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Ian

I do not believe that Planning is a change if a career and moving to planning in my opinion is a maturing process and a development of a career path that should build on your current experience. 

Let me tell you a story and allow you to reflect on it:

I was running a P6 course and an air force pilot was on the course, as he was fed up with flying aircraft. He asked me how he could get on a high paying job on Oil and Gas project, I asked him what he knew about Oil and Gas projects, I think you know the answer already, nothing and he would probably not get a job on a Oil and Gas project.

I advised him that he should look at getting a  job where his experience would be valued and I advised him that he should look at looking of aj job in airfield reconstruction where his knowledge of flying regulations etc would add significant value to the project.

Regards

Paul E Harris

BSc Hons, Certified Cost Engineer, PRINCE2 Practitioner

Managing Director and President

Eastwood Harris Pty Ltd, Australia

www.eh.com.au,  www.eastwoodharris.com, www.primaskills.com.au  and www.primavera.com.au

Project Control Consultants and Planning and scheduling software book and training material publishers

Add a basic scheduling qualification and I agree 100% with David.

Pending the release of ‘The Guild’ the two certifications available are:

CIOB PTMC – see: http://www.mosaicprojects.com.au/Training-CIOB-TM_Credential.html#PTMC

And just released, the AACE Certified Scheduling Technician (CST).  http://www.aacei.org/educ/cert/certExplained.shtml

Hi Ian,

Whats career are you coming from? Do you think any of it would be applicable to planning?

Personally if i was to start my career again I would work towards the following steps:

• Complete some form of planning software training course (I sat courses on Primavera - 102 P6 Planner/Scheduler Basic and the 106P P6 Advanced Project Functions). This can show you the tools you will be expected to use as a planner as well as showing you mock up projects and situations
• Read some literature on project management. The more you understand the principles of project management, the easier it should be for you when you are in the environment.
• Start thinking about sequencing, constraints on time, solutions etc.
• After I have completed the above, I would then start thinking about employment. I would start speaking to a lot of the larger construction & production companies. This could be the most difficult step to being a planner. If you are from a trade background I think this would be looked upon in favour. If you are from a complete other world to planning then I think you may have a long journey on your hands. If you are lucky, you may be taken on as an assistant planner. Personally I would stick to this for a couple of years until I gain enough knowledge/experience to feel comfortable planning on my own or within a team.

This is just my personal opinion to starting out in the industry. Im still relatively new to planning myself (3 years planning) so what do I know? haha

Best of luck

David Craig