r/PMCareers

Hi, I’m 27 and looking to complete APM PMQ to further my career as it seems to be the basic requirement to have to even get junior roles in PM. I can’t afford classes, so I was just thinking of buying the books and studying myself - is this a realistic and achievable thing to do? Any tips/advice would be highly appreciated!

Hi, Ive got 17 years experience as a building services engineer (principal engineer at a consultancy), specialising in public health but led projects across all MEP services. I have a pretty good grasp as to how the industry operates (arch, struct, civils, qs, contractor & client relationship management, etc). Kind of fed up with engineering at the moment and have been considering a switch to the PM side of the game for the past 12 or months.

I'm wondering if anyone had any guidance, things I might be missing or not considering. If I dont start at the bottom (hopefully not), at what level can I fit it? Feel like I'm pretty switched on, quick learning and looking for constructive steps in moving within the industry.

So I have been asking everywhere I go about project management junior roles, pitching myself and asking people who are in the industry to see if there is anything. I want to know if there is any networking events or any help and tips that would help me.
I’m doing my exam next month but I’ve been studying g back to back for hours

Hey y'all,

1 year ago I had started studying for my PMP, stopped in a couple months.

I had purchased the Udemy course with Andrew and got PMP prep books. All of that is just sitting there now.

After I got caught up in some client projects, and after I read on Reddit how no one is getting PMP jobs, even after getting PMP and being a PM for years, I was like "why try what others more ahead of me can't get"

I've been thinking of pursuing my PhD but I'm stuck on which direction I want to go with it (nonprofit operations? development and fundraising? school leadership? Etc). I miss structured learning where you're building up to something.

I'm a nonprofit consultant who struck out on her own because of sinking ship where I wasn't treated well but I don't want to be self-employed and want to be a part of a team again.

I love project management, processes, resource allocations, being handed a bag of tools that's lacking everything you need but being told that's all I can work with. Challenge accepted.

I miss learning and I enjoyed the PMP material so now it's like.... Do I just do this and try to get my PMP and not hold out too much hope for my future job stuff? Or should I go do something else if I'm just getting it "for the hell of it" essentially.

(I have a feeling I'm about to get some sarcastic responses about how dumb this post is, posting anyway for those who might give me some thoughtful advice, ha)

I have gotten this opportunity and am in a conundrum about the decision. At first glance, this looks like a good transition. But it would take me away from the technical work and move me into a more managerial role. The skill set required would also change a bit (more on handling people/clients).

In India, is this generally considered a good career move?

I've spent well over 8 years as a scrum master, coach and agile delivery lead. I loved it. It was high energy and I was able to solve problems and lead teams to deliver real business value. I took a new role 5 years ago at my current job as a project manager because my boss was terrible and I had to get away from her. I moved to a pm role because I have a PMP and thought it may be a better opportunity. I absolutely hate it. I feel like a secretary who just takes meeing notes and tracks a project plan with made up estimates from one person. When I worked as a scrum master, I actually had the ability to coach teams and keep them focused on meeting deadlines better than using a project plan in MS project. We use jira and all of our work is captured there, along with milestones. Yet my boss expects me to track a project plan that looks great on paper, but doesn't paint an accurate picture of the project. My entire team is agile, they run sprints on a 3 week cadence. A week ago, I caught wind the project was behind schedule I went into jira and analyzied data related to work planned vs completed, burn down charts, and scope creep. It showed we are at least 2 months behind. I told this to my leadership and they were upset that I'm not using a project plan in MS project, and they didn't like me putting on my scrum master hat, Had I kept using waterfall approaches, and not put on my agile hat, I would have never been able to discover this. But my leadership expects us to run the project using waterfall methods for planning, estimates and tracking instead of a more hybrid process. They are not skilled in this area and neither are the other PMs. All of our projects struggle. I want to move back to an agile delivery role, I feel tradtional project management is outdated, inefficient and fails to deliver, especially in today's cutthroat business environment where business direction changes daily.

