So, another challenging year draws to a close with a direction of travel which reminds us that COVID19 has not gone away; a stark reminder that as a society, we still have to work out how we are going to live with the challenges which the virus presents, both personally and professionally. As with all trends that we observe as a recruitment business, we can once again sense that the Covid situation has created both winners and losers in the jobs and career stakes. On top of that, it is not impacting all practitioners in the same way, leaving some in a position to where they are unable to direc ..read more

If your work-life balance is off, you have too much stress and pressure, difficulties with delegation and dealing with failures – Self-Reflection and Self-Management techniques are just what you need!  Join the 5th edition of the Global PM Days Conference where you will receive the necessary tools, techniques and inspirational speeches to empower your project management and personal skills on all levels through Self-Reflection and Self-Management. Wondering what Global PM Days is? Global PM Days is a 2-day online project management conference that brings together world-class speakers to s ..read more

Aspiring Project Managers: Your country needs you! At least that is the message from Dr. Ian Clarkson who presented at Project Challenge last month in London. It is his stated belief that there’s a ‘perfect storm brewing’ in the project profession and used research showing there’s a global shortage of project management professionals, the pace of change is increasing, demand for project managers is high and it is going to remain high for quite some time. You can see his full session from Project Challenge at the bottom of the page. In fact the report by McKinsey – The future of work: Rethinkin ..read more

Here at Arras People we often get asked by project management practitioners “how is the market?”; or “is it a candidate’s market?” etc. Questions we really do not like to answer as “the market”, in our eyes at least, is a mythical thing and practitioners should be focussed on “their market” ie where their skills and experience are likely to get them a job! However, our friend over at KPMG and Rec are much happier talking about the market and every month they issue their Report on Jobs which offers up the latest trends based on recruiter feedback that they have collated. The report is broken do ..read more

In the words of Intuit co-founder Scott D. Cook: “For every one of our failures, we had spreadsheets that looked awesome”. Sound familiar? Spreadsheets have been the go-to planning and delivery format for project managers and programme leaders for almost 40 years, but at some point, they’ve failed us all. Not to mention the hours we spend creating and updating them. Aside from the potential for human error (because we are, after all, only human!), spreadsheets and Gantt-style plans aren’t equipped for the increasingly complex, continual change most of us are managing. Any of these issues ring ..read more

It’s been 4 months since the latest IR35 rule changes were introduced in the private sector; changes which saw the transfer of responsibility to determine worker status from contractors to large and medium-sized companies. The changes were criticised by many and flagged as the death knell for independent contractors here in the UK and the end of the flexible labour market. With the ongoing impact of the pandemic, which caused a 12 delay in the introduction it is still difficult to truly gauge the real impact of the legislation. There are lots of anecdotal stories both positive and negative in ..read more

The APM have announced that Level 8 Project Management Apprenticeships will now include their PMQ (formerly known as APMP) in Scotland. This now means that prospective project managers can complete their apprenticeship and gain a recognised qualification, all whilst pursing Project Management as a first career. Whilst the profession has typically been a second career for many, the next generation of practitioners are keen to get stuck in straight out of school/university. With the apprenticeship scheme itself still being fairly new we will have to wait and see how these newly qualified practi ..read more

I have recently graduated and looking for a project related role in an organisation but finding it difficult and demotivating, how can I improve my chances? Graduate level roles have always come with a high level of competition and in recent times with the pandemic it has been even more frustratingly difficult. Not only are there generally less graduate jobs available, but graduate jobs in project management also are not as common as you might think. There are assistant level project manager roles available but it’s the other types of roles in project management that make better graduate entry ..read more

I’m currently working as a Project Manager in healthcare and I’d like to take a step up to a Senior Project Manager position, how can I make this happen? You have two options, work the promotion internally or look externally for a new position. Both options come with different tactics and there are plenty of great careers advice websites out there that help you with the promotion conversation. The key thing with seeking out an internal promotion to a more senior role is knowing that there is an opportunity there for you to fill. If there are bigger, riskier projects available, you will need to ..read more

I am not “experienced” in business analysis, but I really want to prove myself and contribute positively and stand out from the very start in a new role. What resource can you recommend for me to meet up with this task ahead of me? It’s so interesting that you never know where you’re going to see a new opportunity – and sometimes others spot something in you or your resume that makes them think about a specific challenge or role they have to address or fill. The hybrid Business Analyst and Project Manager role is quite common in a lot of organisation so going down this path will do you no harm ..read more