IT Project Manager – a dream profession or a nightmare

In the IT world, the role of an IT Project Manager is similar to that of a ship’s captain, who is expected to efficiently steer the boat on its way to its designated port, no matter how stormy it encounters or how many icebergs stand in the way, or how often the port is changed during the voyage.

On the one hand, the profession of an IT Project Manager is exciting, and many people dream of starting their adventure in this position, but on the other hand, it can quickly turn out that the daily pressure will sweep the new captain off the ship. This article will examine whether becoming an IT Project Manager is a dream come true or a recipe for a professional nightmare.

Let’s start with who an IT project manager is and what he is responsible for.

An IT Project Manager is responsible for planning, organizing, and controlling the implementation of IT projects. The scope of responsibilities may vary depending on the organization where we work, so it is worth asking during the interview about the scope of duties you will perform.

From my own experience, I can say that I have worked on projects where I was responsible not only for delivering the product but also for agreeing with the client what the project product should be, settling the progress of work with the client on an ongoing basis and issuing invoices after milestones are completed, building a methodology of work in projects with the development team, or managing maintenance work in finished products.

However, this is not a standard because I have also worked on projects where my goal was to prioritize work in many development teams to coordinate the work. The effects measurable for the client were visible as soon as possible. I did not contact the client or issue invoices.

To sum up, the scope of work of an IT Project Manager may vary depending on the size of the project or internal regulations in the company. Nevertheless, below, I will list the most common duties expected from an IT Project Manager:

• Project planning, goal setting, and dividing the project into stages;
• Managing a development team or teams;
• Create schedules and control over the budget;
• Communication with project stakeholders and reporting on the progress of work in the project;
• Risk prediction and problem management;
• Document the project and keep an eye on quality.

In IT projects, we usually involve a few to a dozen teams. Everyone specializes in a specific field, and your goal is to coordinate the work in these teams to achieve the project goal of the expected quality at the lowest possible cost. Therefore, the analogy to being a ship captain reflects well the situation of an IT Project Manager, where the project size can be compared to the size of the ship.

The larger the boat, the larger the crew, and storms and icebergs are problems in the project that may or may not occur. In addition, you have your radar on board the ship, thanks to which you should efficiently predict and avoid storms and collisions with other boats, i.e., different projects.

Advantages of working as an IT Project Manager

Financial Mount Everest

Starting with the fact that as an IT Project Manager, you will earn good, or even perfect money. The higher the seniority, the better the knowledge of project management techniques, the ability to run complex projects, and the higher the salary. As in the entire IT industry, also in this position, the salary for the work performed is handsome.

Variety like in a box of chocolates

Each project is a new adventure. Each project is a different specificity and an opportunity to learn something new from scratch. You won’t complain about boredom. In addition to the fact that each new project is a new adventure, you can always be surprised by something when running a project. No two projects are the same, and no two days are the same in a project. You will find it here if you like a challenge and don’t want boredom at work.

Continuous development of skills

Diversity and constant change require continuous development. The development of technology, the shift in customer requirements, and the change in user preferences all cause you to develop all the time, and you learn something new all the time. You are not in danger of stagnation. Quite the opposite. However, it can be tiring if you don’t like learning new things.

Influence

As an IT Project Manager, you have a tangible impact on the project’s outcome. On the one hand, it is a big responsibility. Still, on the other hand, the satisfaction of putting something needed into use cannot be overestimated in today’s world, where in many professions, people struggle with the fact that they do not influence the services provided by the company.

They do not see the effects of their work; you, as an IT Project Manager, will see the effects of your work very clearly. Some projects deliver products quickly, while others need more time. However, this product always appears, and if the design team also collects positive reviews after releasing the product to users, it gives great satisfaction.

Broad career prospects

If you find yourself in the role of an IT Project Manager, the prospects for further development are very wide. Business needs people who are excellent at managing and organizing teams’ work, delivering specific results, identifying risks, and managing difficult situations and conflicting interests. An IT Project Manager usually possesses all these qualities; the longer they work, the more competencies they acquire. Therefore, in addition to development from junior to senior, the best IT Project Managers can look forward to further promotions as project management office managers or department directors.

