My manager does not let me take up more responsibility

A number of engineers and coders fail to get more roles or responsibilities from their managers despite having years of experience, being good at their jobs, and being important team members. Fortunately, following a few simple measures might work in their benefit.
Further down this page, you will get to identify the common problems that employees tend to face in this situation, as well as whet you can do to work your way around.
If you wait for things to get better without taking proactive actions, you might find yourself in a state of stagnation, getting out of which may become a challenge at a later stage.

Speak With Your Manager

People who complain about not getting enough responsibilities or not getting assigned more roles by their managers have typically already made some efforts on their own. These can include asking to working on a new project, mentoring an intern, or interviewing possible new hires.
If you have asked your manager for more to do, there is a good chance you have been told that you need to make more contributions and exercise patience.
At this stage, ask your manager what he or she thinks you need to do to move to next level of responsibility. Try to get specific and actionable feedback. After all, who better to tell you what your manager expects than your manager?

Identify What’s Holding You Back

You might be in your current situation because you overestimate your contribution, because your manager favors other team members, or even because your manager dislikes you.
If you have overestimated your contribution, you need to keep putting your best foot forward and delivering consistently.
If you think you are not in your manger’s good books, you might be fighting a tough battle. In this case, you can think about fixing any apparent problem, or leaving the team/organization. It is important that you do not demand too much because it might worsen the situation. On the other hand, you might get desired results by doing more for the organization, the team, and your manager.
If you find yourself in a situation where your manager does not meet your advocacy requirements, let go off your expectations. Then, work on finding another advocate. This might come in the form of a direct supervisor, a manager from another department, or even a mentor from outside your organization.

Identify Possible Roles

When you talk with your manager about taking up more roles, you need to present solutions instead of highlighting problems. You need to be clear about what roles you would like to take on, because asking for more responsibility without offering suggestions makes your appeal rather ambiguous.
For instance, do you want to develop a new product, do you want to lead a project, do you want to partake in an existing project, or do you wish to manage others? Try to identify overwhelmed teams or bottlenecks that typically slow processes down, and then suggest how you can address them effectively.
When identifying opportunities, your focus should be on ones that benefit your business as well as clients. Then, you need to articulate how your new responsibilities or role can help deliver positive results.

Take Ownership and Provide Updates

Once you evaluate your own performance, determine if you have been scraping by or have been exceeding your goals. If you have ideas about how you can improve a process or a product, bring them up in team meetings. Consider summarizing your ideas and sending them via email, while copying the same to different stakeholders.

As and when you get to take on any new roles or responsibilities, make sure you provide timely updates about your progress. Moving forward, ask your manager if you are on the right track.

Conclusion

Know that how your manager feels about you or your work today is subjective, and can change with time. So, a no today might change to a yes tomorrow. Timing may play a role too, because your manager might simply be too swamped with work at this time. If push ends up coming to shove, start building your network inside and outside your organization. This way, you will have leads to openings when the time arrives.
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Is there any point of a PMP certification?

What is PMP?

PMP is an abbreviation for Project Management Professional. It is a professional certificate that is awarded to certain individuals who pass the Project Management Body of Knowledge exam. The certificate is awarded by the Project Management Institute PMI, which is located in the United States of America and is recognized internationally. There are over one million PMP certified and active individuals around the globe. It is awarded to individuals who demonstrate skill, knowledge, experience and competency that are required for the project manager to manage various projects and lead teams from different backgrounds to achieve the project's goals. PMP gains its importance for being imperative and essential in almost every industry. The demand for PMP certificate varies from one industry to another. The demand comes from the need to have individuals who are able to handle system reorganizations, develop strategic plans, manage outcomes, handle issues and ensure system effectiveness. Being recognized globally, the PMP certification is considered an unbiased endorsement of the individual’s project management experience and knowledge.

Skills tested in a PMP exam

The project management professional exam tests five different skills for the project manager. The first skill tested is the individual’s ability to understand the project goal and problems. This tests the individual’s ability to identify the key issues in the project and clearly be able to have an idea about the end project result. Another skill is the ability to plan the project. This checks whether the candidate has the ability to create a long-term plan that would be followed throughout the entire project, unless there are changes or unexpected variables that might be introduced later on in the project resulting in plan changes and adjustments. Again, to be able to develop a successful plan, the candidates need to show an understanding of the project’s goals and key elements. A third skill is the ability to run and execute the project according to the developed plan. This tests the candidate’s team management and leadership skills represented by distributing and assigning tasks to the right people according to a set period of time. This skill is considered a crucial skill in the PMP exam. The fourth main skill tested is the candidate’s ability to manage, monitor and control the project. The project management professional should be able to handle delays, monitor tasks and conduct adjustments accordingly. The candidate should be able to notice and identify issues that the project might run into and tackle them. Finally, the candidate is tested for his project closure skills. This tests his ability to meet goals and deliver the project according to the assigned time frame.

What is the main role of a Developer?

