How to Apply for a Portfolio Office Manager Job

We continue the series of articles which focus on the different types of roles you’ll find in PMO and project support and how you can better understand the job advertisement and make a great application. So far in the series we have – Project AdministratorProgramme Co-ordinatorPMO AnalystPMO Manager

In this article, we take a look at the role of a Portfolio Office Manager – a role which sits at the higher end of the P3M (portfolio, programme and projects) hierarchy.

….If portfolio management is the glue between strategy and delivery you can clearly see that the strategy side is probably the side where the skills gaps are right now for project and programme PMO practitioners.

Here’s a real example of a job advertisement for a Portfolio Office Manager (retrieved 27th October 2020).

It starts with very mixed messages. Is it really a Portfolio Office Manager role? Read on and find out more.


Portfolio Office Manager

Overview

A vacancy has arisen for a Portfolio Manager within the Programme Office.

The purpose of the post is to oversee and manage the site wide portfolio, and to provide portfolio management reports.

The post holder will be responsible for ensuring that effective and proactive monitoring, management and reporting of the site wide portfolio takes place, and for the provision of portfolio related management information.

Main Responsibilities

  • Develop and maintain the site wide portfolio to clearly illustrate and communicate the status of all planned and approved projects.
  • Work with the DSRL project community to gather the best forecast of future resourcing requirements and demand for new and current projects.
  • Manage the development and maintenance of the site wide change and benefits registers.
  • Manage the development and maintenance of the site wide risk and opportunity register, facilitating risk identification and mitigation activities.
  • Manage the maintenance of the resource plan and the forward view of resource supply and demand.
  • Manage the delivery of the key results and performance metrics for the portfolio of projects.
  • Develop and maintain strong relationships with all key stakeholders and internal customers.
  • Support the overall management, development and continuous improvement of the PMO.
  • Provide regular progress reporting for business activities.
  • Drive quality, cost and delivery performance through close working with all delivery functions.
  • Ensure the implementation of appropriate Project Governance for all activities.
  • Ensure the implementation of robust project management activities.
  • Develop optioneering studies and recovery plans.
  • Perform the responsibilities of Management Appointments relevant to post.
  • Manage DSRL staff as Line Manager.

Additional Information

  • Knowledge and application of Risk Management
  • 10 Years Project Controls/Management Experience
  • Knowledge and application of Programme and Portfolio Management
  • Stakeholder Management experience

Portfolio Office ManagerLet’s take a look at each line in this job specification and see what we can learn from it and share some tips on how you can use that knowledge in your CV.

Overview

A vacancy has arisen for a Portfolio Manager within the Programme Office.

Straightaway we have some mixed messages – a Portfolio Office Manager in a Programme Office? It’s strange – is it a portfolio or is it a programme?

We should reserve judgement on this and concentrate on the responsibilites required and hopefully if we make it to interview stage we will find out more about the setup.

The purpose of the post is to oversee and manage the site wide portfolio, and to provide portfolio management reports.

The post holder will be responsible for ensuring that effective and proactive monitoring, management and reporting of the site wide portfolio takes place, and for the provision of portfolio related management information.

This is familiar territory at least, it’s a portfolio that is site-wide. But we still are a little lost.

This is a typical advertisement from a recruitment agency where it would be useful to understand more about the company that the role is for.
We can see further in the advert that a company name slips in, “Manage DSRL staff as Line Manager.”
A little research and we can find out that “DSRL is responsible for the safe and secure clean-up of the Dounreay nuclear site.”
Now we know what they’re talking about when it says ‘site-wide’. A classic of understanding the context of the portfolio and now we can read on a little more enlightened.

We can see that this portfolio office management role will be very report based – I’m already getting the feeling that it might be more PMO Analyst level but let’s take a closer look at the roles and responsibilities.

Responsibilities

  • Develop and maintain the site wide portfolio to clearly illustrate and communicate the status of all planned and approved projects.

This is the practical part of portfolio management – the setting up of the portfolio register and everything that goes along with ensuring that the current and planned projects are listed, prioritised and always at the right status – the single source of the truth.

In your CV you will focus on demonstrating experience around the portfolio build, prioritisation, analysis and reporting aspects – making sure to also focus on working with stakeholders and teams to ensure the registers are right and remain correct.

  • Work with the DSRL project community to gather the best forecast of future resourcing requirements and demand for new and current projects.
  • Manage the maintenance of the resource plan and the forward view of resource supply and demand.

Here’s the stakeholder part again, the ability to work with others to get the information you need:

  • Develop and maintain strong relationships with all key stakeholders and internal customers.

Here you’re also focusing on resource management, understanding current resource plans across the portfolio and being able to forecast based on new projects coming down the line.

A line about resource management in your CV would definitely be the right thing to do here.

  • Manage the development and maintenance of the site wide change and benefits registers.
  • Manage the development and maintenance of the site wide risk and opportunity register, facilitating risk identification and mitigation activities.

Although they’re both about the register development – you should have separate bullet points in your CV career history which focus on portfolio-level risk management and benefits management.

The interesting one on the risk responsibility is facilitating risk identification – including your ability to facilitate these type of sessions.