Shadows of the Work of an IT Project Manager

Stress is like in a minefield.

Along with the agency, the effect of the project team’s work is accompanied by stress because your decisions on how you communicate in the project and how you manage problems and risks have a tangible impact on the effects of the project team’s work. In projects, there are days when everything goes smoothly, and you will sleep peacefully, and there are days and weeks when you can’t tear yourself away from the topics in the project for a moment because everything is falling apart and burning.

In addition, when everything goes as it should in the project, many people are willing to boast about success, but when problems begin, all eyes are on the IT Project Manager. In my book “Project Coffee” I described what the life of an IT Project Manager could look like. I encourage you to read it.

Reconciling fire and water

In projects, it’s like a melting pot, where many ideas and influences clash, and the project’s product comes out of this clash. For example, a customer wants more functionality for less money and in less time. On the other hand, the project team needs more time, and the budget is always too small. The deadline for delivering the functionality passed about two weeks ago. On top of that, the CEO frowned at you because he wanted to return the product to the customer and issue an invoice for the service.

In all this, the IT Project Manager is a lens that focuses on all needs, comments, problems, and requests and must be able to deal with them. He must be able to balance what will be suitable for the project and what will be harmful to the project. He must also get a feel for what decisions he can make himself and which should be presented to the Steering Committee. One thing is sure in all this – you will never be able to make everyone happy.

Conflicts in the team, like on family holidays

Perhaps Christmas goes without emotional discussions in your family, but such heated conversations are regular in the project team. If this type of conversation does not happen in the project, it should signal that something is wrong. I know from experience that the more involved the project team is, the more heated the discussions will occur at project meetings.

You should be able to say stop at the right moment so that, on the one hand, you can be freely expressed by the project team members. Still, on the other hand, you should stop the conversation when it ceases to be substantive and start oscillating around the personal preferences and lifestyles of individual people involved in the project. It is not easy, and it is also emotionally burdening.

Continuous learning, like at school without holidays

Continuous learning is a significant advantage of working as an IT Project Manager, but it can be tiring. There is a meme circulating on the Internet where an adult man asks a friend what he didn’t like about kindergarten, where he had everything. There was fun, food, afternoon nap, friends, and to this day, he doesn’t know why he changed it. Nothing will happen in the design industry for a while if you don’t learn new things.

You will carry out similar projects, but there will come a day when you will find out with horror that no one wants to carry out such projects in which you have specialized. It’s just that technology has moved forward, customer preferences and market expectations have changed, and if you want to start working on a new project, you have to learn new things.

As a consolation, the ability to learn and adapt to new conditions in 2025 is one of the most sought-after qualities in employees. This will not change in the coming years. Of course, there are professions where changes do not occur so quickly, but the IT project manager profession is not one of them. Here, you need to quickly learn new technologies, new trends in project management, and ways to manage a team and negotiate with different stakeholders in a project.

Work-life balance like a unicorn

I’ve mentioned it before, but I’ll repeat it: the work-life balance in a project is when the project is going well. When problems arise in a project, I don’t know any IT Project Manager who can stop thinking about the project. When everything is on fire in a project, you are the firefighter on the front line of fighting the fire.

Detaching the thought of the project after working hours is tough. In addition, it seems to us that “thinking is cost-free.” I closed my laptop; I was bowling with my friends, and it didn’t work. Theoretically not, but if you think about a project in your head and process different scenarios instead of focusing on scoring points and talking to friends, I have bad news for you – you are still at work. This puts much strain on your head because from morning until late hours, you work all the time, and although it is not a physical effort but a mental one, the truth is that mental effort also costs you a lot.

I believe the ability to “mentally exit the project” after working hours is one of the most challenging skills an IT Project Manager should have. At the same time, lacking this skill is one of the most common reasons people stop working in this profession; this constant being on the project is accompanied by permanent stress. Few people can withstand such a load in the long run without compromising the efficiency of work and the peace of everyday life.