A developer is the person who works in software development. Developers are responsible for designing the software and identifying the main goals of the software that is yet to be created. They are also responsible for creating, developing and testing the software to meet the design requirements. The final step involves maintaining and adding features to the developed software. As you might have noticed, the developer’s work is similar to that of a project manager. Developers can develop software to different companies for different purposes, so they are not limited to computer manufacturing companies, but they can rather work for different companies involving different industries. This is again similar to a project manager working on different trades in one large project. A developer is responsible for understanding the problem to be solved, designing a solution, developing and programming the solution, testing the developed solution and finally releasing the software to the client.

What Project managers do?

As previously mentioned, a successful manager is an individual who is capable of achieving a successful project initiation, planning, implementation, monitoring, development and closure. A successful project manager should be able to identify key project elements, detect unstated assumptions, lessen uncertainties and risks, manage the project process and finally deliver the project. The PM should listen to feedback from the project’s team members and act accordingly. A crucial role that is played by the project manager – independent of the working environment or industry – is making critical decisions. The project manager is the one responsible for the project’s success. Accordingly, key decisions taken by the project manager are crucial to control risks, handle issues and minimize uncertainty.

Is PMP certification enough to switch from being a developer to project manager?

The short answer is not much. It is clear that there are obvious differences between being a developer and being a project manager. Despite the similarities in some of the job duties, a developer is yet to possess some of the skills that a project manager needs to lead a team, plan, implement and manage a project throughout the whole project phase. Obtaining a PMP certificate is not enough to do the career shift from being a developer to being a project manager. The certificate is used to test the way you are going to handle different situations that a project manager might face. In most cases, a good project manager develops his skills from previous experiences. He might rely on the concepts that he learned during his studies towards PMP certification, but still, it is not simple to mimic real life situations and complexities on paper. In addition, there is no theoretical way that you can use to run a project, but rather it comes with lots of practice, job shadowing and experience. Being a developer with a PMP certification is not enough to convince any company that you are capable of running a project and leading a team of different backgrounds and skills that are much broader. According to some of the people who receive job applications for project management position, possessing a PMP certificate makes no to little difference and does not give the candidate the edge he/she might have in mind.

Giving Better Technical Presentations Simplified

Many engineers and coders who have lots of data to present find it hard to present it in front of an audience. Some are even wary about not brining enough substance to the table. Does this sound familiar?
Once you are done reading this post, you can put your presentation woes to rest – and no – no part of the process involves visualizing your audience naked.
If you are wondering what’s the worst that can happen in case you make a poor presentation, answers can range from a disappointed audience, to a less-than-favorable appraisal, to even having to look for a new job. Fortunately, how your presentation goes is largely in your control.

Make it About Content, Not People

Understand that you have been selected to give a presentation because you are meant to have the required knowledge to put forth any given idea or data. With the expertise to back you, you need to view all those in your audience as the same, irrespective of their designations. Remember that you need focus on your content, and not the audience.

Objectivity Matters

Making a technical presentation is not the same as conventional public speaking. Objectivity plays a crucial role in the former. If you are trying to talk through your hat while offering no real substance, there is a good chance your audience will look through your act. Being a good public speaker is not enough; you also need to have the required technical knowhow.

Cater to Everyone

While you need to have the required technical knowledge, you should not assume that your audience is on the same page. When you are giving a technical presentation, you need to cater to the least knowledgeable people in the group as well, especially when part of your audience is from other verticals.

When possible, get information about your audience ahead of time, using which you can tweak your presentation’s level of detail and depth. If part of the audience is non-technical, highlight the what, why, and how, and don’t bother talking about coding.

What Else Can You Do

Here are more pointers that can help you change the course of your technical presentations for the better.
Explain how your presentation supports a product’s USP.

• Use relevant graphics in the form of photos, diagrams, and charts – but keep them simple.
• Include a Q&A session at the end.
• Use cue cards if you cannot remember the flow of your content.
• Use a transcription app that runs in the background.
• Speak in complete sentences.
• Pause after important points, giving your audience time to absorb your message.
• Carry out a test run with colleagues and get feedback.
• Make videos of your trial runs and view them from the perspective of your audience.
• Start a YouTube channel to get feedback from others.
• Join Toastmasters – most clubs are meeting online because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Take professional public speaking classes.
• Practice, practice, and practice some more.

What You Should Not Do

Don’t be too harsh on yourself if you mumble or pause from time to time. Even the best are not perfect. In addition:
Don’t include too much textual content in the presentation because you are there to do the talking.
Don’t keep reading off the screen because your audience can do this on its own.
Don’t worry about making eye contact with people – if anything, it helps draw in your audience.
In some cases, people find giving presentations stressful because they suffer from performance anxiety. In any such scenario, seeking professional assistance would be the obvious way to go.

If you can manage to keep these pointers in mind, giving your next presentation should become considerably simpler, and you’ll also have the pleasure of leaving your audience satisfied.
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