Many IT professionals spend years in support, NOC or incident management roles and then start to feel stuck, especially when they see project management as the next step but have no formal project title on their resume. In this Lounge Access video, Shoaib talks to someone who began in IT tech support, moved to NOC operations and then into ITSM incident management, and now wants to switch into project management by targeting roles such as project coordinator or PMO analyst.
Shoaib first explains why companies are often reluctant to hire someone from outside into a project management role if that person has no direct project experience. Even if you have five or ten years in operations, recruiters see zero years of relevant project management because they need someone who can start delivering quickly with a short learning curve. That is why he recommends starting by exploring internal opportunities within your current organization, where people already know your work and may be more willing to give you a chance to move into a project coordinator or PMO role.
At the same time, Shoaib is very clear that certifications like CAPM or PMP can only take you so far. A certification can put some weight on your resume and show that you understand project management theory and language, but job interviews will still focus on what projects you have actually run and what results you delivered. This is why he suggests looking for micro projects inside your current role, such as improving a process, fixing an inefficiency or designing a small internal change initiative, and then treating that work as a project with a clear plan and outcome.
By doing such internal projects in addition to your regular incident management duties, you start to build genuine project experience that you can describe on your resume and discuss confidently in interviews. You can show how you identified a gap, proposed a solution, planned the change, executed it and measured its impact, which is exactly the kind of story hiring managers want to hear from aspiring project managers. Shoaib also reminds viewers that Lounge Access exists for this very reason: to provide one to one guidance from someone who understands both PMP and the realities of project management careers, so you can build a transition plan that fits your situation instead of relying on generic advice.
