Job Description

[catesta]

A friend of mine is interviewing for a job with a major insurance company.

She has asked some advice from me about how she might want to prepare, but I honsetly have to say I don't really understand the job.

Here is the job description she emailed me....

We are currently seeking a Project Manager with strong ability to partner with, Real-Estate, Fulfillment and Records Management business units to strategically drive the overall IT portfolio and key business initiatives.

Principal Responsibilities:

- planning, negotiation, development, installation, testing, and maintenance of high-quality, effective technology applications.

- Primary project liason between multiple partners and clients to include Business, Operations, IT and vendors.

- Interacting with business partners, vendors and technical staff to determine requirements to evaluate, design, develop and implement applications solutions.

- Management of customer requirements and requests throughout an entire project lifecycle. -

- follow the project management methodology

Provide operational support for maintenance activity, vendor management activity and regulatory compliance.

Required Competencies:

- strong planning, coordination, people management, communication skills.

-Knowledge of Document Management, Fulfillment processing, Real Estate management and Auditing is a plus.

- Must possess excellent organization, presentation, and communication skills.

- Vendor Management experience for the hosted applications.

- Knowledge of Microsoft Office, Visio, Project, PowerPoint

- Analysis and Decision Making: Utilize analytical skills and sound judgment to evaluate

- Problems and opportunities in an organized, logical manner.

- Performance Management and development planning .

- Customer Focus: Develop and maintain effective partnerships, solicit feedback with key

individuals and customer contacts in order to understand and anticipate their needs, the

business environment, other challenges and opportunities.

- Project Management: Effectively plan, organize, and execute projects of varying complexity,

delivering them within specified timeframes and budgets, utilizing the accepted project

management methodology and supportive tools, such as: (MS Project, MS Office Suite). Actively

involve customers in project activities to ensure business objectives are being met.

-Budget experience : Project forecasting, Budgeting, and Varianace analysis

Now the budget and business management stuff I can deal with. The IT thing however is another matter...

So what job does this sound like?

[maren]

Sounds to me like the IT part of job is to coordinate between in-house IT and external IT vendors, as well as the divisions within the company that require IT applications. Basically someone to:

* poke IT when they snooze

* keep track of all the purchase requisitions

* organize planning meetings, take copious notes, keep good records, and make sure everyone's delivering what they promised on time

I don't see where the person has to BE an IT person. Just computer-literate, and savvy enough to understand what various project needs are.

The various department needs could be -- designing databases, and insurance forms (web-based? paper? telephone entry? probably all of the above) that interface seamlessly with the databases, making sure the database design anticipates all the queries that the department will need to run on the database -- that's one of the kinds of projects I could envision. Seems like the position your friend is applying for would be to make sure the department's needs are met by inhouse/external IT.

(Did I just repeat myself?)

Anyway, that's what it sounds like to me -- and she should emphasize any experience she has in planning, coordinating meetings, overseeing any kind of project with a budget and timetable, any administrative experience.

[catesta]

Thank you, Maren.

That helps a bunch. Since you've met the requesting party I will pass the message on to her and give you credit just as if you had bought the "big salad".

[maren]

Thank you, Maren.

That helps a bunch. Since you've met the requesting party I will pass the message on to her and give you credit just as if you had bought the "big salad".

And good luck to K.!