Young Project Managers The Key?

benfellows says : This may be a challenge for some, but I used to be a project manager at the age of 25. Now for most people I talked to in the industry they were against this because they thought lack of experience would be a certainty at that age. However all the clients I dealt with gave positive feedback most of the time.

Any thoughts I'd be interested in hearing back as I'm really keen on Project Management.

regards,

roman_oks says : I am 24 and I manage a project in which 10 developers involved.
So, don't mind and do your work!

bas says : That is soooo true. And most of the younger PMs make up their lack of experience by being eager and not having a "yeah-yeah-been-there-done-that" attitude. :rolleyes:

Jgrahamartifact says : Its up to us, the "net generation" project managers to take the torch forward, try new things and see if we can leave the software development management space better than we found it. I have found myself out of the traditional project management and into something completely different. I recently joined an effort to build an open source like community around a free, "software development management (SDM) system". Real time project information integration is vital to the success of software development in a globally distributed environment. Very Cool Stuff

I can just hear the "old hands" now, "I thought that once myself but the scars of previous project failures are painful, you'll see".

Garcello says : Young project managers will do well in a mature organisation or company that supports you by having really good training, mentoring, coaching and processes in place for you, otherwise an inexperienced project manager is another serious risk that a project can really do without. :rolleyes:

Thijs1301 says : Dear Ben,

What´s the question you want an answer to?

In answer to some of the implied questions:
Can a young project manager deliver good work?
Yes. Projectmanagement is mostly about common sense, anyone who can cook can plan.

Can a young projectmanager be a good leader?
Maybe. A good leader inspires confidence and makes people see reason.
Confidence tends to be associated with grey hair, a low voice and a lack of expression when surprised. Traits that older people tend to have.
(Think of a captain on a ship, as long as the captain looks sure of himself nobody will believe they´re sinking.)

Can a young projectmanager get a big project?
Probably not. The confidence issue again. When I was 13 I was pretty smart and pretty vocal. I would probably have been able to manage a project but for some reason nobody gave me one te lead.
To clarify further: we tend to mistrust young politicians, they are too full of fire to be able to distance themselves from the matters at hand to make solid decisions. Or so it is reasoned.

In short: if the answer to your question is not in the above: please clarify the purpose of the thread, if it is: it was a pleasure to write it for you.

Regards,

Matthijs.