Got there (although I never feel like I'm "there", always trying to improve) after 2 years of grunt work, a little bit of career planning, and a lot of luck. I'

Got there (although I never feel like I'm "there", always trying to improve) after 2 years of grunt work, a little bit of career planning, and a lot of luck. I'm currently a PM in a global trade software vendor. After working in the same industry for 2 years in an entry level operational capacity, I was headhunted by my current company who was looking to build out product in that area. Although I was very unmotivated during college and my degree in cognitive psychology is worth the paper it's printed on, I had programming experience and was self-learning on web development at the time. A combination of basic understanding of systems and software development, deep industry operational experience, and obvious enthusiasm for the job was enough to get hired. While there are some direct paths to Product Management (often Business Analyst), most I've met seem to come from operations or development depending on the industry. My advice for all of us that weren't top 1% at elite colleges and thus don't qualify for the PM path straight out of school is: - Folks that know and care about the Tech AND the Business are unicorns are valuable and unique. Many technical folks I've worked care more about the stack they work with than the business problems that will make the company money. Many functional folks don't care about the tech. Pick an industry and work in a dev or operational capacity while learning the other side of it and absorbing excessive amounts of domain knowledge. - Put yourself out there (LinkedIn, Medium, HN, whatever) as a domain expert. - It's easier to make a horizontal move: another role in the same industry or the same role in another industry. - Not everyone will be happy as a PM. There can be a lot of pressure to deliver yet you often don't personally implement anything. Communication skills are more important than technical skills.