Tales of the project manager

Project in Novosibirsk

We have now opened a set of project managers for various engineering tasks. Very often trainees ask what it is like to grow from a freelance "administrator on the road" to the deputy director of a department. I will tell. Immediately I warn you: the romance is not very much further, but it is very even tin and dull repetitive work.

In 2006, my colleague Alexei, my former head of the group (he is now a project manager with us), approached me, a fifth-year student, and said:
- Do you want to earn money?
I worked from the second year and earned 300-400 rubles a day. The following phrase just struck me:
- There is such a croc. Computers are engaged. Payment is not the highest, 1000 rubles per day. But the work is interesting. I already tried paying on time.
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I immediately imagined how much buckwheat, potatoes and pasta I will have at the end of the month, and decided that I should not miss the chance.

The first few months I worked enikem. The Office of the Peace Judges in the city of Moscow at that moment ordered an update of its systems, and it was necessary to travel to the polling stations, install automated workplaces and connect equipment, such as printers. You come with a wire and a CD-ROM-disk, you drive in everything, you launch it. The work of the courier, in fact. On the day, there were either 3-4 plots in different places of the city, or up to 15 where they are located nearby.

I did this in my undergraduate practice. Money, as it seemed at the time, was space. When at the end of the month I received 24 thousand rubles, the feeling was that the world was at my feet.

In this mode, I worked in February and March, after which the nature of the work changed. On sites of judges of the world began to introduce our software - this is the automation of judicial proceedings. Sasha taught me (he has since gone to IT medicine at CROC), I learned how to install this software and support it.

A couple of weeks later, the first collapse happened. I did not understand the project analysis and other things then, they just gave me the task - I was driving. On that day, it turned out that we had to urgently go to Yakutsk. I went with Yura-analyst (he is also still my colleague). I remember I arrived at the airport 3 hours before check-in - yet my first trip. Yura arrived 15 minutes before landing, and for a long time was surprised that I was standing so much at the airport.

Then it turned out that in Yakutsk a little colder. And I did not think and came in a turtleneck. The bus was windowless, chilled out wildest. I got acquainted with how Muscovites are bred: a taxi ride from the airport to the city cost 300 rubles, and back 100, when they did not know which flight we were from. I was still poisoned by a pie there, but with a grief in half I did the introduction.

A year later, I arrived in a jacket

Yura found out that nothing bothers me to drive: there is no family, the student, it seems he is even dragged from traveling. Started trips. For the first two years, I visited almost every city in the central part of Russia with a population of more than 50 thousand people. Not only in the southern republics and the Far East.

It was necessary to graduate and get into the state. He graduated (with difficulty, the diploma was finished writing in a wild rush), came to KROK. Project manager Ksenia took me to her team. And after a while she was a manager with me on large projects. Sasha and Lesha also worked together later.

I was on staff! It was atas. He worked in a large company, felt like a horse. Financial opportunities expanded. I traveled a lot - I liked it wildly, I skated with great pleasure. Then I lived with my parents. You come on Saturday from Blagoveshchensk, on Sunday at 12 - already to the airport in Samara.

There were courts and network companies - for example, I had a week-long business trip to Omsk, from there to Novosib, then to Kemerovo, after to Abakan, and from there to Krasnoyarsk. I remember there was such a night bus from Kemerovo to Abakan. I buy a ticket, I ask the aunt at the ticket office: “Where is the bus itself?” She said: “So there he is, he leaves, my dear.” I had to run for the bus.

Then the court accounts continued - I was an implementation consultant. Two months lived in Samara, it was just the wildest snowfall, when nothing flew or drove. Drifts under two meters. I still managed to fly away, but the guys from the team, who were supposed to fly the next plane, were stuck for a week.

Climbed to different places

Closed the project - has grown, has become a leading consultant. Already could work in the office, while my staff went to the fields.

And then it was all over. In 2009, it was decided that we do not participate in a major tender for software for the judicial system. But this was my profile, and I understood very well all their desires, infrastructure features and software of the courts.

I just walked around the office lost and did nothing. Everywhere they needed implementation consultants with knowledge of something. And I did not know anything except the courts. I wasn't attracted to projects. I then came to my resource Ilya (he was the resource manager for implementers). I say: I do not want to quit, I like the work, the approaches, the relationship. I want, I say, to go to Igor (director of IT department), I say, I want to be a project manager. Ilya says: "You go, of course, but there is no need."

I went. I go - Igor says on the phone. I am sitting. I sit for 5 minutes, 15 minutes ... I think: maybe I should come in later? And the decision to talk on an important topic is hard, not with a kondachka. Decided to stay. He put the phone down after another 10 minutes and said kindly:
- Why did you come?
- Igor, I want to be a project manager.
- And why is it so decided at all?
And then I began to carry wild nonsense:
- Well, I want to develop professionally ...
He listened and asked:
- And the objective reasons? What do you want something? There is no project.
I continue in the voice of a sad elephant from a cartoon:
- I want responsibility, I have a specialized education.
And he smiles. And I think: a very cool situation. Offended a bit. But we have since maintained a good relationship.
“Okay,” he says, “go, I'll think about it.”
After 2 days on Monday evening, a letter arrives: Alexey, a manager’s assistant to arbitration, come here. Again, I began to work with judicial issues, but on the other hand, because arbitration and general jurisdiction are generally different. The task was to build a court from scratch. I was less involved in managerial work in the understanding of CRIC - I did what Lesch did not have time.

