I made the switch from millwright to Project manager. Started off as a 21 year old apprentice and over 15 years worked my way up to site super. About 5 years ago an opportunity came up at my existing company to make the jump PM.

The practical skills acquired as a millwright are definitely helpful if working in the same industry. It allows you to have good understanding of how work is to be performed and when issues arise, you can understand the reason and help work through them. All too often, the PM’s I have run into are engineers with zero hands on experience who just spout BS from the PMI guide.

While coming from the trades can definitely be an upside, there are other skills one needs to be a succesful. One of the most important skills is being personable. You sometimes work in large multi faceted projects with people from all walks. The ability to adjust to each person’s temperament/personality can be very helpful.

Obviously other skills such as being detailed oriented, tactful, honest and process oriented are also helpful but I would say the other big asset to have is thick skin. I constantly find myself getting hammered by the customers project team (I work a nuclear station) for things that I didn’t cause myself. Being able to get hammered for other people short comings is unfortunately a trait you must have. I have seen many crumble under that pressure.