Personal predispositions – do you have the DNA of a Project Manager?

I have presented you with the pros and cons of the IT Project Manager profession; you may be wondering if you need any innate predispositions to perform this profession or if anyone can manage projects in IT. There is a specific set of qualities that will help you be an effective IT Project Manager. Fortunately, each of these skills can be learned, but the truth is that some people have a better start due to their natural predispositions.

Diplomat-like communication during a state crisis

It has been said for many years that communication is one of the most essential elements in a project. That communication often determines whether a project will be successful or a failure. I agree with this because a lack of communication is one of the most common problems in a project.

Imagine this with a simple example: you come to a restaurant, order fish, and get a hamburger. You’re upset because that’s not what you ordered; the cook is because he wasted a portion of delicious beef and has to order again. The waiter is frustrated because he has already collected unkind words from the customer and the cook. Ultimately, the restaurant owner is upset because instead of making money for the dinner served, He has a double loss because while the kitchen prepares an order for a poorly served customer, it could prepare an order for a new customer.

The IT Project Manager in this example is a waiter. He must understand well what the client expects, pass it on to the team implementing the project, and also take care of the settlement so that the owner is satisfied. Communication is the basis; nothing will work in the project without it.

An organization like a Swiss watchmaker

You must demonstrate a high ability to concentrate and have above-average self-organization, as well as the ability to manage multiple teams. Time is the most important currency, and you are one. You cannot be cloned. You need to be focused on project meetings so that no valuable information escapes you. You need to manage your time perfectly, know when to prepare a progress report, when to prepare materials for the Steering Committee, and when to take notes after the last meeting. If the project team is waiting for you, know that you are wasting the time of many people, not only your own but similarly, if you mismanage the synchronization of work across teams.

Fortunately, technology is increasingly supporting us in organizing our work. The only question is: when to learn these new things, when a deadline is approaching for a project, sometimes there is no time to make coffee. And this is an excellent question.

Resistance to stress like a sapper’s

Deadlines are coming, the budget is over, the client wants the product for yesterday, and a key programmer has just broken his arm. You must keep a cool head and a clear mind in such situations. This is the only trait that cannot be taught. You can reduce stress levels, but I don’t know if learning to stay calm in a crisis is possible.

When there is a fire in a project, the phone does not stop ringing; communicators heat up from the amount of information; the mailbox no longer accepts further messages, and you have to stand in this tornado unmoved. You can’t get carried away. You can only calculate. What decisions should be made to get the project on the right track at the lowest possible cost? Go left or right, or wait for the storm to pass?

However, one more thing is probably the most important – when the storm passes, you must tell yourself that you made the best decisions based on the available knowledge. It can often be the case that the decision you made at the time wasn’t the best one possible. Still, if you start agonizing over the fact that you could have chosen differently, it will cause you a lot of stress and emotions; it’s better to focus on what else you can do for the project instead of dwelling on what went wrong.

Leadership like a team captain

A project team needs a good leader to increase the chances of delivering a good product on time and within budget. We know that some people have something that makes crowds follow such a person. You don’t have to be followed by crowds, but it would be helpful if the project team followed.

However, it’s not the end of the world if you don’t have innate charisma. You can rely on trust and making the right decisions but know that in a crisis, the team will follow the leader they feel with their heart, not their mind. So, if you’re not the leader, make sure that the leader thinks like you and that you have a common goal.

Analytical mind like a chess player’s

Project management has a lot in common with the game of chess. In both cases, you need to rely primarily on facts. What has happened so far, what is available, and what is your knowledge and experience? Anticipating risks, planning further steps, and analyzing possible scenarios, you have to like it. You also need to be able to look at the project from a bird’s eye view to catch the bigger picture and, above all, not get emotionally attached to the project.

Threats lurking for IT Project Manager

Burnout is like a forest fire.

