.

By and large, here is what I learned from this professional certification:

• A general understanding of the techniques and skills required to excel as an entry-level project manager.
• Techniques for creating effective project documentation and artifacts throughout each phase of a project’s lifecycle.
• The basics of managing projects using agile methods, focusing on carrying out scrum events, forming scrum artifacts, and understanding of scrum roles and duties.
• The application of effective communication strategies, resolving issues, and managing stakeholders through scenarios based on real-life situations.

Each individual course of the program was an invaluable learning opportunity for me, with its own set of lectures, readings, and various types of assignments. This blog post outlines what I learned from each of the six courses. If I were to summarize my personal experience with this professional certification, I’d simply say that it’s something that taught me a lot, and convinced me to pursue a career in project management.

Over time, I figured out that behind the variety of my background lies a true coherence with my career aspirations: to become a project manager. Everything I’ve learned and acquired so far will undoubtedly help me succeed in my career change.

Sure, all of this didn’t happen all of a sudden, but I won’t lie: I wish I knew sooner. I have no idea why I didn’t think of a career in project management earlier. Even though it took me years to come to this realization, I believe that everything in life happens according to my own pace.

Featured image courtesy of rawpixel.
Last updated: February 27th, 2023.