VERSION
CHANGING SECTOR
REPRO OP SUBS
Dave Waller meets several project
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professionals who leapt from one sector to another. Their experience was a rewarding epiphany and a valuable lesson in self-confidence
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fter seven years in the Royal Navy, working his way up to a project management role in its helicopter fleet, Jacob Cooper needed a change. He wanted to work on large-scale infrastructure projects that would directly benefit people in their day-to-day. So he moved to Network Rail, becoming a scheme project manager on major rail electrification projects. That’s when the doubts struck. In moments that will surely feel familiar to any project managers who have found themselves switching sectors, voluntarily or otherwise, Cooper feared he didn’t understand the details of this new role. This made him nervous, and it didn’t take long for him to feel worse. “In my first week, I was sat in a project workshop, and they were talking about being unable to install the catenary wire,” says Cooper. “They had to replan it, and the project was slipping. I interrupted: ‘Sorry, can you just run me through what the catenary wire is?’ They all just looked at me. It’s the wire that holds the electric wire. I didn’t even know the basics of that. I just thought: ‘What have I got myself into here?’” Claire Wood
An epiphany of sorts This may strike a chord with readers right now. With the pandemic making organisations rethink their operating
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models, the possibility of change looms larger than ever, and it’s understandable that the prospect of shifting sectors should feel daunting. But according to Cooper, and others who’ve jumped aboard the sector-shifting train, the journey is always well worth it. Indeed, it didn’t take long for Cooper to realise that his lack of sector-specific knowledge wouldn’t affect his ability to project manage: to develop and interrogate a schedule, to manage project resources or to liaise with stakeholders. “I soon realised I didn’t need to understand every aspect of how something was constructed,” he says. “I was able to use all the experienced people in the organisation to support me on the elements I didn’t understand. And my project skills meant I could ensure it was delivered within budget and to the correct time and quality. That was a really big learning for me.” He’s certainly not the only one to have had that epiphany. After seven years in the water industry, Kitty Ho was conscious she’d only ever worked in the public sector and was keen to gain experience in the faster pace of the private. She landed a programme management consultancy role in the property sector, through Faithful + Gould – despite feeling she didn’t tick all the boxes defined in the job ad.
LIAM JACKSON, ØRSTED “With the impact of COVID-19, the oil and gas company I worked for was looking to make redundancies. I was about to become a father, and I wanted to take the rest of the year off, so I offered to take mine. Then this job came up at Ørsted, the renewables company, based only six miles from my house. Renewables is a sector with a big future, and I want to do my part in reaching net-zero carbon by 2050. I took the weekend off, and started there on the Monday.
