When I lived in Italy, I studied automotive engineering. It’s important to note that the first year is the same for everyone studying at Polytechnique, the second year also has a core curriculum and a few specialized courses, and the last year consists exclusively of specialized courses.
The favourite hobby of my Italian classmates? Teasing those who studied management engineering. Why? For us, it was like giggling at those who went to business school, scaring them with our equations. For us, they had chosen the easy major, with courses full of blabbering, not real engineering courses.
Has my opinion changed now that I have made Management my profession?
Absolutely not.
Joke’s on me even, because that’s exactly what my teams and many others think of my job today. They think I’m just treading water all day long. Are they right? I mean, my job revolves around sitting in meetings, so of course I’m going to seem useless when I’m talking or just observing all day long.
Although it is a necessary evil, because, as I once explained to a condescending manager, the difficult part of this job is precisely to keep quiet, observe, analyse, and detect. The unsaid, the oversaid, the unfulfilled, the “you didn’t see anything,” the distractions. All this for what? To subtly teach you the right ways, the right reactions, the right intentions.
People sometimes joke that I'm like a schoolteacher. I am, but for minds that are already stubborn and set in their own ways, whether good or bad. I teach students who think they already know everything and refuse to learn or even understand.
Besides, for those just starting to work as project managers, forget about these certifications requiring experience as a prerequisite. During my first few years, my imposter syndrome was so bad that I convinced myself that I needed to learn everything there was to know about the subject. Today, I am convinced that these courses did not change my approach or my knowledge in any way. Like me, your imposter syndrome may drive you to learn more and do better. In reality, these certifications are no more useful than that useless elective class we never used. We learn theories by heart and then regurgitate them. And unless you’re a genius, you’ll forget everything. Anyway, that’s why books, the internet, and AI now exist. In project management, the best way to learn anyway is to experiment, but most importantly, to fail. So try, fail, put all your passion and energy into it, and you’ll only get better.
So for those, like me, who pull the strings without anyone knowing, even though everyone already knows:
Welcome home.
For the rest of you who are curious:
Come explore new horizons.
