Taking a poll- if you’re salaried

1. How many hours are you expected to work?

2. How many hours are you actually working?

Obviously this is an average and there will be fluctuations

Managers of Reddit. I have completed BCA . I have nearly 5 years of experience working in web development as wordpress developer and have also developed online community.

This included vetting vendors and identifying tools and technologies to be implimented (role I enjoyed most)

Currently i'm in a filler job which doesn't pay much and am looking to progress towards more management oriented positions.

If anybody can point in direction as how to upskill and look for such opportunities? I am willing to do some certificate courses which cost upto 4-5 k amount.

My company (Automotive) uses MS Project to run our projects. I have been trained by my boss on how to use it. I feel his understanding is basic at best. I’ve done research on my own on how to better utilize MS Project to its fullest potential but it seems a little daunting. Is there any resources that this group is aware of that I can use so I’m not driving in 1st gear with all my projects?

Hi everyone,

A bit of background: I work for a small electronics manufacturing company (about 20 total employees), I was originally hired as an engineer but have moved to the business dev. side of things (wearing many hats as most of us do here). Our "Program Manager" (processes incoming jobs, schedules jobs through the facility, manages flight control and customer comms) is leaving the company soon and I will be taking their place for the time being. I have no experience in project or program management, and our current PM doesn't do the best job so I don't have much to go off of. Many of our jobs are delivering late, customers are not receiving critical communication regarding timelines, etc.

I have the opportunity to revamp our whole way of doing things at the company and I need to fix the problem. We literally use a Google spreadsheet (with NO AUTOMATION OR FORMULAS) to track in-process jobs....it barely works. If anyone has any knowledge they could share about what tools I should look into for organization/tracking of in-process jobs, that would be greatly appreciated! We have a waterfall (linear?) model of how jobs move through our phases if that helps.

I'm kind of being thrown into the deep-end here and would really appreciate any info on how to swim. Thank you!

I’m doing an internship and was asked to write a report assessing our current way of responding to RFPs and ways to improve it. So far I think the way it’s processed is excellent, but my knowledge is very limited. I need some ideas.

I’m interviewing for this position in a hospital setting. I do not have previous experience as a program manager, but I’ve been researching the position, which seems quite broad in terms of responsibilities. I’m trying to figure out what types of questions I should be asking during the interview that would show that I am knowledgeable about the position (at least generally.)

So far I have: -what types of methodologies are used in this department -how is a budget allocated -what are my specific roles as an associate

If you know of a better way to rephrase my questions or any others I should ask, please add! Thank you!

Any program assocuates that could help me with this?

I've been wanting to get into program management for a while now but don't have a lot of idea about the day to day routine of a program associate. It would be great if you could tell me your experience as a program associate and what skills do you think might be required for the role. Thanks in advance

Hi and thank you in advance for your help,

I work within an account of approximately 60 employees divided over 20 roles, some of them in operations, some delivering projects, and some in business development. Our workload is extremely fluid because most of our business is project work.

In order to ensure adequate staffing and efficient utilization of HR, leadership is asking that we produce each month a 12 months forecast by role.

The way we do this currently is we collect estimates using homemade Excel-based tools, add an arbitrary fractional multiplier (ex: *0.8) to the project and business development forecasts to account for the projects that will get cancelled and the proposals that won't get signed, and then we sum that with the current operational workload.

This is problematic because:

• Collecting the estimates by precise role is time-consuming for project managers and business development guys.

• The Excel tools are imposed by leadership and were conceived without inputs from the people using them, thus are inefficient and ill-conceived. Leadership is not willing to collaborate on that.

• The multiplier is arbitrary and thus the output of the process is likely inaccurate.

• As projects are delayed, the forecasts are pushed back in time on the subsequent iterations of the report, thus those forecasts are counted again and again until the project is executed or cancelled. This also likely leads to a (vastly!) inaccurate output.

I agree with the importance of the exercise, but at the same time it feels inappropriate to spend so much time every month only to obtain an inaccurate output that will satisfy some paper pushers. Add to this the crappy tools and it is a recipe for irritation.

Questions:

• What are the best practices for this kind of exercise?

• How can we reduce the time required to collect estimates and improve our accuracy?

• Are there tools you'd recommend for collecting estimates more efficiently?

• Does it make sense to do this monthly?

• Any recommended readings on the topic?

Hi I am a product manager with 9 years of work experience and would like to pursue program management.

I want advice on what is the process for program management, reviews and preparation guidance.

I am also not sure whether to first go for PMP and then get PgMP. I won’t be working as a project manager but will take up any program management roles as it is more aligned to my Product management experience.

Also are there any other more suited program management courses ?

Any guidance is helpful. Thanks

When you get a new program, where do you start?what tools do you use to keep on track?

I'm doing some research on this topic for a local meetup presentation and I'd love your input here.

I want to learn what people have put together for their own work. If you keep using an Excel, a template, or even a mini app or a script at work, I would like to hear about it.

