Hi everyone, I'm an AA at a company where the PM role doesn't exist, and have found myself doing a lot of project management, which I love and am very good at. I'm underpaid for it and am job hunting (ideally in tech), but am finding that my job title is holding me back. I don't want to drastically change it for fear that it might flag in an employment verification check. Has anyone had experience with making this shift? How do I better market myself and get people to look past the job title? Important details: Haven't been in the role long enough to qualify for a PMP. Working on my CAPM. Would eventually like to get an MBA.
Get a Scrum master certification
I requested this for my professional development this review cycle- didn't realize I could take a 2 day class as my prerequisite. If they don't approve it I might just use my tuition reimbursement. Thank you for the suggestion!
I would advise you to focus on 3 things: 1. Try to internally switch your job title from AA to PM. It is ok to have the same pay. When you switch jobs, you will get a significant pay bump. 2. Get PM certifications to prove that you know what you are doing. 3. Build up PM stories to tell in your interviews. If you have real-life experience doing PM work and are good at it, why would people not want to hire you as a PM? Don’t wait until you get a “PM” title tag before you start doing PM work.
Thank you for this advice! 1. The PM position literally does not exist at my company. We have a lot of analysts doing the job but there's been some high turnover because they are hired to research and are unhappy managing projects. The analyst doing that on the projects I was hired to provide admin support to ghosted the team, so I stepped up and took over. There was talk about a year ago about creating the position and I was included in some focus groups, but if it's happening it will take several years. I am stuck with my job title as my company rarely promotes admins outside of the admin track, and even if I was promoted it wouldn't be to a PM role. 2. You're right about this and I'm working on the CAPM- someone suggested scrum master which I hadn't thought of and will be adding that to the list! 3. I have the stories because I have the experience- but I'm not getting interviews and I worry that it's because of my job title, so I have no one to tell the stories to. Another user suggested I create a more functional resume and hope that helps!
Thanks for the additional context. The job title is a little bit of a bummer, because if you provide a different job title than from what your background check reveals, that *might* or might not be an issue. For example, if I am a software engineer and I put myself as “Senior Engineering Manager” in my resume, that could spell trouble for me. So two different ways to get around it: 1. Try to get a job, any job, that is willing to hire you as a PM, even knowing that you are an AA now. The functional resume thing is great advice. Just leave out your job title completely in that resume and highlight your accomplishments. 2. Escalate to your management chain that you would like to internally transfer to a PM role because that is where your passion lies. I can’t imagine saying no because it is so much easier to hire an AA than a PM, and since you are not going for a pay raise, that is a great deal for your company. Worst case is that you speak to other managers in your company, but treat those conversations like external interviews. The key is that as long as you have the abilities to excel in the PM role, it is just plain dumb for people not to see that and give you the right role. Eventually you will pull through, it might take a year or two, but I think nothing to worry.
Network network network! It will help you to land jobs.
My latest networking experience sums it all up: Reached out to a former employee at my company who was also an AA and moved into a different role his current company. He sent me a referral email this morning. I'm in the midst of filling it out and he tells me he just found out the position has been filled. I won't stop trying- it's somehow just been bad timing on every position!
Any updates? 🤔
This is awesome. I'd suggest a functional resume, with a "human voice", explaining what you wrote above. Don't fall into the trap of using template resumes which make you document things differently than how you would pitch to someone in under a minute. Let the employment dates be listed for completeness, but those should be read after they have already formed the right image of you after reading from the top. Keep looking and you will find a recruiter or a hiring manager who would appreciate this. Most are looking to fill template jobs and they try to fit you into a mould. Those jobs are not the ones to aim for.
This has been such a disheartening job hunt and your kind words and great advice were so needed. Thank you! I managed to reformulate my cover letter to both explain how I fell into the roll and what I've been able to accomplish in it that my projects would have otherwise lacked in a way that doesn't just reiterate my resume. Really hoping someone bites soon!
Try to combine the cover letter into your resume. Many people prefer one document. That's why I suggest "human voice" resume. Do not hesitate to use "I" in your resume wherever appropriate. Good luck!