Name that career
December 8, 2010 2:50 PM   Subscribe

[Suggest a career filter] I am in my third career and pretty old but I really do not like what I am doing. I am a Project Manager who is customer facing and I do not like working with external customers! But here is my question. What can I do with this skill set?

Taught Spec Ed to mulithandicapped for 10 yrs. Switched to computers. Been in telecommunications for 15 years. Did tech support, managed tech support dept. and now project management. What I love to do is to figure out what went wrong. I call it detective work. Something is not right with a system (not a programmer tho), order or flow. What has gone wrong and what do we do to fix it? I also enjoy creating flows or processes but I really get psyched up when someone says "gee, this did not go right. what happened?" I have excellent attention to detail in these situations and can make the connections (or what connections failed) when researching. Without going through more schooling (have a Masters) or very involved training (I am pretty old after all) can you think of any profession that would keep me going until retirement? In or out of my field I welcome all insights.

I do not want to be a police detective even if they would have me! And cannot go back into education. Tried it after a layoff and it is not for me in any capacity anymore.
posted by shaarog to Work & Money (7 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
You mention liking the "detective work" and flowcharting aspects of project management so it really sounds like you should keep doing that. Maybe you just need a change of scenery? You could still a project manager but stop working with external customers. I know lots of PMs who only work with internal product teams-- software developers, designers, business analysts, manufacturing or shipping people, etc.
posted by joan_holloway at 3:29 PM on December 8, 2010 [1 favorite]


You would make a good business analyst, but if you don't like customers, then you won't like it. There really is no difference between external and internal customers in my eyes. But business analysts are really just good detectives who get to draw charts and stuff. Check it out.
posted by jasondigitized at 3:40 PM on December 8, 2010


Do you like internal customers better than external customers? You might like being a business analyst.
posted by matildaben at 4:52 PM on December 8, 2010


Seconding a change of scenery. If you find that PM work includes the type of work that you like, then a new career might not be the easiest fix.

I'd say there's a huge difference between internal and external customers. If you provide tough love to the former, they don't threaten to take their business elsewhere. I can't tell what you dislike about your job, but I disliked working with external customers because > 50% of the work was always account management. That's a big distraction from your actual job, but it's a necessary part of the territory. So moving to a position where you're only doing internal project management, or maybe an analyst position that only works on internal projects, may be what you need.

If you'll describe what you dislike about your current job, we might be able to give you more advice.
posted by Tehhund at 6:09 PM on December 8, 2010


Response by poster: 1. External customers buy a product and always expect more for their money. I am a PM not a magician. I cannot automagically make you understand a product just because you paid money for it. Read the literature or go to the website and watch a video.
2. I have no control over technicians or back office workers but must present a one company image to the external customer. I AM the company even though I have no supervisory responsibilty over my coworkers. Tech missed an install? I can get another scheduled but I cannot tell you why it was missed and even if I could, I have no control over that. And it all gets taken out on me.
3. Although I am not shy I just do not like dealing with people who have bought a product vs a team mate. Not that all team members do what they are supposed to but working with internal customers (other company employees) it has less of a them vs us feeling. I can more easily persuade a coworker to cooperate than make an external customer happy.

While managing a technical team I had to interact and negotiate with all levels of the business because my team maintained all the computers and the LAN. That was so much easier than dealing with external customers.
posted by shaarog at 6:35 PM on December 8, 2010


Best answer: ITIL Service Management could be a fit - but I don't think you will find it all that different to Project Management in general. Only real difference is that you work closer with the service delivery technical teams than you do with the customer and it's ongoing operations management and continual service improvement instead of projects with a start and an end.

Incident Management and root cause analysis type roles will give you the chance to 'figure out what went wrong' also. Good luck.
posted by faheypb at 7:28 PM on December 8, 2010


Response by poster: Thanks so much faheypb! Looking into that now as it sounds like what I am looking for. I am not opposed to Project Management - I just do not like the external customer aspect.
posted by shaarog at 8:21 AM on December 9, 2010


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