Project Managers’ Competences: What Do Job Advertisements and the Academic Literature Say?

This article investigates the individual competences of project managers through a methodological approach that combines a systematic literature review and an analysis of employment opportunities. A comparative analysis of project manager’s competences from the literature and the job advertisements was done. The systematic literature review was the first stage of the research and consisted of adopting methods of bibliometrics and content analysis. The second stage included an analysis of project managers’ competences in the selection process. Thus, five Brazilian recruitment websites and the selection of employees were investigated. Through literature review, it was possible to classify and code competences in four categories (contextual, managerial, technical, and behavioral). The analysis of job advertisements allowed us to identify core competence requirements in the job descriptions and to develop a project manager profile expected by Brazilian organizations.