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Hello, everyone, welcome to the Five Minutes podcast. Today, I like to talk about how do we demonstrate our expertise in project management or in project delivery, no matter again, if I'm using a predictive method or if I'm using an agile method. How do I introduce and for example, how do I put this in my CV? How do I present this in a job interview? Or how do I introduce this as a consultant or introduce my company? So I just want to highlight the best way I found to explain, for example, what I do in the magnitude of the projects I have undertaken. It's basically a set of three steps, and before I shared them, I just want to highlight I'm not a nature expert, OK, so I'm not teaching you how to behave in an interview. There are people far more qualified than I to do that, but I want just to highlight what you should mention and you should be prepared to answer by your most relevant projects.
First, the type of project, what kind of project we are talking about? We are talking about a technology project. We're talking about an engineering project. We are talking about a digital transformation, a business transformation. We are talking about a startup or building a new enterprise. We are talking about an M&A. We are talking about a mining facility and why it's important? Because I want to understand what is the context that you are working on. And for example, if you decide to take as a career as a project manager connecting ideas to reality, for example, like myself. For me, it was very important to have different experiences from, for example, engineering projects, power plants to new ventures from government, NGO and the U.N.to, for example, digital transformation.
Why? Because these shows, too, for example, to a potential employer or a potential client that I am able to work with different types of projects. However, if you are, for example, just trying to look for opportunities in the project space in technology. So what do you need to do? You need to say, what type of project am I doing projects with blockchain? Am I doing projects with, for example, using DevOps? Am I'm building projects for, I would say, lean. And these types of different projects and different knowledge, as you show in your CV, will make you a well-rounded professional, for example, if you are working in I.T.
The second aspect it's all about the magnitude. Do you agree with me that develop a web page? Using WordPress is one challenge, but doing the transformation of Wal-Mart is quite a different one. Of them, we can call them, or they are both technology projects, but this is not true. So what I need now is that you need to highlight what is the size of your challenge. Usually, you say the budget number of people involved in the project. A number of people were impacted by the project. One thing is it's OK. I'm doing an online shop where twenty-five people shop every day. The other one is to say I'm doing online shopping where three million people go every day. These are two very different projects. For example, probably many of you already know I'm passionate about astronomy, and of course, I'm following very carefully the James Webb Telescope.
How do they introduce the James Webb telescope? They say a twenty-five billion dollar effort that took twenty-five if I'm not wrong, but that took 20 years to be the wow that is so complex 300 points of failures. Why do they say that? Because that is a clear measurement of how big is the challenge. So you can talk about money timeline, people. You can talk about risks, challenges, potential problems, and then at the end is the most important thing. What was your role, your specific role on that effort? Because I want really to know, OK, maybe the project is small, but you have a key leading role on that project. The project is very big, but you have a less critical role on that project, for example, if you come up and say you are the overall responsibility and the program director for the James Webb Telescope. You don't need to say anything. In the end, you don't need to say anything even in your CV, because that is such a strong and that nobody, just nobody on Earth, will question your ability to handle complex situations. However, all of us normal people, we need really to show, for example, a set of projects and why they were complex. When I was introducing my work at the U.N. many times I said, Oh, it's an infrastructure project, a school, and then I could have said, Oh, it's very complex. I'm doing, for example, linked platinum on the school. But this was not the case. The school was just a very simple plane project. So that was not the challenge.
And when I need to highlight the magnitude and how complex that effort was, I have to say, Oh, there was no electricity. There was no road. It was in a war-torn country. Then people will understand, OK, what made that project so complex? It was not the engineering complexity, but all the social aspect and all the logistics and supply chain aspects involved in that project. And then at the end, I would say, Oh, my rule, OK, I was the project manager. I was a team lead taking care of this. I was an intern or I was the director of the food program where one of the projects was this one. Did you get so? It's very important that you do that because this is the way you will show a full spectrum of experience. And I don't need to say this. Of course, we are all adults, but don't lie on your roll. Make clear what was really your role. Because it's so easy today for people to track and understand clearly how complex and how big was the project and what was your actual role. So think about that always. So type of challenging project, the size and the magnitude of the project in your room. If you follow these three steps and are ready to answer this for the main projects in your career, you are absolutely ready to participate in an interview or to introduce your company nicely explaining exactly what you can help them and where you add value to them, ok?
So I hope you enjoy this podcast and see you next week with another Five Minutes podcast.
