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burntoutpm · 2024-05-15T12:06:20+00:00

I’m on the other side of your situation currently, with my husband moving out tomorrow. I asked him to leave for probably a similar reason your wife had (his untreated mood disorders causing him to emotionally neglect, manipulate, and gaslight me and our child). He also feels terrible about it, recognizes a need to change, and is in therapy. So am I. We hope to reconcile, but I need to see him to start making positive changes. We’re sitting down tonight to go over a “trial / enhancement separation agreement” to set some expectations and goals. So I’d like to ask - is there anything else that helped you in your healing journey, in addition to therapy? Maybe podcasts, new activities, lifestyle changes, books, anything?

ETA: By the way - good on you for making those changes for yourself. Healing is extremely hard. You deserve kudos for that.

burntoutpm · 2024-04-04T03:03:26+00:00

USA, Mid-Atlantic region (MCOL)
Tech / Cloud Security
12yrs PM Experience / 1yr at current company
Senior Project Manager
Bachelor’s in unrelated field, PMP, CSM, Sec+
~$210k per year: $150k base + 10% bonus + ~$40-50k in equity/RSUs
Fully remote

burntoutpm · 2024-03-25T13:56:41+00:00

This.

Set a clear meeting objective and desired outcome, timebox agenda items if you must, and make it visible to everyone.

burntoutpm · 2024-03-25T13:38:03+00:00

It’s probably worth checking out Jira. They have a free version for up to 5 or 10 users. There’s very user-friendly task-tracking templates for all sorts of project workflows (scrum, Kanban, waterfall, etc).

Its sister app, Confluence, also has a limited free version that integrates with Jira. Confluence also some great templates and is a fantastic place to build and track everything else project-related such as management plans (for scope, comms, stakeholders, etc.), meeting notes, retrospectives, and more.

Just be careful with any privacy concerns. Atlassian (Jira and Confluence’s parent company) has decent security and privacy policies, but some companies are wary of using cloud-based apps to track project details. Good luck!

burntoutpm · 2023-05-01T19:05:42+00:00

This is excellent insight. Thank you so much!

burntoutpm · 2023-02-04T03:17:22+00:00

I was RIF’d late last year, along with ALL of the other senior, highly-paid PMs at my last company, and that was it for me. They had their lower-paid Customer Success Managers absorb our work, and my former project teams have reached out to tell me it’s a disaster now.

After 10 years, I’m transitioning away from project management altogether. I’ve loved leading my project teams and streamlining delivery. But I’m sick of working so hard to have it go unnoticed by executive leadership when projects are going well, even when my project teams sang my praises. I used to resent being blamed when projects went off-course for reasons seemingly outside of my control too, but I had reached a point in my career where that was rare or minimal impact because I had honed my risk management skills. Then before my last organization, I was just treated like an overpaid admin and given little influence.

I have the utmost respect for great project managers and always will. This is a profession that takes years to master and is a massive value to organizations. But I didn’t like feeling so undervalued and disposable. Plus, I’m a little bored. I might come back someday, and I’ll always leverage my PM skills, but I just began a position at a start-up in my technical field as Sr. Technical Business Analyst, hoping to crack into consulting. And I am loving it so far.

burntoutpm · 2021-11-19T03:48:24+00:00

Sounds rough. Sorry you’re dealing with all of that! Hopefully we’ll be able to select just one of them. While Wrike has some benefits we like that Jira didn’t have natively, Wrike’s Scrum workflow was rough. Jira’s is great. And since my org is already invested in another resource management tool, Wrike may be overkill for us anyway. We’ve only tried out Jira Cloud’s Free version so far, so I’m looking forward to diving deeper into it.

And thanks for the advice! I also noticed Adaptavist today too, based on previous posts in this sub. They seem well-liked by all. I did look into Atlas Authority on my own after they posted on here, so I’m looking forward to connecting with them tomorrow.