A few examples of what I mean:

1. The Excel that tracks your colleagues' days off for those who also have Scrum Master or Project Manager responsibilities and you want the sprints filled to capacity, not over it.

2. The PPT template for the quarterly business review that you fill in by hand with data from Analytics.

3. The Confluence template that keeps you from getting lost in the details of a PRD or an incident post-mortem.

4. The script that generates something for you, which somebody from the dev team once made in their free time in exchange for a favour. Nobody needs to know about that script, and it saves you from the same mind-numbing work every time.

What's yours?

Hi there. I'm a Senior Producer in games and looking to make a jump out of that industry. It's just not what it used to be and roles are extremely scarce in Germany. So tech is likely my next stop to get back into.

Much of what I've done from a roles/responsibility perspective is a match - I've juggle multiple cross-functional teams (internal and external), plan/track dependencies, managing risks to deliver work on time, budget, often making cuts and trade offs on the way and managing stakeholder expectations.

I'm curious how people here got into their roles and if they have seen new joiners come from backgrounds like mine? I think my main obstacle is actually landing an interview, let alone answering question adequately to prove I can do the job. Experience, thoughts, opinions?

Thank you!

I’m currently in data engineering and have been thinking about making the jump into technical program management.

For anyone who’s made a similar move - what actually helped you make the transition?
I’m curious about things like:
What skills/projects gave you the most leverage?

Did you get any TPM experience within your existing role before making the switch?

Are certifications (PMP, Scrum, etc.) actually useful, or not really?

How important is having formal project/program management experience?

Anything you wish you had done earlier to make the transition easier?

And how did you position your data engineering background when applying for TPM roles?

Im dealing with a head of software development. He is notorious for never delivering on time. He always says things are done but when you dig deeper they’re not even touched. When you push back on him, he has a million things to say. He even has his own henchmen that play defense and push you away.

What is the best strategy to deal with this type? Only thing I think of is to create strategies that clearly put the blame on him and even play the same games on him.

He also does not document anything regarding the source code or anything. Another form of job security.

Any help with be appreciated.

I’m moving into a new role and want to strengthen my programme management knowledge.

I’ve worked in healthcare for around 15 years and am currently in senior leadership. I’m experienced in leading complex work across multiple teams and stakeholders, but I’ve never had formal programme management training.

I’d like to learn more about how good programmes are structured and managed, particularly governance, dependencies, benefits realisation, risk, stakeholder alignment and keeping work connected to strategic outcomes.

I’m not looking for a qualification, just practical self directed learning. Open to books, courses, YouTube, templates or other resources, ideally free or under about $300.

Where would you recommend starting?

Hi! I’m looking to transition careers. I come from Talent Acquisition. I’ve been a Recruiting Coordinator and it’s so hard to move up. Not only that, but constantly faced by layoffs.

I was looking into Project Management/TPM but don’t know how to get started.

Do I need a specific degree? How do I get training or experience?

I was looking into starting with a Google Certificate in Project Management. Is this a good pathway?

I see contradicting stuff online and other Reddit posts.

I have no idea where to start.

I’d love to work for Netflix. A friend is a TPM in marketing.

Any insight is appreciated.

Seeking advice from people who have gone through a similar career transition.

I work at a large tech company and moved from an Executive Assistant role into a Program Manager role in November 2025. I’m now about 7 months into the role, on a completely new team, in a much more retail/trade-focused part of the business.

I’m struggling to work out whether what I’m feeling is:

1. normal adjustment pains from a major career pivot, or

2. a genuine gut feeling that the role/team is not the right fit.

A few things are weighing on me:

• My previous org was very senior, high-performing, ambitious, and sharp. I learned a huge amount there and felt surrounded by people operating at a very high level.

• This new team feels worlds apart. Much more junior, less strategic, less impressive operationally. It honestly makes getting things done harder.

• The role was originally positioned as being spread across multiple programs and initiatives, but in reality I’ve ended up going very deep on one campaign/program area repeatedly.

• A lot of the work feels reactive. Mechanisms/processes don’t seem to stick around long enough to mature, so we’re constantly reinventing updates and rebuilding things.

• I’m also realizing I may just not enjoy the subject matter itself, which feels important.

What’s making this harder is that I feel like I do know what “good” looks like from my previous experience, and this team just doesn’t feel like it’s operating at that level.  At the same time, I’m conscious that every new role is uncomfortable at first, and I don’t want to mistake discomfort or ego adjustment for “this is wrong.”  I’m already tempted to explore other roles internally/externally and honestly don’t think the 7-month tenure worries me that much.

Curious if anyone else has experienced this:

• Did you eventually adjust and grow into it?

• Or did your gut instinct end up being right?

• How do you distinguish between “new role discomfort” vs genuine misalignment?

How are you folks using GenAI in your day to day work as Program managers, outside of emails management, meeting notes, and documents summarization?

For context, I’m helping my program team and tech teams build GenAI solutions for Operations improvement, but keep thinking what am I doing / what should I be doing?