Working Up To Project Management: How Crushing Rocks At The Asphalt Plant Prepared Me For Government Work

To do a job well, you need the right tools for the job, as any skilled tradesperson will tell you.

Project managers, however, do not have a standard set of tools. In fact, sometimes they have to make their own.

In Working Up to Project Management, Dwayne Phillips describes the tools and techniques he first encountered as a laborer at an asphalt plant, working summers during college. These lessons guided him as he went on to a successful career as a systems developer, IT manager, consultant, and author.

From a unique synthesis of two work environments -- an asphalt plant and a white-collar office building -- Phillips helps managers develop tools from their environments and construct a management approach that works.

Topics include:

* matching tools to environments
* learning through experience
* working with and through people
* chance -- and risk -- at work
* and much more

Insights From the Book:

In this book, I attempt to pass along life-lessons I learned from working at the asphalt plant. If you remember little else from this book, I hope it will be the following chief lessons:

1. I can learn something anywhere.
2. I can learn something from anyone.

I hope these remain true for me, for the remainder of my life, and I hope you can apply them as well.

--from the Introduction

Dwayne Phillips has worked as a software and systems engineer with the United States government since 1980. He has had the privilege of working with some of the finest engineers and scientists in the country, both in and out of government.

He has a Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from Louisiana State University. Residing in Reston, Virginia, with his wife, Karen, his three sons, and a new daughter-in-law, he enjoys playing jazz and blues guitar, and is proud to claim Sweetwater, Louisiana, as his place of origin (don't look, you won't find it).