[bonecrusher2102]

Yes I did this. It was pretty tough but there is a way.

I was fired from a job in the media industry and decided to start over in tech. It was really a low point for me honestly; I can empathize I think with your post.

I found an entry-level job as a Scrum Master. The role gets a ton of hate, and some of the criticism is justified, but it helped me learn the tech world from the very bottom.

I spent about 4 years doing that. I did a lot of listening and learned an incredible amount from the development team. It was probably the most important thing for me -- whatever career you choose, find a way to start in the trenches with the folks doing the real work.

Then I became a Program Manager. That was really good because it helped me learn the delivery aspect, and get me plugged into the strategy aspect of the techbiz.

I should note here by this time that I had been really lucky in a couple of respects:

1. I found a company that was VERY good at developing their employees into new roles.

2. I found mentors and sponsors within that org that helped me to grow and sponsored me for new roles.

But after a few years learning the Program side, I transitioned to PM, where I am very, very, happy, and to be honest have a leg up on some of my peers because of my deep experience embedded with dev teams and understanding their struggles day to day, but also having to service the needs of the leadership/exec team as a PgM.

I guess I would sum this up by saying, it sucks, and it takes time, but it is 100% doable. I'm not exceptional in terms of brains or skills, which I don't mean as a knock to anything or anyone, but rather as a way of saying, "If I can do it, I really do believe others can too."

The thing to focus on are my 1 & 2 points above. Those are absolute game changes and IMO must-haves.

And LUCK again plays an unfortunately large part in all of this, I feel I must repeat. But I wish you the best of luck, and hope that my note gives you an amount of hope.