Projecting busy times ahead

Project management has come a long way in the past ten years. Once seen as the last job before exiting a company, Stuart Engel discovered project managers are now some of best paid and most sought after executives in the financial services industry.

Project management has come a long way in the past ten years. Once seen as the last job before exiting a company, Stuart Engel discovered project managers are now some of best paid and most sought after executives in the financial services industry.

There used to be a hushed murmur across the office every time someone was sec-onded from their management position to act as a project manager. Whispers would circulate that the manager in question had drawn the short straw and was on her way out of the company. They were assigned an office far away from other people and sat about all day sharpening pencils. Or so the story went.

Today, project management is one of the hottest jobs around. According to Robert Walters director Craig Michilis, constant big changes in the operations of busi-nesses has driven the demand for project management professionals.

Robert Walters has jobs on its books for financial services groups seeking up to 80 people to manage the implementation of the GST. Last year, there was similar de-mand for project managers to implement Y2K strategies. Going forward, there is likely to be strong demand for these skills when insurance groups look to restruc-ture in the wake of Ralph tax reforms and restructuring hits financial services groups with the urge to merge. And that is without mentioning the management of projects dealing with the push towards e-commerce.

Michilis says the advent of internal audits by companies alongside increased use of both internal and external consultants has been the prime factor in fuelling the de-mand for project managers.

“A few years ago, there were no internal audits of procedures so the management of specific projects was generally left with line managers. Today, most companies will call on the services of project management professionals with credentials,” he says.

Project managers are being sought by companies on both a contract and full-time basis, according to Michilis. And with project managers pulling in between $40 and $60 per hour, it is becoming an increasingly attractive career option for those entering the financial services industry.

Michilis says there is also a number of project managers who have specialised in project management working overseas. He says there is particularly hot demand at the moment for professionals who have managed the massive changes that hit the English financial services industry with the advent of the EMU system.

Manager of Robert Walters’ commerce contract division, Roslyn Clarke says the rise in demand for project management people has created a new buzz word in the business community — project accountant.

She says many of the functions associated with the classical accountant have begun to diminish in their appeal, so many newly qualified business graduates are looking to project accounting as a real alternative.

Three years ago, accountants predominantly looked at working within banking and finance, however, the lure of telco and Internet companies has drawn some of the best talent in recent years.

“The role of the project accountant is like an umbrella; it holds a whole host of op-portunities beneath its own structure,” she says.

“The project accountant can use his or her skills in a more strategic and analytical way than that of the traditional accountant. It is a diverse role which makes project accountants more marketable. Unlike traditional accountants, they are not re-stricted to one field.”

Project accounts, according to Clarke, are at the forefront of the direction the busi-ness is travelling in. It involves liaising with clients, interacting with managers and rapidly coming to grips with the development of the infrastructure and progression of the business.

The skills of the project manager are being so keenly sought that Michilis believes that anyone wanting to progress to the top of their career will need to be fluent in project management. Certainly a far cry from the days of the office down the corri-dor where nobody wants to go.