Hey everyone! My company is looking to bring on a construction PM , with start date being immediate (interviews are starting on Friday) attached is the Link to the posting to verify , but could directly go through me for applying. Project is in Warwick, NY , although company itself is based in Mahwah, NJ. Salary range from $120k-$180k + bonus . Details are on the job posting, DM me if you are interested or require more info - more than happy to help ...its my job after all. If not interested...if you know anyone who is, or would be ideal - pass this along! Lets do this !

https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4448024339/

https://preview.redd.it/sm6bl51ydsjh1.png?width=631&format=png&auto=webp&s=0f922d74b6335ca1aabc0874f7a0958d61b168b1

https://preview.redd.it/640zgmg1esjh1.png?width=574&format=png&auto=webp&s=62451c495bc272e828356684afe520343400e62c

I chopped up my resume a bit since I have 15 YOE in enterprise IT, with the past 7 years focused on projects. I figured there wasn't a point in adding roles that weren't relevant.

I'm currently studying for my PMP, there aren't any on-ramps to PM roles at my current job, and while they are very impressed with me due to my prev AI implementation exp, I've learned the hard way to always assume the worst in regards to things like that so I'm wary about putting all my eggs in the 'prove myself and get an official PM title' basket.

How strong would my resume be with another 9-10 months at my current role with corresponding metrics to show competence?

I do know that I would have to re-target my prev exp to match PM language but am I wrong for assuming that it will be relatively easy to get a role within enterprise IT PM? fwiw, my current role is fairly high up the food chain. my direct manager is the director of infrastructure, and I directly interface with GRC, platform OPS managers and other executive levels, and my role is to act with the director's mandate to push through vulnerability remediation initiatives. My only worry is that I don't have much direct project leadership exposure, and the IT PM that's actually involved in the project is so far removed from everything that we're doing that I've only directly spoken to him once for a few minutes so there's no real chance to ask him for mentorship or to ask if he needs assistance with anything outside of my scope within the project I'm working on.

Hi there, I studied communications and am now starting out in my professional life. I have a job offer as a digital marketing project manger - the pay is absolutely horrendous but I can get experience and certifications like scrum.

I was wondering if with more certifications and proven experience in budgeting, timing, successful projects etc. I could potentially transition into IT project management?

Mainly for the financial aspect, but I've also worked in marketing for software products before and didnt mind the field.

It this realistic or completely out of the question?

I was assigned a project with a set start and end date. The project duration was for one year. At the onset of the project, after it was approved by governance, I was not provided resources to begin development work or to even provide estimates. The resources , who were all contractors , were finally on boarded 5.5 months later. Placing the project at risk, as it began almost 6 months late and without management taking this into consideration and extending the delivery date. In addition, there was a critical dependency on an external vendor, who was 3 months late delivering a backend solution that would be integrated into the front end. We lost 2 key resources along the way who quit. Those resources were never replaced. Yet, despite all of these setbacks, I successfully delivered the project on the last date of project. We ended up meeting all milestones. One month after final delivery, I was placed on a PIP. The PIP called out how the project missed deadlines, the project plan lacked detail, meeting notes, and risks were not communicated. All of these accusations are false. I had a clear, detailed project plan that was reviewed on a weekly basis. Meeting notes, action items, and escalations were communicated. I raised risks and qualified several high risks and placed the project in red status. Afterwards, I was told by my manager to lower risks because they didn't want to bring attention to the project sponsor. My thought is I'm being thrown under the bus for managements failures to escalate risks, issues, and to solve problems. At the end, again, the project was delivered in time due to my leadership. Yet my reward was being placed on a performance improvement plan. Am I being used as a scapegoat? Is this how all projects are managed by senior leadership? It this a common thing in the project management field? Right now I am so discouraged and have lost any interest in being a PM. I'm seriously questioning this career field.

I'm 32 and just got fired from my first management position at an agency after 2 months. Before this position, I ran my own tech business for a couple of years and mostly worked as an IC.

The frustrating part is that the team was delivering results. The client was also very happy. The project I inherited mid-flight was already in rough shape when I joined, and I had to push a lot of decisions get things back on track because we needed to be functional for a couple of important events that served as our deadlines.

