Google Project Management Certificate Program by Coursera

STEP 1: Get Your Google Project Management: Professional Certificate

Introduction:

Hi! We're so excited that you're here. I'm Emilio, and I'm a Program Manager on the Responsible Innovation team here at Google, and I'd like to officially welcome you to Google's Certificate Program in Project Management.

Understanding Your Skills:

Let's start with a simple exercise. Take a moment and think about some of the different tasks that you've completed in your life. Maybe you planned your wedding or a birthday party, or you filed your annual tax returns. Maybe you moved from one state to another, or maybe you're the family member who, somehow, every year, is tasked with organizing the annual family reunion. Believe it or not, you've been developing all kinds of skills through these tasks that'll help you become a successful project manager for any organization or your own business.

The Beginning of My Journey:

Wondering how I started my own career in project management? Well, in college, I always gravitated towards things that were more hands-on and action-oriented and less theoretical. I wanted to make an impact in whichever career I took on. My first job out of college was as a Spanish and leadership teacher in Los Angeles, California. My main objective in guiding the student leadership team at the school was to identify, mobilize, and inspire the student leaders. After two years of teaching, I realized that the moments when I felt the most energized were when I was building a vision for how to get a big project done or when I was working to bring different groups together around a common goal. That's when I realized I had a lot of core project management skills, and I could focus on growing and developing them in the business world.

Embracing Project Management:

I'm grateful that I get to be here for the start of your journey. When I was first starting to think about my career, project management wasn't even on my radar. It was one of those professions that I didn't even know existed until I entered the business world and experienced how great of a need there is for folks who are organized, action-oriented, diligent, and strategic. I hope that by the end of this program, you'll be as excited as I am about the prospects of a career in project management.

What Is Project Management:

Let's get into it. We'll start with an important question. What exactly is project management? Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to meet the project requirements and achieve the desired outcome. It's possible that you've been project managing every day on some level without even knowing it.

What the Program Offers:

In this course, you'll learn how to hone those skills to become a truly great project manager. The awesome thing about project management is that it spans a lot of industries and company types, and it doesn't require deep, technical knowledge. This means that any job or life experience you've gained so far will help you in building those skills to become successful in a project management career.

The Google Certificate Program:

There are a lot of people around the world like you who are hoping to learn the skills to get a project management role. Whatever your reason for being here, we're glad you've joined us. This program is rooted in a belief that a strong foundation in project management can help anyone start a great career as a project manager. This program includes six industry-relevant courses that focus on topics like project management fundamentals; goals, objectives, and deliverables; risk management; team dynamics; project management methodologies; data-driven decision making; and more.

Hands-On Learning:

Each course is made up of personal anecdotes, reading materials, quizzes, and case studies, and you can go through the program at your own pace, skip the sections that you might already know, and review the videos again if you need a refresher. You will be doing a lot of hands-on learning. You'll build project plans and timelines. You'll learn how to manage budgets and meet the needs of the people involved in the project. You'll learn different project methodologies like Agile, Scrum, and Waterfall. You'll use tools like Kanban and learn about project management software like Asana. You also develop your soft skills, some of which you likely already have. Don't worry, even if you aren't quite sure how to tap into them yet, we'll explore which skills are transferable to a project management role.

Opportunities After Completion:

Above all, this program will help get you ready for a new job. But we're taking it one step further. When you complete this program, you'll have the opportunity to share your work with Google and other top employers aiming to hire project management professionals, and the best part is, you'll have professional work examples you can share with them to showcase what you've learned.

Hearing from Google Employees:

Along the way, you'll hear from Google employees like me. We'll share personal stories about how we became project managers and how our foundations in project management launched our careers. We'll also share what we do at work every day and give you tips for job interviews.

Meet Your Instructors:

We've got a truly amazing group of course instructors for you to learn from. Ready to meet them?