Junior Project Manager Review

I am a junior project manager at Co-op, working primarily on projects related to technology, specifically SAP. This role involves leading smaller projects or workstreams on larger projects. This role involves managing and assuring the plan, ensuring the team are working to agreed timelines and resolving problems as they arise, managing risks, issues and dependencies, managing change control and resourcing. It also involves engaging with stakeholders across the Co-op business, monitoring progress against agreed plans and escalating any deviations as per agreed tolerances and upward reporting via status reports and regular checkpoints/stage-gates.

Yes, during studying for my APM Apprenticeship I developed lots of technical skills relating to project management and my day job gave me the opportunity to deploy those skills in a practical setting. These new skills covered multiple areas, including stakeholder and communications management, schedule management, leadership and team building.

There are positives and negatives to the programme. I really enjoyed having the opportunity to learn the best practice theory behind my day job and then actually be able to apply what I was learning in a practical setting. However, a lot of the programme is independent study, which can be challenging to focus on when you've got other priorities from your day-to-day activity.

At a high level the programme was well structured, it was clear what the big milestones were and the associated timescales. However, beneath that I felt quite isolated and unsupported at times. I feel like I prepared for my APM PMQ exam without any real support from my training provider. This improved a little as I completed my portfolio of evidence and prepared for my end point assessment.

My employer is generally very supportive and allows me to take the time I need to complete my programme as part of my working week. I occasionally had to put in extra hours because of the usual peaks and troughs of project work, but this was manageable. There's not much direct support with the actual study, but I did not expect this.

For the first part of the programme, which was preparing for the APM PMQ exam, I was provided with some resources (online videos and workbooks) which were ok, but I ultimately decided to purchase the official study guide and work through that independently. They ran "power hours" which focused on specific topics, but I didn't get much value from those. After completing my exam, I worked with a new tutor who was much more supportive, she offered guidance on how to complete my portfolio of evidence and regular feedback.

It helps a lot. I now have a solid foundation of technical theory on which to rely on during my day-to-day activities. I often find myself referring back to the notes I made when revising for the APM PMQ exam and the study guide, to help inform my decision making and approach for my daily tasks.

Yes, the Co-op has a host of extra-curricular networks that you can get involved in and occasionally offers the opportunity to attend professional networking events. These networks include Aspire (a network of women and allies that advocates and co-operates for a fairer world for all women) and Respect (a network which aims to help create a safe and inclusive workplace where colleagues can be themselves always, no matter their identity or sexual orientation).

Yes

Co-op is a great place to work. It's a really inclusive environment where everyone is encouraged to be themselves, always and there's a huge range of opportunities. Most people I work with are friendly and helpful and for my specific role, there's lots of interesting projects and programmes to get involved in.

Be yourself. Co-op prides itself on its values and if you don't share those values then you won't enjoy working here. So my advice would be the be yourself and if the job is right for you then I'm sure you'll be successful in your application.