Morgan Galang always wanted to lead a team. From an early age, she focused on honing her organizational and project management skills. Morgan wanted a career where she could apply her talents and drive in a fast-paced, mission-driven professional setting.
Morgan studied international studies at Indiana University, which included a term at Sciences Po Aix in Southern France. After graduating, Morgan worked as an Executive Assistant for the VP of Diagnostics Information Solutions at Roche, a global healthcare diagnostic company. While at Roche, Morgan accepted extra duties working with various department heads in the organization to “better support their teams and gain more experience,” she says.
One such project that demonstrated Morgan’s initiative involved creating an internal dashboard and form to track all sponsorship spending for medical conferences. “I supported and communicated with each team member who attended the conferences to supply them with the tools they needed to ensure all payments were completed timely,” Morgan explains.
After a successful stint at Roche, Morgan was ready to advance her career and find new opportunities. “I felt that with all of the skills I had accumulated, I was ready for an opportunity that was more challenging, faster-paced, and that pushed me,” she says. “I wanted to further my project management skills.”
From there, the logical choice for Morgan was to enroll in the online Project Management Professional Certificate program at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. “I was already familiar with the Kelley School and felt comfortable taking a course with such a highly recognized institution,” she says.
Real-World Project Management Training
Already an accomplished, experienced professional, Morgan needed a flexible, efficient, and affordable platform to cultivate her skills. The Project Management Professional Certificate, one of many certificate programs offered by the Kelley School, fit the bill.
“The course helped me understand the process and vocabulary of project management,” says Morgan. Particularly influential in her learning process was the instructors’ depth of real-world experience and their ability to communicate those insights.
“The professors had decades of combined experience and gave great examples and anecdotes of their work as project managers and consultants,” Morgan says. “They gave great lessons of how to be a successful project manager.”
A Career in Project Management
Morgan is proof of concept for what a combination of motivation and dedication to learning new skills can achieve. Her drive to create new opportunities and develop new competencies allowed her to realize her goal of career advancement in a challenging new position.
Shortly after earning her project management certificate, Morgan landed a new position as Project Coordinator for Resultant, a data analytics, technology, and digital transformation firm in Indianapolis.
“My role as a project coordinator is to support various projects with diverse scopes,” she says. “This role has already given me vast experience in supporting each team and the unique needs of each client. I truly believe the Project Management Professional Certificate helped me land my role as a Project Coordinator. This credential has given me the confidence and skill set to become a Project Manager and to make my way to be an Engagement Manager. I hope to continue building relationships and trust with clients.”
Project managers also freelance or work for consultancy firms. Salaries vary depending on the industry. According to Glassdoor, the average salary across sectors is $96,963. On the high side, PMs in the IT and technology sectors earn upwards of $158,000 annually.
Morgan stresses the breadth of opportunity for people who are “extremely organized, adaptive, and enjoy a highly motivated and fast-paced environment.”
Today, Morgan has moved from the Private Sector to the Public Sector where her true passion lies. Morgan is an IT Project Manager at Bell Techlogix, an Indianapolis based company that provides digital transformation for both Public and Private sector MSP and Infrastructure Management solutions.
Morgan contracts full time for Marion County-City of Indianapolis at the Information Solutions Agency and supports all 46 agencies. “Providing IT Project Management to the City-County gives me an opportunity to truly make a difference within my community. The work my team supports in process management and application management where we are able to provide consultative services and lead in agencies success”
Kelley School Online Project Management Professional Certificate — Live Virtual
The Kelley School built its online Project Management Professional Certificate for people like Morgan: organized, motivated, process-oriented, team leaders.
Those who complete the course recognize the core principles of the modern project management approach. They understand how the projects integrate into the structure and strategy of an enterprise.
Graduates emerge competent in initiating, planning, executing, and closing a successful project. In addition, students are well versed in at least two Project Management Institute frameworks and Scrum, an industry-standard Agile framework.
Morgan isn’t done yet. Far from it. Wherever her career takes her, she’ll have the talent, skills, work ethic, and mindset to lead the teams and projects under her charge to success.
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