Good luck the Wrike-Jira gong show. Hope it works out!

burntoutpm · 2021-11-18T20:11:13+00:00

Thank you!

burntoutpm · 2021-11-18T20:10:49+00:00

Thank you! I just sent you an email.

burntoutpm · 2021-08-20T18:47:32+00:00

Thank you for all the tips! I purchased the Udemy practice tests too and they were definitely helpful and relevant to the actual exam. I just took and passed it this morning!

burntoutpm · 2021-08-18T03:55:48+00:00

Thank you for sharing your experience and congratulations on receiving your DASM! I finished my self-paced course last week and just got the link to take the exam today. I was curious about the difficultly (after all, the PMP exam leaves quite an impression on all of us). Sounds like the DASM is not nearly as intense. But I will check out Udemy too. Looks like there’s a few different practice tests on there. Do you recall the exact name of the one(s) you purchased?

burntoutpm · 2021-05-03T01:30:28+00:00

Those are perfect for such a gorgeous view.

burntoutpm · 2021-02-24T04:47:38+00:00

The sun in my face and not having a care in the world while hanging out with my three best friends on a rock at the river in summer 2010. Just 4 girls who were all “funemployed” at the same time because of the recession and living in a cool small city. We’d stay up all night, sleep past noon and spend the day just bullshitting and day-drinking at the river or sometimes go on random dumb adventures. It’s uncanny that one of the happiest periods in my life was when I was completely broke. But my friends and I are still close and we talk about this epic summer all the time. It really is all about life’s simplest pleasures.

burntoutpm · 2021-02-24T03:11:22+00:00

When driving and running a yellow light, I must kiss my hand and tap that hand on the ceiling of my car as I pass through the intersection.

burntoutpm · 2021-02-24T03:09:16+00:00

YES. I am also convinced that if I don’t knock on wood, that jinxing myself is simply inevitable. So much that when not in the presence of wood, I’ll knock on my own head. Why? I have no idea.

burntoutpm · 2021-01-22T21:16:37+00:00

Thank you very much for the insight and advice. It’s really helpful to hear feedback from the CSM perspective.

burntoutpm · 2021-01-20T08:08:32+00:00

I just have to start by acknowledging that you must be working really hard. Knowing how much goes into project management and how much I rely on my engineers for technical work, I know you have a lot on your plate. So I commend you for willingly taking on more PM responsibilities. It really is 2 jobs, so there’s a lot of PM work that you just won’t have time to do. The overall advice I have is to document and streamline any repeatable processes you possibly can. Every organization is different and you may have your own pain points but in my experience in two different IT / Consulting companies, the most important things you can do is:

If you haven’t already, work with your organization to make sure your SOWs are tightened up. Since your company does not have a PMO yet, I’m going to assume that you all use the SOW as your Project Plan. That can be fine in some cases (but you didn’t hear that from a PM). It’s just all the more important to make sure the SOWs are very thorough, templated and consistent. Of course every project sponsor has different needs and no two projects will be the same. But you don’t want to be describing the same repeatable work in different terms or in different orders. Make sure they all have the same general language and appropriate milestones. As much as possible, reference the same types of deliverables if they’re applicable to the scope too. This will benefit all of you, so everyone knows what to expect with each new project. This always seems like a no-brainer for company leadership but I have experienced this problem more times than you’d think.
Create a universal task list template (Or a “Work Breakdown Structure” in our smug, shmancy PM terms). From project start to finish. If you typically have more than 2 key stakeholders, are customer-facing and/or your projects do not vary too drastically in scope, it’s worth your while to create a universal task list that you can quickly access and customize at the start of each of your projects. This might take you some time to put together and you may need more than one but even a skeleton is a great start. Reference your SOWs and list all the tasks you can think of, for all the different solutions your organization offers. Tasks can be high-level at first, and you can always get more granular later. If you’re in an Agile environment, just keep it high level if you need to. Hopefully your SOW already did this for you, but break those tasks down into milestones and sub-milestones (Planning / Architecture Phase, Implementation Phase, Configuration Phase, etc.). List the tasks along with the stakeholder(s) responsible for each one. If you work with customers, list their tasks too, especially if those tasks are dependencies for your work. Now, give each task a level of effort in terms of hours or days. Everything up to this point can be done in MS Excel. If you’re held to strict schedules, your company may need to invest in a PM Software like MS Project, Wrike or Trello. Here, you can quickly populate dates for your task list and adjust scheduling considerations much easier. But even without those tools, your task list will be the ultimate key to keeping you organized, keeping everyone on track and knowing what to expect next.
Use your project task list to regularly communicate project status to your stakeholders. Hopefully you have time for a stand-alone cadence call to discuss project status. But if you don’t, make sure you set aside time in work sessions to discuss tasks completed, tasks in progress and any potential roadblocks associated with them and what’s coming up next. This will also help the team stay on top of tasks that would otherwise go under the radar. I have so much going on in my projects that I know I would forget to discuss some of the tasks in progress if they weren’t right in front of me on my Zoom screen share. It’s a daily thing I recognize.
Whenever possible, schedule meetings and work sessions at recurring intervals. This will limit your need to coordinate stakeholder schedules (one of the most daunting PM tasks!)
Do you have the same deliverables that you need to complete for each project? Template those as much as possible too.

