🇩🇴 I'm a Technical Program Manager and Content Strategist with an MSc in UXD. I help developers become better content creators and DevRel teams build robust content programs.
Last year I was moved into a new role due to an internal re-org. My old team was being dissolved (not for anything bad; my then-manager and her manager were leaving the company and they couldn't find a suitable replacement), so we were moved into another organization. It also came with a career change: I was a content strategist in DevRel and was moved into a technical program manager role on an engineering team.
There was a HUGE learning curve associated with the change; while I had project management experience, I never worked on an engineering team in this capacity at all. I did not have engineering PM experience and I had to pick up everything on the job. My manager was very transparent: he said the learning curve would be steep, and that it would take at least six months to get comfortable. I also found myself missing the old work that I did. I wasn't sure if the role was for me.
But in the spring, things changed. I hit my six months and realized I knew more about what I was doing than I thought. I started seeing a lot of positive traction from the work I was doing, and the engineering team actually started adopting practices that I created specifically for my programs. It was incredibly validating. I've learned an incredible amount and there's still much more to learn. I'm never bored and I work with really hardworking and patient people. I love my team.
So I've decided to continue down the TPM path and want to remain in TPM roles in the future. It happened by accident and I'm so glad I stuck it out. :)
Last year I was moved into a new role due to an internal re-org. My old team was being dissolved (not for anything bad; my then-manager and her manager were leaving the company and they couldn't find a suitable replacement), so we were moved into another organization. It also came with a career change: I was a content strategist in DevRel and was moved into a technical program manager role on an engineering team.
There was a HUGE learning curve associated with the change; while I had project management experience, I never worked on an engineering team in this capacity at all. I did not have engineering PM experience and I had to pick up everything on the job. My manager was very transparent: he said the learning curve would be steep, and that it would take at least six months to get comfortable. I also found myself missing the old work that I did. I wasn't sure if the role was for me.
But in the spring, things changed. I hit my six months and realized I knew more about what I was doing than I thought. I started seeing a lot of positive traction from the work I was doing, and the engineering team actually started adopting practices that I created specifically for my programs. It was incredibly validating. I've learned an incredible amount and there's still much more to learn. I'm never bored and I work with really hardworking and patient people. I love my team.
So I've decided to continue down the TPM path and want to remain in TPM roles in the future. It happened by accident and I'm so glad I stuck it out. :)
Thanks for sharing 🙏❤