The PM Pivot Series, Part 1 OF 5: How I Broke Into Project Management Without a PMP — And You Can Too

THE PM PIVOT SERIES, PART 1 OF 5

The unconventional path I took from Administrative Manager to six-figure Implementation Manager, and why I keep getting DMs from young women asking me how to do the same

Chile, my DMs have been wild lately.

Almost every week, a young woman slides in asking me the same question. How do I get into project management? I'm in [insert non-PM role] and I want to pivot. Do I need a PMP? Do I need a tech background? Do I need to start over?

And every single time I respond, I'm typing the same things. So I figured it was time to stop typing the same things in DMs and start writing them down properly. This is Part 1 of a series I'm doing for every woman who has been side-eyeing project management from across the room, wondering if there's a path in for her.

Spoiler: there is. I took it. Without a PMP. Without a tech background. Without starting over. And in this post, I'm gonna tell you exactly how I did it.

Let me tell you about the job I didn't get

Years ago, I applied for a Project Manager role at the company where I was working as an Administrative Manager. I wanted it bad. I prepared. I interviewed. I genuinely thought it was mine.

Reader. They gave it to somebody else.

I went home that night and stared at my ceiling. Did all the questioning your career decisions thing. And the next morning, instead of doing what most people would do — update the resume, start applying somewhere else, tell myself it wasn't meant to be — I did something different.

I went to my boss and asked her if she would be willing to talk to the manager of the PM who got the job I wanted. Not to complain. Not to reverse the decision. I asked if I could intern. Unpaid. On my own time. Under the person who beat me out for the role.

She said yes. The other manager said yes. And just like that, while still working full-time as an Administrative Manager, I became an unofficial PM intern at the same company that had passed on me a few months earlier.

I got the experience. I built the portfolio. The next time a PM role opened up at that company, I wasn't the Administrative Manager applying for a stretch role. I was the woman who had been doing PM work for months, with artifacts and references to prove it.

That conversation — that one uncomfortable, slightly audacious conversation — changed my entire career.

The lie that keeps women stuck

Here's what I want you to hear. The lie they sold us about project management is that you need a PMP, five to seven years of direct PM experience, and a fancy tech background to get in. Without those three things, you're not qualified, and you should aim lower.

That's not true. I don't have a PMP. I broke in through an internship I created for myself, and I now work in Implementation Manager roles in healthcare and medical device that pay well into six figures. I have a project management certificate from Xavier University, which I'll talk about later in the series, but the certificate is not what got me in. The experience did.

And here's the part nobody tells you — especially in healthcare and medical device, which is the lane I want you all looking at — a PMP is often a nice-to-have, not a requirement. What companies in this industry actually need is someone who can manage complex, regulated rollouts with real human beings on the other side. Clinical staff. Hospital administrators. Patients. Compliance teams.

They need someone who can communicate, organize, de-escalate, and ship. Those skills do not come from a four-letter certification. They come from doing the work.

You're already doing PM work. You just don't know it yet.

This is the part of the conversation where my DMs go quiet. Because once I start asking the women who message me what their current roles look like, the truth comes out. They are already managing projects. They just don't have the title.

If you've ever planned an event with multiple vendors, deadlines, and a budget — that's project management.

If you've ever rolled out a new system at your job and had to train your team on it — that's project management.

If you've ever coordinated between departments who weren't talking to each other and made the thing happen anyway — that is project management.

If you've ever owned a launch, an initiative, a process improvement, a migration, a campaign, a renovation, a wedding, a fundraiser — you have done project work. The question is not whether you have the experience. The question is whether you know how to name it.

And that is exactly what we're gonna unpack in Part 2 of this series.

What's coming in this series

This is Part 1 of 5. Here's what's coming so you know what to expect.

Part 2 — The Experience Audit. We're gonna go through your current and past roles and excavate the project work you've already been doing. By the end of that post, your resume is going to read different. I'm gonna give you the exact language hiring managers actually scan for, so your work stops getting overlooked.

Part 3 — The Hidden Lane. Why healthcare and MedTech are the easiest doors to walk through right now, why nobody's talking about it, and what kinds of roles are actually open. (Hint: it's not just Project Manager. There are five different titles you can search.)

Part 4 — Five Ways In. The unconventional entry points. The internship pitch I used. The internal pivot. The adjacent role. The certificate-plus-portfolio strategy. The referral play. With the actual scripts I'd use today.

Part 5 — The Interview & First 90 Days. How to walk into an interview without the title and walk out with the offer. Plus what to do once you get the job, because getting it is half the battle.

Before you go — the one thing I want you to do this week

Don't wait until Part 2 drops to start. This week, I want you to do one tiny thing. Sit down with a notebook or your notes app. Write down every single time at your current job, or any job you've had, where you owned something that had multiple moving parts.

Don't filter. Don't be modest. Don't disqualify yourself because it wasn't called a project. If you owned the outcome and there were people, deadlines, or moving pieces involved — write it down.

By the time Part 2 drops, you'll have a list. And that list is the foundation of your pivot.

The Rich Out Loud truth

Your richest life is not just the trips, the dinners, the lipstick. It's also the career that pays for it without draining you. The job that lets you sleep at night. The salary that funds the version of you you're trying to become.

Project management gave me that. And I'm telling you — it's not a closed club. It's not a long waiting list. It's a door that most women don't realize is open, and the women who do realize? They walk through it without permission.

You're one of those women now. So start walking.

Go live your richest life and we’ll talk soon. 💋

-Tiah