Ciara Weathers is a Senior Manager in our Atlanta office who joined Jabian during the COVID-19 pandemic. We sat down with Ciara to get her perspective on what it’s like to be new at Jabian and some advice for future new joiners.
Q: What does your role entail?
A: I’m a Senior Manager with Jabian and my focus areas are mostly in project/program management and Agile SAFe. Within project/program management, my work entails establishing process and governance and also managing projects/programs via project execution and delivery. From an agile perspective, I’ve played a part in transformations (change agent), assessments, and coaching.
During my two months with Jabian, I’ve had two roles so far (my work might vary depending on the role)- assessment lead and co-lead. With a Jabian director, I conducted an agile assessment to help the client gain a better understanding of where they are in maturity and how they can grow their Agile capabilities. My co-lead and I conducted interviews and distributed surveys to determine an Agile maturity score. Then, we analyzed the results and outlined our findings/observations. We used the findings and observations to produce a list of recommendations that will help improve the client’s Agile capabilities.
My current role, which is wrapping up in two days, is conducting a PMO assessment to help the client understand how to effectively build out and grow their PMO capabilities. We conducted 17 interviews with business and IT to uncover gaps within the current structure and process. We used those findings to create a list of improvement opportunities that will help the client improve establish and grow their PMO.
Q: What is the most rewarding part of your role?
A: Being a part of meaningful initiatives by helping the client solve major issues, being viewed as a Thought Leader by the client, and meeting and connecting with new people.
Q: Why did you choose Jabian?
A: Jabian is more strategy-focused, and I knew it would give me the opportunity to develop tactical, creative solutions for clients. Also, the firm values community outreach as much as it does client delivery and encourages individuals to align their interests and passions with the work they are doing for the firm.
Q: How has your career grown since starting at Jabian?
A: Since I’ve been at Jabian, I’ve expanded my professional network, provided valuable feedback for new and existing opportunities, and sharpened my existing skill set by working in my areas of interest.
Q: What advice would you give to someone just joining Jabian based on your own experience?
A: Be intentional about connecting with others. Make a constant effort to build relationships within and outside of the firm. It has been extremely helpful in quickly learning who’s who, what content exists, getting general feedback on deliverables, and just making authentic connections.