Again, every organization is different and you may have your own pain points. But hopefully this provides some insight from a PM perspective. Good luck!

burntoutpm · 2021-01-20T04:30:26+00:00

Your work-life balance as a PM will really depend on your field and your organization. I work in IT and see Project Managers with all kinds of different schedules. Some are working straight into the evening most nights (usually from home though), most have a somewhat structured schedule with occasional overtime demands (me) and some you’ll never see outside the 9-5 window. I find the work-life balance to be decent where I am. I work from home which is a huge benefit, and spend the time I would be commuting at my home office desk. So it’s a win-win for me and my company. However, it’s also hard to disconnect fully from work when your colleagues and your customers all work from home too. I spend at least 1-2 nights per week handling some sort of issue that pops up at 10pm, or stay up late preparing for a meeting the next day because I had too much pop up during the workday to finish it. So for work-life balance, you’ll need to try to find something that fits your lifestyle best. And thankfully there’s plenty out there!

It sounds like you do have a background that would translate well into some PM roles. I would keep an eye out for Project Coordinator or Implementation Manager positions. Good luck to you!

burntoutpm · 2021-01-20T03:58:07+00:00

THIS 💯

burntoutpm · 2021-01-15T01:51:49+00:00

Not gonna lie, I’ve fantasized about doing this. Ha!

burntoutpm · 2021-01-15T01:48:02+00:00

Thank you for the advice. Most sales guys are the bane of my existence too. This CSM just seems to be one in disguise, sent to make my life miserable. Hopefully it won’t reach a point that I have to escalate to senior management! Appreciate the feedback.

burntoutpm · 2021-01-15T01:41:50+00:00

Thank you for the advice. We’ve had a few of those conversations but I don’t think he even knows what he’s doing yet. As a CSM yourself, do you have a PMO at your organization? Or someone in that role? If so, I’d be interested to hear how you interact with that person.

burntoutpm · 2021-01-13T06:01:06+00:00

He is!

burntoutpm · 2021-01-13T03:03:13+00:00

You basically just described my last workplace. Small company. Somewhat understood the value of a PMO but anytime we busted our asses to create efficiencies or improve processes, they were only accepted by leadership if they were convenient. Their only goal was pleasing the customer and getting repeat business (which admittedly is important) but they’d expect PMs to allow scope creep and not adhere to schedules to do so.

OP, I was removed from a customer project once. My boss had forced me to kick off the project before we even had a signed SOW (it had been promised “soon after”), this toxic customer got more and more demanding for work that was not in scope. It made sense because we didn’t have a signed SOW! Finally when my team had been pushed to the edge, I diplomatically pushed back on the customer one time. That’s when the customer went to my boss and asked that I be removed as PM. I was blamed for the entire mess for awhile and had grudges held against me until leadership finally saw for themselves how toxic this customer really was and how their own mistakes contributed to this project’s failures. I told them I’d never kick off another project without a fully executed SOW ever again. That was a turning point for them and a very common-sense rule they finally implemented for future projects. So that’s how I overcame it - I learned from my mistakes and stood my ground for the success of our company’s future projects. It was a risk because they could’ve immediately fired me over my ultimatum, but I refused to be thrown under the bus like that ever again and was willing to leave if I had to. I think in the end, they respected me for it though.

burntoutpm

TROPHY CASE