What does a project manager do?
Most of the time, you don't start out as a project manager. Instead, you start as part of the team with a project manager in place and then work yourself into a leadership position. Project management as a profession has grown markedly in the last several years, because projects have become increasingly complex, especially because of advances in technology in recent years.
As a project manager, you coordinate all aspects of a particular project. It's also important that the project be done on time and within budget. Depending on the industry you work in, you will need a different knowledge base to manage your projects. For example, an engineering project manager has a background and education, including a formal degree, in engineering. This allows him or her to understand all parts of the project in their essence without having to have been explained.
What's most important about a project manager (beyond basic knowledge of the project's content itself, of course) is that he or she understands all facets of the project involved, including budgeting, planning, directing, coordinating, and so on.
Skills deal made as a project manager
What that means is that as a project manager, you need strong leadership skills, the ability to get along with different people, good managerial and organizational skills so that you can keep everybody on track and on time, and the ability to foster cooperation and interoperability between sometimes disparate groups of people, and so on.
Your job as a project manager is basically to oversee the entire project as a whole and make sure all the single parts work together seamlessly so that one part of a project, for example, doesn't get behind while another finishes ahead of time. Because of this, you'll need to be absolutely expert in the project content you're managing. In some cases, those who pursue undergraduate degrees often get into project management in the sciences, for example, in graduate school when they become instructors themselves. This instructor background naturally makes them good project managers as well, since they've had experience guiding students in the classroom.
Regardless, though, project management requires hands-on experience. Therefore, you're not going to start your career as a project manager. Instead, you'll start in some other capacity, perhaps in another area of your chosen field, and work your way into project management. Oftentimes, you'll start as part of a team once you get into the arena of project management and slowly work your way into a leadership position.
Finally, you need excellent communication and problem solving skills. Unless you can impart to those under you exactly what you want with a particular project simply and clearly, and unless you have the vision to see exactly how the whole project should come together in every way, project management is probably not for you.
Education
You can become a project manager in just about any field it you wish. For example, engineering and natural sciences utilize project managers to coordinate various professionals within related but separate fields to get a project done. For example, an engineering project manager might supervise those who design and develop machinery, systems or products, or engineering processes. They supervise those on their team (subordinates) to make sure jobs are done right. Therefore, some class work in personnel management might also be advised, although this can be done in on-the-job training. Of course, you'll certainly gain project management experience in a more informal sense if you do something like teach graduate classes or something similar.
Work environment
Your work environment will differ depending on the projects you work on. For example, you may be out in the field supervising construction, or in a laboratory supervising a group of experiments. However, in general, project managers work 40 hours a week and may work more than that if a particular project is rushing toward deadline.
Employment outlook and compensation
Project managers are going to suffer the same vagaries or positives other professions are, depending on what profession they're in. For example, if you are a project manager anywhere in the financial sector right now, perhaps your job security or outlook will suffer. However, engineering and technology project managers are expected to have a job growth rate of about 8% through the year 2016, about the same as other career paths. Engineering prospects seem especially strong.
In conclusion
Project management isn't something you can take particular coursework for or specialize in within your education. Instead, you choose a field, get your education in that, and then slowly work your way into project management within your chosen profession. You do this by developing skills in organization, cooperation, oversight, and the ability to pull the "big picture" together and keep everything on track. Oftentimes, what may happen is that you start out as a team member for another project manager and then work your way into a leadership position of your own, as a project manager for your own project. One thing you must have with as a project manager is excellent communication skills, so that you can communicate to subordinates and exactly your vision of how the project should turn out. You also need extraordinary organizational and management skills, so that you can keep everyone else on your team on track and bring the project to fruition, on budget and on time.
