Getting Job Ready for 2022

As December approaches, now is a great time to start thinking about our goals for 2022 – not just personal goals, but professional one too.

For some of us, this might be to earn a promotion, progress in your career, or even look for a completely new job – and all of these can be extremely overwhelming. So, where should you start?

Identify the level you are currently working at

In order to progress, we need to be able to identify areas of strength as well as oppurtunities for development.

As a consulting member of the House of PMO, we thoroughly recommend the PMO Competency Framework as an excellent place to start for understanding the level you are currently working at within your PMO career.

The framework outlines how to complete a self assessment using the performance indicators, role profiles and competences outlined. Your first self assessment should take a couple of hours, but is hugely beneficial for guiding your professional development. It may also be beneficial for your line manager to complete an asessment of your competences for further insight.

By regularly completing these assessments, you can stay up-to-date with the level in which you are working, as well as track your progress.

Now we know what level we’re currently working at, we can now focus on development, and demonstrating our competency.

Address opportunities for development

You’ve completed your self assessment, now what?

By understanding where we are working competently, we can also see areas where our competencies can be developed. The framework outlines 24 competences, as well as key skills, knowledge and behaviours.

You may have identified that you are performing competently in Financial Management, however your Reporting, Insights and Analysis skills are slightly less developed, which in turn is impacting your Assurance competency.

The PMO Competency Framework can be particularly beneficial for teams within organisation’s here, as we are able to recognise trends and patterns in competences.

An easy way to address these opportunities for development is by completing training.

At PMO Learning, we are pleased to offer the House of PMO Essentials certification suite, which are based off the PMO Competency Framework and focus on the four role profiles – PMO Administrator, PMO Analyst, PMO Manager and PMO Director. If you were looking to fully understand the skills, knowledge and behaviours to complete this role well – these courses are a great place to start.

Alternatively, your opportunities for development may be less broad, and so a specialised course might be more appropriate – from Assurance to Benefits Management, there’s something for everyone no matter where you are in your PMO career!

Documenting and demonstrating

We’re probably all guilty of not updating our CV as regularly as we should. However, in preparation for the new year, and the new opportunities we are looking to embrace – now is the time to ensure it is up to date!

Using the results from your self assessment, ensure your CV reflects your current level of competency. Now is also a great time to reflect on the past year – how has your role changed? Have you taken on any extra responsibilities? Has your job title, or description, changed? These are all important to document, not just in preparation for an interview, but for performance reviews or appraisals!

If you’re looking to create a compelling CV that gets you noticed for all the right reasons by hiring organisations and recruiters – our CV Development for PMO Professionals course is a great place to start. You’ll receive all six modules over the course of two weeks via email, meaning you can put together the perfect PMO CV before Christmas. For just £25, why not treat yourself to an early present?