Technical Program Manager's Handbook - Second Edition

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Career Paths

In this chapter, we’ll look into the paths you may take to become a technical program manager (TPM), followed by a closer view of the different career paths that are available to you once you are in the TPM job family. As the tech industry is large, the paths described here represent a generalized view of the career paths based on the interviews I have conducted and job descriptions that were present when researching this topic. I updated job descriptions for the second edition where appropriate but, from a career path perspective, not much has changed since this book was first published.

We’ll also get a close look at two professional TPM journeys that showcase the different paths you can take, which will reinforce that no two ...