spottydog

Having finally heard today that I passed my Prince2 Practitioner exam (13 week wait for the results which wasn't too bad after going through the visa process) a friend has suggested that the ITIL Foundation exam may also be of use.

It appears I can probably study for this using a book in my spare time but I was just wondering whether it is useful to have in Australia (I'm heading for Sydney).

Otherwise is there any other qualifications that it would be worthwhile doing (without needing to take time off work) to improve my employability in Sydney whilst waiting for the house sale to go through. I have a Maths BSc, IT MSc, ISEB Project & Programme Office Foundation and now the Prince 2 Practitioner qualifications plus 6 years Project Office Management and a couple of years project management work experience.

Thanks

Anne

BobbyDazzler

Congratulations on passing PRINCE2

I have it on good authority from a colleague who moved to Sydney initally on secondment but now being sponsored for permanent residency visas that ITIL Foundation (Green badge) is well worth having but it's the Service Managers qualification (Red badge) which is the one that'll earn you the $$$$'s

Unfortunately you have to get your green badge before you can get the red one.

I'd thoroughly recommend attending a proper course to study for your ITIL foundation though (if you can afford to) as this will lay the basics for the Managers certificate. Take a look at xpertise. Well recommended although my employer paid for this for me.

In addition, BS15000 knowledge and experience (especially from an auditing perspective) is going to be extremely useful

Checkout the BSI Global website for BS15000 training opportunities and also register with the itsmf (if not already registered)

Best of luck with it all. Hope to join you out there!

Cheers

BD

bainser

I actually just completed the ITIL foundation course this week, was very useful and a good course. The exam itself isn't too tricky, a lot of it has to do with understanding English. The questions are similar to MCSE questions in that there can sometimes be 2 answers that appear to be the same but one is more right than the other!

Anyway, whilst on the course the guy said the company are getting a lot of interest to do some consulting in Oz, it seems there is a big push down there to adopt it. The course was very intensive and I would definately say to try and get on it rather than learning from a book. I know there is also a one day overview course available that might be useful.

wongstonn

Hi

I recently started work in Melbourne as a IT project manager. Like you, I am Prince2 practitioner. Down here, adverts will generally state one of the following:

1. 'A formal project manager qualification'
2. Prince2
3. PMI/PMBOK

So given that you have Prince2 you really have done enough IMO. Personally, I have never heard of ITIL so cannot comment. I do not recall seeing the term in ads, though I suppose I could easily be proved wrong.

As in the UK, Australian government jobs require Prince2 as a must.

If you want, I can have a look on my companies Intranet to see what is available, as it had been recruiting PM recently in Melbourne. PM me some more specific details is you are interested.

Neil

BobbyDazzler

ITIL stands for the IT Infrastructure Library and is a framework or suggested best-practice for the management of delivery of IT services in the same way that PRINCE2 is a framework for the delivery of projects

I'm ITIL (green badge) and PRINCE2 (foundation) qualified having been working in Project Control/Management and IT Service Management in a Governmental environment for a global IT service provider for the past few years. Prior to that I worked as an accountant for 14 years.

I plan to complete PRINCE2 practitioner and hopefully ITIL Service Manager (red badge) over the next year, hopefully before our visas are granted

Although my company has offices all over Australia, the chances of securing a sponsored secondment are slim at best

My wish is to carry on working in the Project Management arena but I suspect that given my change of career and comparatively small amount of time (2 years) in this arena, despite having managed and delivered projects to the tune of tens and in some cases hundreds of millions of £'s, I'd imagine that my CV will be discarded to the bin and I'd have to settle for a landscape gardening job, which although far from being the end of the world, is not the thing that I am best at!

Good luck to you all with your PM careers

Regards

BD

spottydog

Thanks to everyone for their replies, I think I'll get the ITIL book and have a look through it (unfortunately a course isn't an option as I can't really take any more time off work plus I'd have to pay for it myself and I don't think I can justify that at present after the cost of the Prince2 course). More knowledge can only help and it will give me something to do when the PSP amusement has worn off a bit .

BD I would think about doing the Prince2 practitioner sooner rather than later as the results are taking longer and longer to come through (I had to wait 13 weeks for mine and at the time I took the exam they were saying that they were short of markers and it would take up to 10 weeks to get the results rather than the 8 it used to be) plus I'm not sure how long I'll have to wait for the certificate.


Thanks for the offer Neil but we have definitely decided to go to Sydney rather than Melbourne (unless you have an office in Sydney to in which case I'd be interested particularly in Project Office Management Roles as that is what I've been doing for the last 6 years and there seems to be a lot less PMO roles around) and I'm not sure exactly when we are going to get there as we're still waiting for the house sale to go through.

Dmartyos

This is something Im very interested in also - just highjakacking the thread so that it shows up as saved for future reference.

I also have done project management in degree form however not Prince 2.

I hope to continue course in PM in the future (will hopefully be based in sydney) - and get a respectable role.

Looks like early 2006 Ill be on the job market in Australia, well sydney anyway

Cheers for the info guys Marty

BobbyDazzler

There is an excellent book which covers the basics of PM and gives you an insight into PMP and PRINCE2 fundamentals entitled "Project Management Jump Start". It's published by Sybex and the ISBN number is 0-7821-4214-1

This book was recommended to me as I sought to carve out a career in PM and I would recommend it to anyone

I'm not sure what you covered as part of your degree but considering the relatively low cost of this book it would do you no harm to buy it. (I do not work for Sybex by the way)

Anyway, just a bit of friendly advice.

Cheers

BD