whats you typical day in your trade

Hi Jesse! I am an IT Program Manager in Supply Chain with Cisco, my typical day looks like this:

• I'll start my day with emails and planning the day. Being organized I think is key to my job. Staying on top of emails and planning my day is critical and it really is easier said than done when you have so much demand on your time :) It took me years to master, it is a survival skill for most, especially Program Managers!
• Typically my mornings are made up of meetings with the project teams I am working with. As Keri mentions usually our projects and programs exist to solve a business problem and for us it is about solving these problems with technology alongside a new or updated process that users will need to follow and also training our users too - these three things are always included somehow in our solutions. It is a great blend of technology and business. At Cisco you need to really know your technology, processes, and people to really add value, consult on problem and help a team through brain storming and keep everyone on track; it can get very technical and complex but this is why we are there to help work through this!
• My afternoons are typically working on creating things and / or training and self development. Training and self development are critical to keep challenging your self and keep top of your game like most jobs but Cisco really is good at this and supports this mindset! When I say working on creating things I am usually creating or updating scope documents that define what the program is going and alongside this identifying risks and issues and thinking how we are going to resolve these by reaching out to various people for input and help. I create and update project plans too - a lot or just review what other team members are doing, like design documents and technical specifications.

For me I need to talk and communicate *a lot* in my role every day; I need to be a good listener and be able to learn things quickly to help run the program team and help guide them to fix/solve our problem in the best way. You are responsible for a lot. If it goes wrong you are often the one accountable. The reason I picked this career was it needed to be technical (and I love technology) but you also needed to know broadly how businesses operate and their processes, as well as how people work and think. There are few roles that demand this broad range of skill and each program is different so will challenge you in different ways you never thought of.

I hope this helps given an insight!

I'm a project manager where my role is bringing together people to identify a plan of actions to solve a particular business problem. After the initial plan is put together, I'm following up on the execution of the plan's activities. A typical day includes attending meetings to contribute to a variety of topics - brainstorming with others on how to solve a problem, understanding what activities have been completed and where people need help, meeting with various leaders to raise decisions that need to be made in order to resolve roadblocks. In addition to meetings on "running the business", I also participate in meetings to discuss how we roll out a mentorship program and attend a seminar one of my co-workers is delivering on tips for professional development and networking. I'm constantly learning!