Project Management Institute (the global organization for project management best practices) publishes a list each year of the most influential projects on their radar. I thought it would be a neat idea to dig into the 50 Most Influential Projects of 2022 list with you because of how often I hear from new pivoters that it’s really hard to imagine what their PM life could look like outside higher ed. Which makes sense! How can you imagine something you’ve never done or even seen?
That said, I bet you’ll be able to see yourself (or maybe your future self!) in some of these projects. It’s always nice to add some color and dimension to get inspired about what life outside of Student Affairs looks like.
How to use this list
There are a few ways to browse. First, of course, you can just take a look at the projects themselves. (I’ll spotlight a few of them on social and this blog in the coming weeks/months.) You’ll find that project management as an industry and PMI as an organization is truly global — a characteristic which comes through on this list. Taking a few minutes to scan the project titles and regions and see what jumps out at you is definitely a great way to spend some time with the list!
Another really helpful thing to do, especially if you’re a brand new pivoter and you’re still in the “trying to figure out what the world outside HESA looks like” phase is to scan this list by industry. Here’s a screenshot of what the industries they’ve covered looks like:
All these links are clickable with projects to skim through. So if you, for example, are someone who’s always heard “biotech” and secretly thought “wtf does that mean”, maybe it’s helpful to look through the Top 10 Biotech projects.
You’re probably not an MD/PhD, but you probably do recognize a lot of these topics; the top 3 projects in Biotech concerned the Human Genome Project, IVF, and the COVID-19 vaccine. This can be a great way to demystify the beginnings of learning about new industries.
Everything in the world is made up of projects
I really encourage you to spend some time scanning this list (or maybe even reading more about the projects themselves), especially if you’re someone who’s felt overwhelmed by the idea of “what jobs are out there”. This is also a really good illustration of the idea that everything in the world is made up of projects. This list underscores what we already know about bringing new ideas into the world: once the dreamers dream it, it’s time for the project managers to manage it.
I hope this is helpful and encouraging! Like I said, we’ll delve more deeply into some of these specific projects over the next little while — there are lots of great examples of extremely transferable skills on this list! Take heart… the skills you’ve learned during your time in HESA are just waiting for a similarly wonderful project in your future.
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