What Happens when Project Management Choses You

Some people find project management, but every once in a while, you meet someone whose career reminds you of something different: that sometimes the profession finds you first.

That’s how it felt sitting down with Margareth Fabíola S. Carneiro, PhD, one of PMI’s newest PMI Fellows and one of the architects behind the growth of project management across Brazil.

Starting out in business analysis and discovering project management, she did not set out to become a global leader in the field, but after discovering PMI that’s exactly how her involvement in the profession turned out.

When the Profession Finds You

What followed was 26 years of volunteer leadership and professional engagement that expanded beyond her local community to the national level and the international stage.

Chapter building, community building, standards adoption, and PMO creation were all part and parcel of the various ways that she engaged and led in the field.

When she walked onto the PMI Summit stage to receive the Fellow Award, it wasn’t simply recognition, it was the moment all those years snapped into view. She said it’s a story she’ll tell her grandkids.

Building a Profession Before the Profession Was Ready

What impressed me most was remembering what the world looked like when she began. No PMBOK Guide in Portuguese, limited understanding of what a methodology was, executives who were not aware of project management, and a challenge in explaining how all of it was relevant to the government sector.

None of these challenges stopped her because she saw and experienced the value. She was focused on sharing to help organizations and governments improve. She helped launch the early PMI chapters in Brazil, introduced structured project practices to public agencies that had never seen them before, and led PMOs across government environments where adoption is notoriously difficult.

Her determination convinced leaders that governance wasn’t bureaucracy, it was clarity.

The profession didn’t expand in Brazil by magic, it expanded because people like Margareth put door to door effort behind an idea they believed in.

This is what happens when project management chooses you: You don’t just practice it, you grow it.

A Bridge Between PMI and Agile Before It Was Trendy

One of the most unique parts of her story is her role in bridging PMI and Agile Alliance, not as a talking point, but through real partnership. Agile and PMI aren’t competing disciplines or languages, they’re variations of the same pursuit: delivering change that works.

Instead of choosing sides, she chose context and collaboration to help bring together organizations based on trust.

The Future She Sees

Margareth is optimistic and also honest about the future. AI is already reshaping delivery cycles. Teams can build working prototypes in days using tools that barely existed two years ago. Frameworks will need to evolve and methods to develop further. Practitioners need to accelerate delivery leveraging these capabilities.

Her advice is to anchor yourself with adaptability. That way your ability to learn, unlearn, and relearn becomes continuous.

For Anyone Entering the Profession…

I asked her what she’d tell someone who wants to start a career in project management.

She didn’t hesitate:

* Build your foundation, don’t skip the fundamentals.

* Get certified, not for the letters, but for the discipline.

* Get real experience, shadow, volunteer, experiment.

* Develop people skills, influence, communication, empathy.

* Be proud of the work, because projects shape the world.

If project management has chosen you — treat that as a privilege.

🎧 Watch/Listen to the Full Episode

If you want to understand not just how a profession grows, but who grows it, this conversation is worth your time. Margareth’s story is a reminder of something we sometimes forget:

Project management isn’t just a job, it’s a contribution that leaves a mark long after the project is done.

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