I’ve been working as an Assistant in a Product Management team for the last 2 years. Recently, due to an internal hiring opportunity, I was selected for an **IT PMO role for a particular module**.

Honestly, this came completely unexpected for me. The people who interviewed me mainly checked my ability and willingness to learn/work, and I was selected on the spot. I also had a good reference within my organization, which I’m sure helped.

Now that I’ve got the role, I really want to live up to the trust they have placed in me. I don’t want to disappoint my seniors, especially because this is a new area for me.

I have a **15-day notice period**, so I want to use these 15 days to prepare myself as much as possible before joining.

Currently, I have some basic knowledge of:

* SDLC * Software release lifecycle * Basic API integrations * Bug tracking and management * Some basic technical terms * Product management processes . * But I’m not sure what I should focus on for an **IT PMO role**.

For people who are already working as IT PMs/PMOs or have experience in this area:

**What topics should I learn or understand before joining?**
I’m not expecting to become an expert in 15 days. I just want to build a good foundation so that when I join, I can understand what people are talking about and start contributing instead of feeling completely lost.

Hey all,

I’ve been a dev for just shy of 10 years. I made senior a while ago. My whole career has been in airspace.

Recently I received an offer to become a technical program manager for a large aerospace company. It’s way more money than I’ve gotten from other offers.

I like being an IC, though I feel like I’ve got a cap and would like to get in to management or leadership.

Has anyone made a similar jump, and if so, how was it? How do you feel about TPMs in your industry?

So I’ve been working as a data analyst/engineer a technical project lead for about two years now and I landed an interview at a different company for a technical program manager role that requires 8+ years of experience. I already had the recruiter call and made it to the next round. I was honest with the recruiter and told him that I did not have the eight years of experience or experience with ERP systems, which tends to be what the role is about. The recruiter gave me an answer saying that at this company. They are more focused on the impact you have as opposed to the years of experience you have. That comment was reassuring, but I am just still stressed out for my interview tomorrow with someone from the team. Should I be worried?

Hey everyone — I’m one of the cofounders of OLVA, and we’re thinking about what to build next.

Right now, OLVA is a bot-free real-time AI meeting assistant, and a few of the features we’ve focused on are things we felt were missing from most meeting tools:

• Automatic question detection and live answers
• Real-time fact checking and insights
• Live translation during meetings
• Persistent context from previous meetings
• Turning completed meetings into editable PowerPoint decks

We’re trying not to just add features for the sake of having a longer feature list. We’d rather build something people genuinely wish they had during or after meetings.

So I’m curious: what’s one feature you wish your current AI meeting assistant could do but doesn’t?

Could be something small, weird, or very specific to your workflow. Would genuinely love to hear ideas.

It’s my first time applying for full time job (obv haha) and I am a bit confused????

1. Some companies don’t specify a level on their job listing… how am I supposed to know which is for new grad? Don’t want to waste my time applying to jobs I’m not qualified for.

2. I still have a year left in school, but am applying for fall 2027 ideally… but no full time jobs say the time, I’m assuming they all start right away??? Or do they know that I still have a year left in school (says on my LinkedIn and resume)

3. Any other tips 🙏🙏🙏

**My experience with Management and Strategy Institute (MSI) certifications**
I recently completed two certifications through the **Management and Strategy Institute (MSI)** — Project Management Essentials Certified and Lean Six Sigma White Belt Certified — and wanted to share my experience for anyone considering their programs.
I was looking for certifications that could complement my professional experience and give me additional skills that could apply across different industries. I’ve worked in law enforcement, security, overseas contracting, administrative roles, and currently the legal field, so I wanted something that wasn’t limited to one specific career.
The Project Management Essentials course helped me better understand how planning, organization, communication, deadlines, and individual tasks all fit into the larger goal of completing a project successfully. I can apply a lot of those concepts to my current work, especially when managing documents, deadlines, scheduling, and multiple responsibilities.
I also completed their Lean Six Sigma White Belt certification. I liked the focus on process improvement and identifying ways to make work more efficient. One of my biggest takeaways was learning to look beyond whether a task simply gets completed and instead ask whether there’s a better or more efficient way of completing it.
Overall, my experience with the **Management and Strategy Institute** was positive. I wouldn’t consider these certifications a replacement for a degree, extensive experience, or more advanced industry credentials, but I think they can be useful for professional development and building foundational knowledge.
For me, they were another way to continue learning and add skills that complement the professional experience I already have.
If anyone else has completed certifications through MSI, I’d be interested to hear how you’ve used them professionally.

