How to make a career change to PM?

Question

Natalia Baryshnikova · Accepted Answer

See my answer above on breaking into tech as a PM for one of the options. Another option, if you are a mid-to-senior career professional is to build ties with your product team internally. Product leaders need good folks all the time; I have facilitated multiple secondments of folks from other departments into product, that resulted in a successful full-time career switch for those PMs.

Chat with folks in product leadership in your company, and ask them what would it take to have a secondment on their team. You may need to hustle a bit to make it happen, but most people will be willing to hear you out and considering making your secondment a reality.

From their, it's all about your execution. Good luck! There are many talented PMs out there who switched careers, and you can do that too!

Paresh Vakhariya · Answer

It can be challenging to break into PM space but here are a few tips:

1. Switch roles to PM within your current organization: this is the best path as you already have a good understanding of your company, product, customers, metrics and stakeholders. Find a team that will offer you this career growth (by working with your manager)

2. Apply for roles within your industry and domain. This might help you switch over more easily than a completely new area.

2. Determine the type of PM you want to me (Platform, UI/UX, Data, Growth or Technical). Build your skillset in your current role for these specific types. Then apply for those roles

3. Build a product and blog about how you did this. Build a portfolio based on these projects.

4. Network within the industry and seek mentorship.

Keep in mind, switching roles, company and levels at the same time can be challenging. Make these moves in 2-3 steps.

e.g. switch to PM, then to a company you like and slowly climb the ladder to the position you desire. This is just an example.

Vasudha Mithal · Answer

Generally, where I’ve seen people best succeed in transitioning is when you change one dimension at a time. So, either change your company, role or industry. Trying to move across several things is hard (not impossible). In that context, the best shot is at trying for a product role within your existing company. Build relationships, try to stick around product work (e.g. exploratory analysis to help product teams prioritize, understand usage, measure impact, etc.), and ask mentors to let you drive some work (usually, there is SO MUCH work everywhere that people are happy to get support! There are Data related product roles too (e.g. building data platforms). In the CV, anything you can highlight to indicate prioritization, analytics, strategic work is useful too as that’s pretty central to a product role.

Related Ask Me Anything Sessions

Homebase VP Product, Sharad Goel on Product Management Career Path

Atlassian Director of Product Management (Cloud Platform), Paresh Vakhariya on Product Management Career Path

GitLab Group Manager, Product Management, Melissa Ushakov on Product Management Career Path

Related Questions