Tuesday 25 August 2015

Project Management – How do you fare?




“A good project manager needs to be an inspirational leader, a diplomat, a good organiser, a good communicator, a mediator and a motivator, thick-skinned, focused and goal-oriented.”  Whilst this description of project management may seem like a tall order, it is undeniably a multitalented and demanding role as those in the role itself or looking to progress to management are well aware. 

Finding out how you fare against industry averages is naturally a burning question for any current or aspiring project manager – so what do other project managers look like and what sort of profile do they fit?

The Association for Project Management (APM) have produced a market trends survey of their membership which gives a well-rounded profile of project managers in 2015.

Their report shows that their average member earns a day rate of between £300 - £500 for contract workers. For those working permanently you can expect to earn “between £40,000 - £49,000, with the average salary of a project professional being £44,167 across all industries and locations” having had around 15 years of project management experience. 

Of course variations between both industry and geography play a part in creating this average with a majority of those surveyed coming from an aerospace or consultancy background and living in Greater London or the South-East. Those based in Greater London and Ireland were (unsurprisingly) the largest share of high end earners (£100k+) compared to the North East and South West. 

What is also clear is that a large proportion of high earning project managers held some form of professional qualification as well as a degree and membership of a body related to their career. APM noted that “as respondents move up the pay chart full-time membership of a professional body such as APM becomes the main differentiator.”

Out of the APM members surveyed, most were male and pay scales between genders changed dramatically towards the higher end of the salary scale “6% of males earned £100,000 compared to only 1% of females.” This gender ratio was reflected in the profile of the average project manager member of APM which was male and between 35 to 44 years of age and most likely working in an organisation with over 250 employees. 

APMs survey and market trends for 2015 reveals interesting data about its members, whether this reflects upon the wider market of those who work under the umbrella of project management remains to be seen. Looking further afield, it lists the comparative success of other managerial roles including change and programme managers who earn considerably more than the average project manager. 

Look out for the next blog in our project management series where we give you some top tips to get ahead in your career and progress to the next step…

To download the APM market and trends survey from their website, you can visit the page here.

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