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IS IT TOO LATE FOR ME TO MAKE A COME BACK?

7 replies [Last post]
Wed, 2007-10-31 11:40
Galing Galing
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Joined: 29 Oct 2007
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Dear Fellow Engineers,

I have a BSME degree with 10+years Schedule/Cost Engineer experience ie. construction, power plants, nuclear, etc.
But that was in the 1980’s. Since then I went to my own business in Sales (not related to engineering) and now retired from it. With my 3 daughters soon going to college! I need to come out of retirement. (NO MORE SALES) I Want To Be Back In "Planning and Scheduling Engineering" Career! My first thought is to get certified in Project Planning Software Programs (to catch up with current tools of the trade - technology).... IS IT TOO LATE FOR ME TO MAKE A COME BACK?

PLEASE HELP ME, with your comments, thoughts, advise, and any response to my situation.

Sincerely,
Tony
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Replies

Wed, 2007-11-14 04:57
#1
Brad Lord
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tony

nothing will have changed in the upteen yrs you have not been doing project controls, people will still bullshit you, try to pull the wool over your eyes, yeah planning tools have changed and some ways of doing things, but the fundementals of planning/project controls have not,

good luck

regards

brad
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Wed, 2007-11-14 04:56
#2
Charleston-Joseph...
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Joined: 10 Jul 2005
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Tony,

What I’m refering to cover up from colleagues are????

naive question
basic planning question

If you can find the answers better for you, meaning that you will not be vulnerable.

Remember your colleagues are competitor also

plays it smart.

Ask here in PP and you will have 20,000++ planners willing to share ideas and solutions.

Cheers
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Wed, 2007-11-14 04:50
#3
Charleston-Joseph...
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Tony,

Believe in your person.

Whenever, Whatever you will encounter difficiency or difficulty, just cover it up secretly from your colleagues by reading lots of books, post here in PP.

I can share you some effective excel progress s-curve, powerpoint presentation, fundametal of project control: very simple THIS RELATES TO TRACKING PROJECT ACTIVITIES, then what: CORRECTIVE ACTIONS.

Sell whatever ideas you have to the project manager or project team.

The rest will follows.

If you got stuck up, just let PP know or let me know.

I’ll be there to help you.

Cheers
Sensei
Successful Project Management Consultant
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Tue, 2007-11-13 10:31
#4
Galing Galing
User offline. Last seen 16 years 2 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 29 Oct 2007
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Hi Charleston,
Thanks for your opinion. You hit my line of thinking when I first contemplated of returning to our industry. That, and the fact that there is a long term shortage of project control professionals in our industry. Yes, I remember back when as Project Control Engineer, collecting accurate actual progress, facts ’excuses’ on delayed activities and revising ‘realistic’ target completion dates were easily perceived as adversarial by the inter disciplinary departments (ie. engineering, purchasing, construction, shop fabrication, traffic/warehousing etc…) unless sales talk and presentation in the execution of these tasks were successfully sold to these different specialists!
I intend to apply myself efficiently by utilizing all my experience to the fullest!
Cheers,
Tony P.
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Tue, 2007-11-13 09:06
#5
Charleston-Joseph...
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Joined: 10 Jul 2005
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Dear Antonio,

It is never too late for you to make a come back.

Your sales experience gives you a lot of advantage compared to wanabees, newbees, junior planner or even senior planner.

The fundamental of planning is communicating the plans and this need a lot of sales talk, presentation, etc. In addition, planning engineers should be people oriented due to the complexity of projects wherein planning engineers must get the most ideas from different specialist.

I think you will succeed where others failed in the delivery of plans, schedule, programs due to your sales experience.

What you need is to believe that you can do it and of course, prayer to the Almighty that all your needs may realize.

Cheers,
Sensei
Successful Project Management Consultant
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Sun, 2007-11-11 11:17
#6
Galing Galing
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Raphael M,
thanks for the input.
tony
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Sat, 2007-11-10 02:49
#7
Raphael M. Dua
User offline. Last seen 2 years 28 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 20 Jan 2001
Posts: 136
Groups: Accreditation Editors, Board of Advisors, Civil Engineering, GPCCAR Editors, Petro-Chem / Oil & Gas
Antonio

With that amount of experience I think you would be very welcome in half the world
Any half decent Planner and Scheduler is currently flat strap and making a mint.
The software by the way hasn’t chnaged all that much. In the main it is now web based, but the basics of Critical Path haven’t changed since the day they were invented
So go for it

I am still going after 52 years. You are never too old
Experience never dates .... !!
Raf
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