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Comment by cjf4 | Hacker News Reader

Depends on the quality and style of the PM, but a good one is worth their wait in gold. By coordinating the meetings, managing the dates, and keeping everyone accountable, it takes those burdens off other team members, letting them focus on the work.

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I hate to say it, but the litmus tests seems to be, "Do they have a PMP?"

If the answer is yes, run away fast, you're in danger of being crushed under a mountain of paperwork.

If the answer is no, I guess the answer isn't so clear cut, but I have definitely worked with ones who are worth more than their weight in gold.

The good ones, in an organization with any sense at all, keep you from having to answer "when will it be done" and "why isn't it done yet" questions from non-team-members, which is wonderful. Those questions will come up, and if ICs are answering them to anyone outside their own team then your (the general "your") process likely sucks and is slowing everything down and making everyone miserable.

Yeah, I was being somewhat facetious. There certainly is a difference in the way that scientists and people in industry work. I think that folks that have crossed over from Science to industry experience a level of culture shock regarding the way work is done.

They can both learn from each other, but having been in industry for a while, I feel like in too many places there's a soul crushing amount of project-management busy work. And I've heard my friends in academia complain about a lack of "project management" leading to a nightmarish amount of loose-ends and things never actually being "finished".

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Though maybe "wait" is appropriate for a thread on time management?

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