Transitioning out of a career in HS education and seeking a path in PM. Looking for useful prep references and remote referrals if anyone is willing to extend a hand.
This website [0] might be helpful. Guy says he went from being a kindergarten teacher to a marketer at Apple. The website is meant to sell his courses. I bet there is some useful info, and at the least it should be a confidence boost that it's possible.
Every PM I have met pivoted from a technical or front line role. External hires for PMs without direct prior experience are probably lottery-esque happenings.
Well, given my anecdotal, and oddly specific, experience with educators seeking to enter tech-adjacent roles I assumed that PM meant Project Manager.
Either way, entering tech industry right now is a tough proposition and I would personally advise anyone looking at doing so to case as wide a net as possible, as moving between roles in-industry tends to be much easier.
Former teacher of mine sought their PMP to become a project manager, ran into issues getting the certification, I think they got their CAPM eventually and ended up getting an unrelated role at an accounting firm.
Their reasoning for going after a project manager role however was basically that the job was identical to their current responsibilites as department 'lead' creating curriculum, lesson plans, etc.
I have then gone on to see their comparisons between project management and teaching echoed in various forms online by various educators seeking to find something more financially rewarding.
I came to look into the role based on the advice of a current PM I know at a mid-size tech company. I've also been talking to others in UX/UXR and Customer Success.
Those conversations did support the transferable skills argument for education>PM though I'm currently in the interview pipeline for a position as a Solutions Architect (which, in actual responsibilities, is somewhere between PM and Customer Success and not at all in line with job postings for SA at other companies). Thanks.
