Ask HN: How to transition to IT project management?

[reddevdev]

I currently work at a start up as the lead over web based projects. This basically covers project management and guidance over design, UX, front-end and some backend development, and server setup/admin for websites and a CRM we are currently developing. I have a team under me but I also do a lot of hands on work with each project. I'm also about to start leading a team building a CMS.

I've always been interested in the IT side of things as well as being a project lead and managing people/projects. This certainly won't be anytime soon but eventually I would like to go into IT project management. I was wondering if anyone could offer any advice on how to pursue this goal. I'm starting to study scrum methodologies and have talked to the CEO about getting certified as a scrum master. I also plan on taking the pmp cert. from what I can tell, those certs plus experience doing project management should cover the "project management" side of things. What about the IT side of things? The startup I work for isn't tiny but we are far from being a large company. Any experience I get working with servers and IT architecture will be on a small scale.

I can build a home lab for learning, pick up quite a bit of knowledge at my current job, and even get some IT certs to make HR happy but I can't possibly imagine that would be enough experience for IT project management. In saying all of that, do I have any options of transitioning into IT project management later on in life? Are there certain thing I can be doing right now in order to gain necessary knowledge and experience?

[robogrowth]

One of the best things you can do first is get your PMI certifications. I work in IT project management for General Dynamics IT and this has been an ongoing project for me for awhile. Having a CCNA or some other IT related cert can also be of assitance in landing a job. I started as an engineer and moved into the project management role.

I prefer engineering. For me it's been a huge change going from a fixer/creator role to a paper pusher, but the pay is better when you become a manager so.. I guess it depends on your goals.

Getting your PMI requires having X Hours of leading projects and X hours of training. Start with your CAPM and work up to PMP. It took me 10 years of engineering to move into the project management side of things. I started without any PM certs, but I have CCNA, CCNA Voice, and Avaya Voice Certs.

[reddevdev → robogrowth]

Great, thanks for the help and suggestions!