For many years, the term “burnout” has appeared in discussions. There are many sources of burnout, most of which are caused by a lack of agency and stress in the workplace. IT Project Manager has much agency, and you can see that your work translates into specific products delivered to customers. However, this agency is associated with much stress and a not entirely ideal balance of work and life after work.

On the other hand, you can avoid burnout if you learn to manage stress and rest after work effectively. It’s easy to say, but having agency is something that most people don’t have in their jobs, which causes frustration. You have this agency and are one step closer to a long and happy career.

Blaming Failures

It is said that there are many fathers of success, but one is always to blame for failures – IT Project Manager. I don’t know if it’s out of convenience, habit, or maybe because the IT Project Manager is everywhere and is the first contact person in the project. Practice shows that if a project fails, you will be considered guilty of this situation. I don’t know if you can do anything about it, but you must learn to assess the situation soberly.

There will undoubtedly be projects where you make the wrong decision, affecting the final result—such a job. However, despite making good decisions, having great organization, and having perfect communication, there will be projects that will not work out because they could not succeed or external factors will thwart the plans.

Regardless of the project’s failure, learn to quickly draw conclusions and focus on the following tasks and projects. Dwelling on project failures for too long only increases frustration for you and your loved ones.

“Scope creep” – like a monster from nightmares

“And could you add this one more small functionality?” – this question keeps IT Project Managers awake at night. Sometimes, I wonder if it’s better when the project is on fire or when everything is going well, and just before the product is delivered to the customer, the question mentioned at the beginning of the paragraph is asked.

There is nothing wrong with the question itself, but there is always a trap behind this question. There is no good answer to this question because either the client will be dissatisfied, the project will not arrive on time, or it will turn out that this small change costs reworking half of the system the team has been working on for the last six months.

At best, the team will deliver this one small functionality in time, quality, and deadline, but this is also not the best solution because it may turn out that it will ignite the client’s fantasies and come with more small changes, or they will find that since it was possible to add this one small change at no cost, the budget for the project was overestimated. Guess who will get hit for it?

Side effects

IT Project Manager earns well, but it comes at a cost. Long hours spent in front of the computer, stress, constant pressure, endless racing thoughts about what can go wrong in the project or what the next step should be, all this has its cost. If you don’t learn how to deal with the challenges of this profession early enough, it may harm your health. I’ve been struggling with back problems for a long time, and many friends in the industry regularly take medication to calm down. Is it worth it? You have to answer this question yourself.

5 frequently asked questions about the job of an IT Project Manager

Finally, I left a series of questions and my answers to these questions. These are the most common questions about the work of an IT Project Manager on the Internet or in debates.

How to become an IT Project Manager?

The hardest thing is to gain experience. You can try an internship, and this is the first step, and then look for junior positions or as an IT Project Manager help. To gain the necessary experience to work full-time in this profession, I had previously worked for several years on smaller projects, catching every single project I could. In addition, I was involved in projects carried out by the companies I worked for, gradually increasing my involvement in these projects.

However, there is no one way; for example, you can be a technical specialist, fill in the missing skills, and try your hand at IT Project Manager. I wrote about what you should know before becoming an IT Project Manager in the article: “From Code to Management. What you need to know before becoming a project manager.” However, this is not the only way but one of many.

In addition to experience, you will also need knowledge of project management, which you can gain even from free sources such as YouTube or various types of blogs. Then, it is worth taking a course and passing an exam in the selected project management methodology.

What skills are most in demand in an IT Project Manager?

Communication is a critical skill in this job. You can learn it, and it is worth reading a little about the ways of communication and the problems that may arise in interpersonal communication.

Leadership skills are a more innate trait, but the project team must feel that a leader leads them; then, it will be easier for individual members of the project team to focus on achieving goals in the project. To this, empathy and the ability to motivate people. Both of these features are very useful when the project gets hot.

From technical skills, you need to familiarize yourself with project management tools; this blog contains several articles about using Jira, but it is not the only tool you will have to learn. Fortunately, most tools work on the same principle, so mastering one tool at the beginning is enough.

