Savira Larasati: Life as a Project Manager, The Role of Getting Things Done in a Company
Have you heard about Project Manager? This role is responsible for the success (and failure) of the company’s projects! Sounds exciting yet challenging, doesn’t it?
On one of Girls Kode’s Instagram Live Sessions, we had an insightful talk with Savira Larasati, who works as a Project Manager at Fabelio, about life as a Project Manager; the role of getting things done in a company. This article will tell you some interesting perspectives from our Instagram Live Session. Enjoy!
GirlsKode: Tell us about your role as a project manager at Fabelio
Savira: At Fabelio, a project manager is working from home, working from office, and working from the project. What does ‘work from project’ mean? As a project manager, I have to be in the location of the project that’s been running. In general, a project manager works to accompany or supervise the life cycle of a project which are: initiating, planning, execution, monitoring, and closing the project. A project manager is responsible to make sure the project is delivered under its scope, timeline, and budgeting. At Fabelio, project managers collaborate with the sales, design, and estimator teams. For my daily life as a project manager, a smartphone is a must! Project managers need to keep in touch with the clients, vendors, and teams. It is especially because Fabelio values Happy Customers. Our tagline is “a happy customer will tell 3 people, but an unsatisfied customer will tell 10 people.” For that, a project manager is being the bridge of the company to happy customers.
GirlsKode: How’s your journey from a fresh graduate to a project manager at Fabelio?
Savira: My career journey started as being in the management team of a mall in Bandung. Then, I wanted to look for a more challenging role. I had worked as a design and build consultant as well, but I couldn’t make myself in front of a computer most of the time and I wanted a role that let me work outside the office. I moved to an accommodation company. The role was similar to the project manager’s, but it was more about transforming something into something. For example, transforming furniture to fit with the company’s standard. Finally, after about 2 years working, I moved to Fabelio as a project manager.
GirlsKode: Do we need to have a background in IT, business, or else to become a project manager?
Savira: Background qualification to be a project manager depends on the project’s field or area. A project manager at least has in-depth knowledge about that area because it’ll help you to make decisions, elaborate projects, etc in running the project of that area. If the area of the project is IT, then you need to have a background in IT as well. If it’s marketing, then having a background in marketing is important. As for me, I am an architecture graduate and it’s aligned with Fabelio’s business area. Other than having a study or knowledge background that suits the business area, a project manager also at least knows a bit about the company’s business model because you’ll be making decisions around it; budgeting, planning, scheduling, etc.
GirlsKode: What makes a good project manager?
Savira: At Fabelio, the must-have hard skills for a project manager are planning, budgeting, and scheduling. To support those skills, operating excel and google sheets is an important hard skill as well. For soft skills, the first must-have skill is leadership because a project manager manages the end-to-end project; making sure the project starts and finishes. If the project manager got stuck, then the project would stop. The second important soft skill is communication (negotiating and active listening) because a project manager will face various types of people (clients, vendors, and the teams), and making sure there’s no space for ambiguity is important.
GirlsKode: How do we know that being a project manager is a suitable career for us?
Savira: At first, I was interested in becoming a project manager because I love to make things happen and have a sense of getting things done. That’s it, to become a project manager is to be able to finish something you’ve started. Excited to meet challenges and having a good grasp of networking with various types of people is a good sign to be a project manager.
This session really gives us a new perspective of becoming a (good) project manager! Go listen to the full version of this session here for the complete session! (It’s free so there’s no loss to have a sit and listen to it, right?)
Curious about more perspectives of other roles? Follow Girls Kode on Instagram (here!) and medium for more insightful topics.
Written by Laksita Laras