I cared a lot. Even though it was only a 10-week gig, I was doing 12+ hour days to get the product in order, aligning the engineering team and the client across two time zones, and handling everything else that came with it.

I was also dealing with a difficult high performer lead who was openly rude and a couple low performer team members who complained constantly for no good reason, and I think I let that affect the way I managed everyone else.

In the end, they banded together and complained to the COO, who decided to knowingly dump a negative feedback bomb on me two days before my wedding, when I was already very busy preparing us for launch.

I didn't take it well. I pushed back hard. What was supposed to be a 30-minute feedback meeting turned into a 2-hour rant from me, and afterward I even sent him an A4-page rant explaining my side of everything. I guess that was the final nail in my coffin.

That said, I do agree with some of the criticism. I was probably too hard on people. I'm not here to argue that I was treated unfairly. I can see my mistakes.

But I've been replaying this over and over in my head all week, despite having a conversation with the CEO during my exit interview. He told me I did 90% of things well and mainly needed to improve the way I give and receive feedback. He even laughed about me clashing with the COO and joked that we should probably "clean our chakras" together.

It hurts a lot because I cared so much and even when deciding to go i to PM i thought Im gonna be better than my past managers, but no work life balance and stress got to me. I also feel stupid because it was a very well paid gig but I let my principles to get in a way. I keep wondering whether I'm just not cut out for management or whether this is simply one of those painful lessons that many first-time managers go through.

I'd appreciate any seasoned manager or even some mature fatherly advice at this point.

I've done my MBA in operations and supply chain, I have almost 2 years full time experience, out of which 1 year is in a manufacturing plant.

I'm thinking of getting a CAPM certificate because I want to move into corporate operations instead. Would a CAPM help in that?

I've been searching for over 8 months. I'm thinking about giving up and just getting a crappy paying job. The catch is I KNOW that I will not have the time or energy to get a decent PM job while working a crappy paying job. I won't have time or energy for the psychotic 5 step interview processes if I'm also working 40 hours a week.

I've gotten like 5 interviews but at best it's 1 interview per 100 apps. I have 8 years of experience (website/digital PM).

Anyone want to share their experience?

Anyone with 5+ years of experience given up on getting a new PM job? (USA)

Hi all,

Is anyone else finding it really tough to get hired into a PM or PMO role in the UK right now? I've been jobless for about 3 months, applying steadily, mostly for PMO Analyst, Project Coordinator, and Change Manager roles.

My background: I did a grad programme at a large multinational starting in 2022, where I built up solid experience in business planning and operations. I also hold an MSc in Project Management. What I don't have is a job title with "Project Manager" in it, so I think I'm getting filtered out even though the actual work I've done maps closely onto PMO and coordination roles.

I'm based in Warwickshire and available immediately. I've been tailoring applications to lead with the PM framing rather than my actual job title, applying across junior to senior levels, and I hold BPSS clearance from a previous project, which I thought might help with public sector or defence roles, but so far not much traction.

Would appreciate any tips on how to position an operations background for PMO roles, or hearing if others are in a similar boat. Starting to feel a bit stuck.

Thanks in advance!

I’m transitioning from a technical engineering background into program management and have two offers:

Offer A: Significantly higher compensation (roughly 50%+ higher), at a large industrial/technology company, with large-scale data-center infrastructure projects and potentially broader management opportunities.

Offer B: Significantly lower compensation, but substantially more technical, product, customer-facing, and sales exposure, with potential exposure to emerging technologies such as PC, embedded systems, Edge AI.

My long-term goal is to become a technical/business leader who understands technology, product, customers, and the commercial side.

For those who have been through a similar career decision:

Would you take the higher-paying role, or sacrifice significant compensation for a role that better aligns with your interests and desired skill set?

What would you optimize for at this stage of your career—compensation, learning, career optionality, or alignment with your interests?

I'm especially interested in perspectives from experienced TPMs, engineering leaders, product leaders, and people who transitioned from technical roles into leadership.