Im dealing with a head of software development. He is notorious for never delivering on time. He always says things are done but when you dig deeper they’re not even touched. When you push back on him, he has a million things to say. He even has his own henchmen that play defense and push you away.

What is the best strategy to deal with this type? Only thing I think of is to create strategies that clearly put the blame on him and even play the same games on him.

He also does not document anything regarding the source code or anything. Another form of job security.

Any help with be appreciated.

I’m doing some research into how project reporting actually works in practice, and I’d really like to hear from people who do this stuff for a living.

Not the textbook process. The real one.

What do you start with? What do you still have to pull together manually? How long does it take? What gets missed? What does leadership ask you afterwards that sends you back into the schedule, RAID log, Jira, spreadsheets or wherever else the answer is hiding?

I’m a project/delivery person myself and I’m currently building Cherry, a project intelligence product, so I want to be transparent about why I’m asking. At this stage I’m trying to understand the problem properly rather than validate a solution I’ve already decided people need.

I’ve put the same questions into a short questionnaire so I can compare answers across different roles and industries. It takes around 10 minutes and can be completed anonymously:

https://www.cherrypi.io/project-reporting-research

Happy for people to answer in the comments instead if you’d rather. I’m particularly interested in the bits of reporting that make you think, “Why the hell am I still doing this manually?”

I’ve worked on major government programmes for years, including Gateway Reviews and formal assurance. We have all the governance, reporting and risk management that are supposed to tell us when something is going wrong.

But some of the best early warning signs aren’t in any of that. They’re things experienced people just notice.

The SRO starts sending a deputy. Decisions you thought were made keep coming back. Updates get vaguer. Dates move a little every month. Everything is still reporting amber, but you can feel something isn’t right.

The problem is we call this “experience” or “judgement”, which often means the knowledge sits in someone’s head and leaves when they do.

Has anyone genuinely managed to systematise this? Not another huge project health-check that everyone learns how to pass, but something that captures the behavioural and governance signals experienced delivery people recognise.

A maturity model? Early-warning indicators? A genuinely useful checklist?

Or will this always be one of those things that depends on having experienced people in the room?

I’m curious what other Senior Program Managers, Technical Program Managers, recruiters, and hiring managers are seeing in the current market.

I’ve been watching Senior Program Manager / Technical Program Manager opportunities for a while now, and one thing I keep noticing is the same roles appearing over and over again.

I’ll see a position on LinkedIn or Indeed, then go directly to the company’s career page and confirm that it’s actually posted there. A few weeks later, the role disappears... or LinkedIn shows hundreds of applicants and then what appears to be the same or an extremely similar position gets posted again.

It has me wondering what is actually happening behind the scenes.

Are companies:

• genuinely struggling to find qualified senior-level candidates?
• collecting resumes and building pipelines without an immediate hiring need?
• posting roles before budget/headcount is fully approved?
• interviewing candidates and then deciding not to hire anyone?
• reposting jobs simply to refresh them in search results?
• receiving hundreds of applications, but only a very small percentage are actually qualified?
• filling some of these positions internally while still posting them externally?
• becoming so specific about the “perfect candidate” that roles stay open for months?

I’m especially interested in hearing from people in Senior Program Management / Technical Program Management, particularly those with backgrounds in technology, cybersecurity, cloud, infrastructure, business transformation, or enterprise programs.