Basic knowledge of software development methods and the ability to translate from business language to technical language and vice versa will also come in handy.

What are the typical career paths for an IT Project Manager?

In this specialization, you can develop both vertically and horizontally. The vertical path is a classic transition from Junior to Senior, but this is not the end of the possibilities. As an IT Project Manager, you can become a portfolio manager who no longer conducts individual projects but the entire portfolio of projects in a given organization.

In addition, there is also a horizontal path, where you can gain the skills needed to manage a product or become a team manager or even an IT director or CTO.

There are many development opportunities, and if you find yourself in this profession, you have enough competencies and bring much value to the company, and such people are valued in organizations.

How do you deal with stress in the work of an IT Project Manager?

Managing stress in this position is just as important as the ability to manage a project or a group of people. Learning not to think about work after work took me a long time. How do I do it? At the end of the working day, I note down all unclosed topics in the task management tool with a comment on what to do next, and thanks to this, I can free my head from the excessive rush of thoughts in the afternoons. This does not apply to emergencies, so it is impossible for me.

I relieve the stress and tension of the day at the gym by running or cycling. It’s not a universal way for everyone, but I like movement, and it helps me. Then, I can focus on physical activity instead of thinking about projects. After sitting in front of the computer for a day, movement is very advisable to get the body moving.

Blaming yourself for failures in the project. You must admit that no matter how much you want to, you cannot do the work for everyone and predict everything in the project. If you do your best and put your heart into running a project, but something goes wrong anyway, that’s what the project life looks like. You can’t help it.

What tools are most often used by an IT Project Manager?

There is no single answer to this question. Every project has a different set of tools. In principle, it depends on the project environment and the policies adopted in a given organization. I always match the tools to the project initially, not vice versa. People have their habits. Companies have their licenses for specific software. For you, the overriding goal is to achieve the goal set for the project team. Sophisticated tools will not do the job on their own. The project team must always do the work. On the other hand, a well-coordinated team can carry out work with minimal tools, so I always work with what is available and only to a convenient extent.

IT Project Manager – a dream profession or a nightmare?

I have been managing IT projects for 10 years and am not bored. Running projects is like riding a roller coaster: at the beginning of the project, it is slow; in fact, you think that everything is under control, but when the first descent starts, you already know that you only thought so.

With each project, you can experience a complete set of emotions, from euphoria to frustration and the belief that it can’t get any worse. In addition, there is a pinch of enthusiasm, hope, and anger. Every project is a new adventure.

If you find yourself in chaos, are great at managing a crisis, have an element of leadership, and want to work in an interesting profession, then the position of IT Project Manager is for you. However, remember about the shadows of this profession and prepare to deal with them before they lead you to burnout.

Please get in touch with me if you have further questions about working as an IT Project Manager. You can leave a comment on this post or find me on LinkedIn if you’d like.

7 Non-Technical Skills That Make Outstanding IT Project Managers

Programmers often joke that it is enough not to know how to program and like meetings to become a project manager. At first glance, the IT industry looks pretty technical, but this is no longer true.

Technical skills are needed when creating software, but the real advantage on the market comes from a well-coordinated project team. It’s like in football. In the past, teams won the World Cup thanks to their stars, but in 2004, the Greeks showed that you can win the Euro with a well-coordinated team without any star in the squad. This changed the way of thinking about teamwork, and now, it is more important to have a good team as a whole, not as individual stars.

IT Project Manager Salary Guide

What Awaits You at Different Stages of Your Career

The salaries of IT project managers vary significantly depending on experience, skills, and location. Globally, we can observe a clear upward trend as they develop their careers – from an entry-level Project Manager earning around $50,000-$70,000 per year in 2025 to mid-level specialists with a salary of $70,000-$100,000 to seniors exceeding the $100,000 threshold. The key differentiating factor is not only years of experience but also mastery of specific project management methodologies and the ability to balance technical and soft skills.

I invite you to read the article in which I describe what you can expect if you decide to start a career as an IT Project Manager.