“We’ve created an open culture of shared experiences” – Maria Selzer discusses the peaks and pitfalls of Project Management

• At Zühlke, our Project Managers thrive in a community that encourages collaboration and learning from everyone’s mistakes.

• Whether you’ve arrived at Project Management by a traditional career path or not, there’s huge scope for development across a range of industries and clients. 

• In this blog post, one of our Lead Project Managers, Maria Selzer, explains what it takes to succeed in this role at Zühlke — and what there is to gain.

“It’s the freedom of responsibility!”

With a career spanning Scrum Master and Software Developer, Maria Selzer explains that an unconventional path is perfect for a Lead Project Manager at Zühlke. “It was a natural development,” she says. “I just had the opportunities that I did and discovered it was something I liked.”

Although her journey happened organically, it took a while for Maria to find her Project Management potential. After studying computer science at university, she became a Full Stack Software Developer, tried her hand at Requirements Engineering, and finally landed as a Project Manager at Zühlke in 2018. Now in a leadership role, she can look back and encourage others who are thinking about stepping into similar shoes.

So what makes it such a great career choice? “It’s the freedom of responsibility,” she explains. “And the culture at Zühlke encourages that.” In her current role, Maria can work across a huge variety of projects, in sectors ranging from consumer goods to transport, leading across highly-distributed teams in several countries.

Although the necessary balancing of customers and internal teams comes naturally to her, Zühlke has a system in place to help Project Managers develop, grow and try new things. It starts with spotting that same potential she had in others. “Part of my responsibility is to make sure they try things out.” This includes encouraging people working in other roles, such as Developers, to entertain something different, as well as boosting fully fledged Project Managers to take the next step up.

Cultivating a community spirit

When there’s only one Project Manager per client team, development can traditionally be hard-won. At Zühlke, however, there’s a regular exchange between Project Managers where experiences are shared and guidelines for success are put together. This is especially useful for new joiners, but everyone is encouraged to contribute their own learnings. 

“We have working groups where we pick one topic and provide what we’ve learnt to the other Project Managers,” Maria says. This time is separate from usual client work, and everyone has a coach and growth plan for the year. “This is essential,” she explains, “so that what we’ve learnt is made available to other colleagues.” This is the one thing that keeps her at Zühlke: A culture of shared experiences.

“It’s fine to make mistakes and fail, you can’t avoid it,” she underlines. “As long as you learn something from it and share it. Nothing bad will happen if you mess up and you can apply other people’s stories to your own work.”

The role of Project Management can look pretty similar everywhere you go, but it’s this culture that makes a difference. When open communication is encouraged, it gives people the freedom to try things out without fear of falling short. “I know my colleagues have my back,” Maria explains. “If something happens, I know Zühlke is standing behind me.”

Going with your gut

It would be impossible to avoid challenges when Project Managers at Zühlke can end up working in any industry. This is what makes Maria’s role often more consultative, she explains, bringing her different perspectives and sector skills to any client she works with. “Consultancy is needed in a role like mine, and it often means balancing what the customer wants you to do with your own experience.”

This also means working across different software development methodologies and having a grasp of the detail in the project, which makes a software background a big bonus. “It helps to be able to follow all the technical discussions,” she says, “but if you’ve got blindspots, this is something you can learn, so don’t be afraid of them.”

So what’s essential for a Project Manager that’s difficult to teach? “Empathy and gut feeling,” Maria says. “You have to make decisions pretty fast based on information from different people with different agendas. A bit of common sense helps here, too.” Good communication is also a key pillar of Project Management, and helps when you’ve got people with conflicting goals, she explains. “You have to be the one to make the decisions.”

A ‘just do it’ mentality

This isn’t always an easy task when you’re working across a huge variety of clients, so it’s helpful to have another pair of ears, Maria explains. “Getting another opinion is invaluable, and that’s why the Zühlke culture works.”

It’s this willingness to learn that sets Zühlke’s teams apart. “And motivation really counts,” Maria says, “You can improve soft skills, but you have to love working in a team because there’s such a big reach in the projects we do.”

And what’s the one piece of advice Maria would give to an aspiring Project Manager? “I would say just go for it. Try it out, there’s nothing to lose — and enjoy the Zühlke culture while you’re at it.