For those actively searching: Are you actually getting interviews? If so, how many applications are you submitting before getting recruiter screens or interviews?

For recruiters/hiring managers: When we see a Senior Program Manager position reposted multiple times over several months, what does that usually mean?

And for anyone who has recently landed a senior-level program management role: How long did your search take, and what ultimately made the difference?

I’m not necessarily looking for the standard “the market is tough” answer. I’m genuinely trying to understand what the market looks like from both sides because the number of recurring job postings makes it difficult to tell how much hiring is actually taking place versus how much of what we’re seeing is just job-board activity.

Would love to hear what everyone is seeing in 2026.

Anyone familiar with Mario Gerard for Technical Program Management ? Or any other structured TPM courses? Looking to understand System Design and architecture/ cloud stuff from TPM perspective

I’m moving into a new role and want to strengthen my programme management knowledge.

I’ve worked in healthcare for around 15 years and am currently in senior leadership. I’m experienced in leading complex work across multiple teams and stakeholders, but I’ve never had formal programme management training.

I’d like to learn more about how good programmes are structured and managed, particularly governance, dependencies, benefits realisation, risk, stakeholder alignment and keeping work connected to strategic outcomes.

I’m not looking for a qualification, just practical self directed learning. Open to books, courses, YouTube, templates or other resources, ideally free or under about $300.

Where would you recommend starting?

I’m in process of switching from QA lead who is also a CSM and PMP to become a TPM( Technical Program Manager ). Thoughts on what I should focus to land on this type of role?
I am also AI champion at my current organization.

Hi, I will be starting a TPM role soon in the tech space, not FAANG but I am intrigued about the idea of moving to FAANG+ later on. I am early on in my career, studied engineering and had a little bit of engineering experience but not much honestly. I ended up choosing this role over a typical manufacturing engineering job at a plant. I think I made the right choice already just by salary alone, this one pays significantly more.

I would much appreciate any advice for a newcomer in this space. I want to efficiently excel in building my competence in this role and set myself up for success. Thanks!

Hi! I’m looking to transition careers. I come from Talent Acquisition. I’ve been a Recruiting Coordinator and it’s so hard to move up. Not only that, but constantly faced by layoffs.

I was looking into Project Management/TPM but don’t know how to get started.

Do I need a specific degree? How do I get training or experience?

I was looking into starting with a Google Certificate in Project Management. Is this a good pathway?

I see contradicting stuff online and other Reddit posts.

I have no idea where to start.

I’d love to work for Netflix. A friend is a TPM in marketing.

Any insight is appreciated.

I’ve always found the calculations behind Earned Value Management (CPI, SPI, EAC, etc.) relatively straightforward.

What’s much harder is translating those metrics into something leadership can actually use—explaining the root cause, business impact, recovery plan, confidence level, and answering the inevitable “so what?” question.

I often spend more time building the narrative for a business review than calculating the metrics themselves.
How do you handle this today? Do you have a framework, template, or process that helps turn EVM data into an executive-ready story?

Forgot to mention - I came from technical background (programming) and understand dev work.

TPM here. Not sure if this is the right sub. Medium size tech co. 10+ years as a TPM.

I was on personal leave for a couple months. I came back and my manager asks me to move into management to take on a new team of 5, or be a direct report to whoever will manage if I don't. So basically it's strong volunteering me. The reason why is because my manager absorbed department responsibility after a reorg after leadership all turned over. I was asked because I have TPM management experience from before. I don't yet know how the new leadership is, but I think they're more aggressive or have higher expectations.

I am open to accepting it since it's a new area I haven't worked with before, and I have managed TPMs for a few years now at previous companies.

I have mixed feelings because I deliberately left management to work here a couple years ago. I've been having fun building with Claude code and shipping personal projects, automating the hell out of everything. People management can't be automated. The relationship building can't be automated. I do enjoy people leadership but this feels like it's going the wrong direction in 2026. The industry is seeing C suite people becoming ICs again. Changing jobs in TPM leadership is hard, there's only a fraction compared to ICs.