In this project I swallowed hard with the builders. There was a supply of UPS: 4 boxes the size of a little larger than the boxes of refrigerators. Weighed a ton each, of course, terribly expensive. They were brought and put on trial in the evening, in the rain. Knee-deep in the mud at 7 pm went to look for at least someone. Found an Armenian on the crane "Ivanovets". Began to negotiate with him, so he raised all four boxes on the ramp of the second floor. He: "At 4,000 per box." We finally agreed on 9 for everything. He picked up three boxes and says: “I’m out of my shift, come on tomorrow.” As a result, the amount increased to 15 back - I had the misfortune to explain the cost of such a box.

It must be said that all these precautions were because of the inclination level sensors. Looks like such a Chinese watch. During the night they were all stolen. In the morning I come - not one on the boxes.

While they were looking for sensors, they immediately stole Tsisk for 400 thousand rubles, and it was impossible to sell it anywhere. This LAN core was supposed to be. Actually, I then brought the nix to the point where the general contractor began to drive me out of this building. There was a wildest scandal, but in the end we were allocated a gym for equipment storage. Provided security.

I was not allowed to go to the construction site for some time, since I went everywhere and wrote comments. Only when the court (the customer) gave the paper that I should be allowed in, they believed. The project was closed with losses (anyway, a couple of components were stolen), but as it turned out, on the whole, it was normal.

Then I got a difficult project. The implementation of two subsystems in arbitration - video surveillance and access control. I understood little in numbers then, it was hard to manage. We had to communicate with the Far East, get up at half past three in the morning. I finished the project. As a result, the director of the account gave me a good review. It was extremely unexpected: if he praises someone, this is a serious indicator that fire and water have been passed.

After that, I moved from an assistant to full-fledged project managers. I was transferred to small activities - it reached 22 simultaneous projects. During this time, well acquainted with the whole company. He worked with the main directors of accounts, established contacts with accounting and lawyers - all approvals have become easier.

At first it was hard to carry out several projects at once. I once called the Far East - we worked there one by one with Microsoft. He demanded that they finally transfer the acts of completed work, which they could not do for half a year. Svetlana on the other side quickly put me in my place: we have with you, she says, work for another six weeks. I just confused the phones - I had to call another Light and another customer in general.

My colleague and friend Andrei did many small projects for one of the courts of the subject of the Russian Federation. Everything is so small and fractional, but then I was able to win the tender for technical support of the courts for 2 months (November and December). Before the contest came - let's work together. Says: "I want to become an account director, I need a manager." At first I refused - I didn’t want to work together with my friends, but after 2-3 weeks I agreed to help, but temporarily, provided that at the same time he would look for a new person. We decided that if we won the competition for these 2 months, we would run. Made. Then we won the contract for the next year. And then for another year - they took the contract to another company, knowing the specifics. So I returned to the courts again. Then we learned that the World Bank announced a major competition and our specifics, what we ate the dog for. At this moment, one of the largest accounts, Tatiana, connected to our activities (it was with her that I began my journey at CROC, only in 2008 I communicated with her little, because I was a simple implementer, and she was already a very big director). This competition we won. It was a space, scary, as much horror. Delivery and work for a decent amount. This is a project to automate more than 35 vessels. The project - the most ambitious in my practice - with the introduction of 12 subsystems, including the creation of a single data center and integration with 12 state agencies in Moscow.

I worked on it for a very long time. Only the competition was played for about a year.

In November 2016, the CEO suggested that I change the department. A couple of iterations of discussions - and I agreed. In general, now I am the deputy director of the CRIC Intelligent Buildings Department.

For six weeks I have been working in the department, my direct responsibilities include project accounting and management, work with managers. That everything was in the black. Work with internal quality monitoring and accounting services.

Here is a story. By the way, I don't have a profile IT education. True, during his time at CROC, he took many different courses. He graduated from our Krokovsky MBA. We also trained outside people from Beeline, Transneft, etc. At that time, I was one of the first to go on the MBA inside. I also wanted to get PMI, but did not have time to combine it with work. Then PMbook was in the third edition (now the fifth), took it. And then a colleague tells me: “Well, what will you find there, what else did you not have at KROK?” Then I realized that we were already walking along the PMbook, only with Russian specifics.

Now I sit in the office, I remember a lot of things from the business of traveling. I remember in Krasnoyarsk there was a hotel “Ogni Yenisei” (since then it has changed a lot). I walked around the city, towards my grandmother. I ask: “Grandma, where is the hotel?” She: “Milok, do you see this plant? This is a hotel. ” And there is a hangar. Slept in clothes because it's cold. There were no baseboards in the room, and the edges of the linoleum were 40 centimeters on the walls. Vata stuck out of the walls. Or there were hotels where, on the contrary, you stop by, and your booking has already been removed. Sometimes you had to pay for a suite, because he is the only one free. For example, in Krasnoyarsk, he lived in Yakhonte. He came, fell on the sofa, fell asleep. On the third day I found out that there were more rooms in the room. I lived in the hallway, and there was still a study, bedroom, kitchen, plus two bathrooms.

So we rested in the evenings

Now I sit as an owl alone in the office. I recently monitored the staff of the new department and began to get acquainted. Everyone wanted to meet and talk, to offer some new topics. It became cool again.

Generally, without work is difficult. I know on holidays. You haven't been working for two weeks - the driving gears are already missing. As a result, when we go somewhere on vacation with my wife and child, on the fifth day they start to climb the wall of the number of excursions and ask: "Come on, please, just lie down on the beach, rest." And I can not. On the other hand, on many projects the schedule is really complicated - sometimes you have to sit until half past one (either because of the amount of work or because of the difference in time zones). Therefore, please note: if you come to us now, nothing much has changed. All the same cheerful and fun.

And yes, I was congratulated here during the week with a decade at Croc.

Tales of the project manager

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