How Did I Get Here: A Career Profile of Michael Bovilsky, PMP

Here’s the latest in my series How Did I Get Here. These are interviews of current project management professionals intended to help folks see how others made project management a career. Welcome, Michael Bovilsky!

When did you first decide to become a project manager?

Michael decided to switch to Project Management in 2001 after 6 years in IT Consulting for State and Local governments.  He was leading a few different teams and realized he enjoyed the project management aspect of his job far more than the staff management aspect.  Michael took a position with AT&T Broadband as a Project Manager and loved every minute of it so he went back to school to get a Master’s Degree in Project Management and has never looked back.

What was your academic and/or corporate background before you became a project manager?

Michael started his professional career as an application developer for an IT consulting firm that developed financial and HR systems for State and Local Governments.  He moved up through the ranks leading successively large teams on larger projects.  Michael’s final position in IT was leading teams working in application development and data warehousing.  He ended his IT career after six years realizing he was far better at (plus enjoyed much more) the project management aspects of his job than the staff management aspect.

If you made a transition, did your company support your transition to project manager?

I changed companies to make the transition to project manager.

Which credential do you have?

Programmer Analyst (E-4 / first in class) at Fort Gordon, GA from the Illinois Army National Guard

Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science from the University of Illinois

Master’s Degree with Distinction in Project Management from Devry’s Keller Graduate School of Management

Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification

How has having your credential helped (or hurt?) your career?

My father-in-law harangues me endlessly for having a master’s degree.  He often bellows stuff like “You’ve got a master’s degree, how come you don’t know how why the toll booth is in the left lane instead of the right?”.

But professionally, my certifications have never been anything but a blessing.  No credential guarantees a person is a good project manager, however, many companies use the PMP and/or a Master’s degree as filtering criteria for resumes; how better to pare down unwieldy 100 qualified candidates to a manageable 10 than with industry credentials?!?!

What advice would you give an aspiring project manager?

Get a mentor.  Find someone with experience in the field and get them talking about the real world of project management.  Like most things in life, the real world is very different than what is written in books and taught in classes.  Good mentors can meet a critical need for advice, a shoulder to cry on, a great contact to have from a networking perspective and more.

Read every business advice guru you can get your hands on.  Use audio books (ex: Audible.com) during your commute if you don’t have time to read.  Lean in by Sheryl Sandberg, Quite by Susan Cain, Getting to Yes, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People and even The Art of the Deal will give you insight into your project team members, sponsors, and stakeholders if not into yourself personally.  You want a broad repertoire of things to try when challenges present themselves.  And the concepts and terms in these books often come up at the water cooler.

Any final advice?

Lastly, get to church and join a bible study; the most important quality of a project manager is compassion and empathy.  A project manager is often the bearer of bad news and the aggressive taskmaster.  Being tender to the challenges facing your stakeholders will make you wildly more successful than a PM that is a master of the technical aspects of project management only.

Michael moved to Denver and works at Charter Communications after twelve years with Comcast in Chicago.  He jokes his only hobby is Project Management spending much of his free time mentoring PMs, hosting networking meetings, and attending chapter meetings of the local chapter of the PMI.  Michael is also active with various trade associations for the cable industry.