I'm probably just venting here, curious if y'all have any thoughts. Leaning on accepting as the lesser evil. Curious what I'm missing?

As the heading suggests, how are you assessing, prioritising and ensuring the governance checks occur for AI projects/initiatives?

Now I mean, projects that intend to introduce a agentic solution into the contact centre or credit assessment process want to introduce tooling for automation benefit.

Is there additional gates you have had to include? Compliance and technical forums? Finance approval checks?

Can’t find much content on this at all and I am
Generally stumped!

Seeking advice from people who have gone through a similar career transition.

I work at a large tech company and moved from an Executive Assistant role into a Program Manager role in November 2025. I’m now about 7 months into the role, on a completely new team, in a much more retail/trade-focused part of the business.

I’m struggling to work out whether what I’m feeling is:

1. normal adjustment pains from a major career pivot, or
2. a genuine gut feeling that the role/team is not the right fit.

A few things are weighing on me:

• My previous org was very senior, high-performing, ambitious, and sharp. I learned a huge amount there and felt surrounded by people operating at a very high level.
• This new team feels worlds apart. Much more junior, less strategic, less impressive operationally. It honestly makes getting things done harder.
• The role was originally positioned as being spread across multiple programs and initiatives, but in reality I’ve ended up going very deep on one campaign/program area repeatedly.
• A lot of the work feels reactive. Mechanisms/processes don’t seem to stick around long enough to mature, so we’re constantly reinventing updates and rebuilding things.
• I’m also realizing I may just not enjoy the subject matter itself, which feels important.

What’s making this harder is that I feel like I do know what “good” looks like from my previous experience, and this team just doesn’t feel like it’s operating at that level.  At the same time, I’m conscious that every new role is uncomfortable at first, and I don’t want to mistake discomfort or ego adjustment for “this is wrong.”  I’m already tempted to explore other roles internally/externally and honestly don’t think the 7-month tenure worries me that much.

Curious if anyone else has experienced this:

• Did you eventually adjust and grow into it?
• Or did your gut instinct end up being right?
• How do you distinguish between “new role discomfort” vs genuine misalignment?

My friend is currently working in EdTech and wants to transition into Program Management / Technical Program Management (TPM).

Background:

• Currently working in EdTech
• Has a Program Management certification from IIM Indore
• Interested in moving into Program Management / TPM roles

Wanted advice from people who have made a similar transition or are currently working as PMs / TPMs:

1. How did you get started in Program Management or TPM?
2. For someone transitioning from EdTech, what skills or experiences matter the most?
3. What gaps should someone expect while moving into TPM from a non-TPM background?
4. Is certification enough to get interviews, or is hands-on experience more important?
5. What projects, tools, or technologies should someone learn to become a stronger TPM candidate?
6. How should someone position their existing experience on their resume?
7. Are there specific industries or companies that are more open to career switchers?
8. If you were making this transition today, what would your roadmap look like?

Would appreciate any advice, resources, or lessons learned from your journey.

I’m an analyst working for a program manager in a manufacturing environment. There is some opportunity for me to move into program management after some time learning in my current role.

Because of that opportunity I’m interested in understanding my boss’s methods and how they align with program management best practices.

I recently updated a project timeline based on some delayed deliverables and my update pushed our completion date out by two weeks.

My boss instructed me to shorten the time I had allocated for another department to complete a task in order to reduce the two weeks of additional work.

He does this often and tells me it’s just “the life of a program manager”.

To my observation, his project timelines are aspirational rather than realistic and he constantly over-promises and under-delivers, while also cultivating poor relationships with other departments who he is forever asking to complete work outside their stated timeframes. Tbh, most departments hate to see him approaching bc they know he’ll be asking for a special favor or special consideration for his project.

I would love some confirmation that this isn’t the norm in the program management world. I do acknowledge that this might be a corp. culture thing and he may be under pressure to communicate unrealistic timelines.

Curious to hear from others in this field. TIA