I have total 4 years experience as PMO Analyst/Project Coordinator. I took a sabbatical due to medical condition 5 months ago and want to resume my career. I have no clue for my career path as PMO analyst/coordinator jobs are paying me lesser. I want to start my career now at something which is little higher than PMO analyst which offers me better salary. I don't even know which course should I opt for and whether it will help me in my career or not and what if it's a waste of time. I exlored courses like Product management, Digital marketing but I am scared what if I don't land a decent job and it will be waste of my money and time.
Please suggest, as its affecting my relationship with my family and friends too.
I have total 4 years experience as PMO Analyst/Project Coordinator. I took a sabbatical due to medical condition 5 months ago and want to resume my career. I have no clue for my career path as PMO analyst/coordinator jobs are paying me lesser. I want to start my career now at something which is little higher than PMO analyst which offers me better salary. I don\'t even know which course should I opt for and whether it will help me in my career or not and what if it\'s a waste of time. I exlored courses like Product management, Digital marketing but I am scared what if I don\'t land a decent job and it will be waste of my money and time.
Please suggest, as its affecting my relationship with my family and friends too.
I'd recommend that you first prioritise the various factors that you've touched upon, ie, resuming, your career aptitude and interests, selecting a suitable career path, quantum of earnings, and your relationships with the people in your life. The IT market is still very much there, but the strength of demand for different skills keeps varying. Ideally, you would not want to let the break in your career become too long.
The market is also at an interesting stage, where demand for PMOs is not as strong as it used to be (and this is indicated by the level of salaries on offer). Still, if you are good at this, then you could consider accepting the salary that you are offered, and then studying part time for a PMP certification, with the aim of working towards a Project Manager role.
Another option that you have is to try and enter into the technical stream by learning a hot programming skill such as Python, and following it up with real world experience that you can gain by looking for consulting assignments. If you can then get a break as a programmer, then eventually you could aim for a Product Manager position, a role that has morphed into a combination of technical Project Manager and Product Manager for a product or platform company. This is however a more expensive and more risky path to take. Your success will depend on the clarity of choice that you make, your determination to succeed, and of course, your financial ability to cope with how long it may take to break into your first job as a programmer.
A third option is to leverage your coordination skills and communication skills and apply for a marketing and sales opportunity if you are so inclined. As the market keeps getting more challenging, more opportunities emerge in this area than in traditional technology or project coordination roles. This is a career path you may want to consider if you are not really interested in moving into the technology side of the industry.
A higher salary may be something that you have to work towards in time, and which may not come to you in the very first job that you move into at this stage of resuming your career, regardless of your choice of path. Therefore I would suggest first thinking carefully about what roles are most in demand, which ones you may really be interested in, and how expensive (in terms of money and time to be invested) and practical it may be to get into them.
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