Analysis of the Career Path and Skills Required by Project Managers: An Energy Sector Perspective

Project managers all over the energy sector today come from very diverse backgrounds and have followed different career paths before and after taking up the role of project manager. From the investigations it is clear that there is a lack of a common skills-set framework to guide the development of project managers within the highly technical energy sector. The current skills set of project managers is quite diverse and there is a significant variation in the career progression & background. There have been a lot of cases of 'accidental project managers' appointed without consideration of required skills and competencies to run projects. Some have succeeded as project managers while some have run their projects into the ground. On the other hand, project managers coming from a pure project management domain are appointed to head projects outside their primary technical competence area, also achieving mixed results. Every organisation has had successes and failures in their projects and the project manager has been cited as a key contributor to these outcomes. Since the project manager is identified as key to the successful delivery of projects, the skills profile of the project manager becomes paramount. This paper intends to shed light on the skills, competences required by project managers in the South African energy sector to be effective, and their career paths thereof.