Project Manager (General)
What Does a Professional in this Career Do?
A Project Manager manages work on projects with a defined scope, start and completion point. Leads project teams, manages project budgets and schedules; manages contractors and communications with stakeholders. May manage projects in construction, information technology or in other industries.
Job Outlook
There were 10362 Project Manager (General) job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 282362 in the United States.
In combination with other careers in the Project Manager industry, which includes the Project Manager (General) career, the following graph shows the number of people employed for each year since 2015:
Salary
Many new Project Manager (General) jobs have salaries estimated to be in the following ranges, based on the requirements and responsibilities listed in job postings from the past year.
National
The average estimated salary in the United States for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $99,923.
State
The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $97,022.
Percentiles represent the percentage that is lower than the value. For example, 25% of estimated salaries for Project Manager (General) postings in the United States in the past year were lower than $83,861.
Education and Experience
Posted Project Manager (General) jobs typically require the following level of education. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list education requirements.
| Education Level | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Associate's Degree | 4.23% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 65.45% |
| Master's Degree | 15.24% |
| Doctoral Degree | 1.38% |
| Other | 6.46% |
Posted Project Manager (General) jobs typically require the following number of years of experience. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list experience requirements.
| Years of Experience | Percentage |
|---|---|
| 0 to 2 years | 11.55% |
| 3 to 5 years | 49.81% |
| 6 to 8 years | 18.88% |
| 9+ years | 19.75% |
Skills
Below are listings of the most common general and specialized skills Project Manager (General) positions expect applicants to have as well as the most common skills that distinguish individuals from their peers. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is also listed.
Baseline Skills
A skill that is required across a broad range of occupations, including this one.
- Communication (50.02%)
- Management (46.53%)
- Leadership (34.73%)
- Planning (31.29%)
- Coordinating (22.62%)
- Operations (19.71%)
- Problem Solving (19.19%)
- Customer Service (18.31%)
- Microsoft Office (16.01%)
- Presentations (15.14%)
Defining Skills
A core skill for this occupation, it occurs frequently in job postings.
- Subcontracting (13.86%)
- Project Implementation (8.2%)
- Change Orders (9.93%)
- Project Management (96.51%)
- Microsoft Project (8.44%)
- Project Planning (13.86%)
- Milestones (Project Management) (9.6%)
- Project Scoping (10.57%)
- Construction Management (13.3%)
- Project Schedules (13.35%)
Necessary Skills
A skill that is requested frequently in this occupation but isn’t specific to it.
- Construction (20.23%)
- Marketing (8.49%)
- Business Development (6.93%)
- Risk Management (7.22%)
- Finance (7.54%)
- Change Management (9.83%)
- Procurement (10.49%)
- Agile Methodology (8.76%)
Distinguishing Skills
A skill that may distinguish a subset of the occupation.
- Project Performance (3.85%)
- Project Coordination (5.05%)
- Project Controls (2.7%)
- Systems Development Life Cycle (6.23%)
- Project Management Office (PMO) (2.28%)
- Project Closure (3.59%)
- Project Management Institute (PMI) Methodology (5.01%)
- Project Documentation (6.42%)
- Submittals (Construction) (5.09%)
- Organizational Change Management (1.88%)
- Project Stakeholders (4.2%)
- Project Sponsorship (2%)
- Project Management Software (6.51%)
- Mitigation (3.6%)
- Stakeholder Management (2.66%)
- Project Risk Management (5.68%)
- Project Management Life Cycle (2.6%)
Salary Boosting Skills
A professional who wishes to excel in this career path may consider developing the following highly valued skills. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is listed.
- Project Schedules (26.89%)
- Change Orders (20.01%)
- Organizational Change Management (3.8%)
- Project Scoping (21.3%)
- Project Controls (5.45%)
- Construction Management (26.79%)
- Microsoft Project (17%)
- Milestones (Project Management) (19.33%)
- Project Management Office (PMO) (4.59%)
- Project Management Life Cycle (5.23%)
- Systems Development Life Cycle (12.55%)
- Project Risk Management (11.44%)
- Project Closure (7.23%)
Alternative Job Titles
Sometimes employers post jobs with Project Manager (General) skills but a different job title. Some common alternative job titles include:
- Project Manager
- Environmental Project Manager
- Associate Project Manager
- Commercial Project Manager
- Infrastructure Project Manager
- Lead Project Manager
- Project Director
- Multifamily Project Manager
- IT Project Manager
- Project Management Manager
Similar Occupations
If you are interested in exploring occupations with similar skills, you may want to research the following job titles. Note that we only list occupations that have at least one corresponding NC State Online and Distance Education program.
Common Employers
Here are the employers that have posted the most Project Manager (General) jobs in the past year along with how many they have posted.
United States
- GPAC (12503)
- CDM Smith (3272)
- Randstad (2761)
- Actalent (2491)
- CyberCoders (2333)
- Black & Veatch (1620)
- Elevance Health (1479)
- CBRE (1294)
- Jacobs Engineering Group (1216)
- PageGroup (1167)
North Carolina
- Randstad (363)
- GPAC (361)
- Black & Veatch (153)
- CDM Smith (119)
- CyberCoders (103)
- TEKsystems (98)
- Actalent (88)
- University of North Carolina (86)
- Allegis Group (81)
- Siemens (61)
NC State Programs Relevant to this Career
If you are interested in preparing for a career in this field, the following NC State Online and Distance Education programs offer a great place to start!
- Biological and Agricultural Engineering Master's Degrees
- Business Sustainability Graduate Certificates
- Management, Marketing Analytics Master's Degrees
- Management, Risk and Analytics Master's Degrees
- Professional Communication and Managerial Skills Graduate Certificates
- Watershed Assessment and Restoration Graduate Certificates
All wages, job posting statistics, employment trend projections, and information about skill desirability on this page represents historical data and does not guarantee future conditions. Data is provided by and downloaded regularly from Lightcast. For more information about how Lightcast gathers data and what it represents, see Lightcast Data: Basic Overview on Lightcast's Knowledge Base website.