  • Manage the delivery of the key results and performance metrics for the portfolio of projects.

Metrics and measures is a key one for this role – there should be clear evidence in the CV about this part of the role – perhaps consider also including one in a key achievement where a metric/measure was exceptionally reached or exceeded – and crucially you had a big part in that.

It’s also OK to include some examples of key metrics too – especially if you want to include different types like KPIs, SLAs and OKRs.

  • Support the overall management, development and continuous improvement of the PMO.

A short sentence that reveals quite a big role! We’re looking for evidence that you’ve managed a PMO before and you’re not just the analyst.

It’s also good to clearly demonstrate how you might have developed a PMO – in what way? And also with improvements – like what?

  • Provide regular progress reporting for business activities.

Here we’re into the bread and butter of PMO – reporting – alone we have no clue as to how reporting needs to be done? Simple? Dashboard? PPM tool?

It might be safer here to detail the types of reports and the different mechanisms you have experience with.

  • Drive quality, cost and delivery performance through close working with all delivery functions.
  • Ensure the implementation of robust project management activities.

We’re getting further down the list now so these are still important but are picked up after the main part of the role is performed.

This sentence is just about the ability to support delivery teams as and when they need the help – any exceptions that need some advice and guidance.

  • Ensure the implementation of appropriate Project Governance for all activities.

This is one we would expect to see further up the list which makes me think that project governance frameworks are already in place and its just a case for ensuring compliance.

That said, there are always changes – different requirements for different types of projects. Make sure governance arrangements are included on your career history clearly.

  • Develop optioneering studies and recovery plans.
  • Perform the responsibilities of Management Appointments relevant to post.
  • Manage DSRL staff as Line Manager.

All three of these are pretty lazy parts to the job advertisement – each of them with no context at all.

Interestingly this role is a contract position so the line management parts are odd to see here.

If you’re still interested in the job at this point you’ll probably make that application and talk to them about these parts of the job advertisement for more context.

I mentioned that it was a contract – what daily rate do think it is?

Additional Information

  • Knowledge and application of Risk Management
  • 10 Years Project Controls/Management Experience
  • Knowledge and application of Programme and Portfolio Management
  • Stakeholder Management experience

There’s nothing worth singling out here apart from stating the obvious that each of these will be criteria for selecting a shortlist so make sure all four of these are evidenced in the CV.

The contract rate is £365-400/day – worth it?

It could be because of the location – it’s not a Central London role. It’s also in the nuclear industry, not financial services – yet for a portfolio level role, it’s still on the low side which is why I think that rate would attract an Analyst level rather than a Manager level.

Managementof PortfoliosTop Seven Tips for Your Portfolio Office Manager CV

Now we’ve looked at the job advertisement; now it’s time to think about your CV. You can gain further help and practical guidance on your CV by taking a look at our CV Development for PMO Professionals short course.

Here are seven tips to get you thinking about what you would need to do with your CV to apply for this and other Portfolio Office Manager roles:

  1. Portfolio Office Manager roles come in all sorts of different shapes and sizes – this one was definitely a more practical reporting role rather than a strategic planning type role. Make sure your CV clearly reflects where your portfolio office experience is.
  2. You should always take the time to tailor your CV for a particular role – even something as simple as ordering the responsibilities on your CV to match the ordering of those in the job advertisement have a good impact.
  3. With this level of role – and the fact that you’re responsible for metrics and measures – you should highlight where you’ve made a difference – using those metrics and measures.
  4. At this level of role – the salaries and rates can vary, mainly because the size of the portfolio you’re overseeing and the complexities of the programmes and projects. Make sure you’re letting the reader of the CV know the context – the budget size, number of programmes/projects, span of control etc. How big is your responsibilty is equal to your salary and rate expectations.
  5. Make sure you use other titles within the personal statement of the CV – there are lots of variations on the title – Portfolio Office Manager, including Portfolio Office Lead, Portfolio Manager, Head of Portfolio and so on.
  6. There’s doing portfolio management and reporting portfolio management activities – this role we’ve covered in the post is more about the reporting of than the actual ‘doing portfolio management’ – make sure your CV shows the different parts if that’s the type of experience you have had.
  7. At this level, business management, strategy management and leadership are all important parts – make sure you’re evidencing those in the CV too.

So there we have it, a job advertisement for a Portfolio Office Manager – what they’re really asking for and how you can reflect that in your CV.

Remember, the most popular course in the UK for Portfolio Office Managers is the P3O® Practitioner, followed by the Management of Portfolios (MoP)®.  Other courses to check out is the Unlocking Business Aglility through Portfolio Management course from PMO Learning.

Watch out for future roles we will tackle in the same way, and remember if you’re looking for work now or need to give your CV a rethink to get better results, take a look at the PMO CV course – just £25+VAT, delivered over two weeks with forum support.

PMO CV

The P3O® and MoP® courses on this page are offered by PMO Learning. P3O® and MoP® are [registered] trade marks of AXELOS Limited. P3O® and MoP® are registered trade marks of AXELOS Limited, used under permission of AXELOS Limited. The Swirl logo™ is a trade mark of AXELOS Limited, used under permission of AXELOS Limited. All rights reserved.

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