A Day in the Life of Project Management

On International Project Management Day, who better to catch up with than our Senior Project Manager, Lucy?

Heading up our project management team, she oversees the full lifecycle of a project and is a main point of contact for clients during analysis work.

What is the first thing you do when you sit at your desk?

After grabbing the all-important first coffee of the day, the first thing I check is the inbox to see if there is anything urgent requiring my attention, followed by checking my calendar for the day. This information allows me to get started with that day’s to-do list ensuring all meetings and calls are sufficiently prepped for!

How’s your workday structured?

A good balance of meetings and time at the laptop. I like to use my days in the office to speak to all the teams and go into team meetings to open up communications directly with myself and the analysts, to keep a handle on all of the project’s progress.

Your secret weapon to get through the day?

Coffee! And a smile… To be an effective project manager you need to have excellent communication with your team, and I like to think that I have built great working relationships with our operations team, making the day all that bit easier.

How do you keep so organised?

Big fan of to-do lists. I write one every day, starting with checking yesterday’s to ensure that everything was ticked off or if I need to carry something over. That way, I know nothing has been missed. I also use OneNote to keep various things in the one place, and a PM software for timesheets and project milestones.

What’s your favourite part of your job?

I’m a people person, so I love the interaction with the team and our clients. It’s great being part of such a fantastic, dynamic company who are so well thought of in the industry.

What’s the one thing people don’t realise about project management?

That it’s not just a job, it’s a life skill. You can use it for everything to planning a wedding, moving house etc. It makes you approach everything in a more organised and structured way and usually means you become the appointed organiser for holidays, weekends away and nights out! Not that I get many of these post-baby!!

What would you do if you weren’t a Project Manager?

In the real world or the dream world?! Realistically…something similar, I’ve always been business-minded and enjoy working in some aspect of client/business interaction. If we’re talking dream world then I’d love to be a location scouter or something similar like creating movie sets. Think Lord of The Rings, the dream.

What do you enjoy doing the most on your days off?

Spending the day with my nearly 2 year old! Never quite sure what the day is going to bring but she makes sure it’s always fun! If we’re really lucky, my husband (who is a chef with a hectic shift schedule) also has a day off and we get to have a wee family day which is always great! Even if it means watching Peppa Pig… oink!