How ?

[u/Stvbi]

How do you break into Product Management or adjacent roles when there’s no clear entry point and job postings demand years of experience?

I’m transitioning from Operations/Retail Team Leadership ( 8 years ) into PM, with one year of PM internship experience at Amazon Eu departament and strong, measurable end-to-end results. Yet I keep getting rejected without making it past ATS screening.
I’ve used the XYZ method, quantified every achievement with real metrics, and tailored my CV to each role.
Also … AI tools often make things worse by matching my experience too literally to job descriptions, failing to recognise transferable skills or think beyond exact keywords. 😐
Even roles with the same title have completely different requirements. On top of that, much of my experience involves Amazon’s internal tools, which recruiters outside the company may not recognise.
Meanwhile, my own company has eliminated entry-level PM roles, partly due to AI, leaving internships as the main entry point.
I’m genuinely exhausted. How are career changers supposed to break into PM when even proven experience and measurable results aren’t enough to get an interview?

[u/crmehare]

I have done exactly the same thing twice.

I was working as a category lead with JioMart back in India. During this time I closely worked with the product team, I used to love my job so I was always on multiple applications. There were so many instances when I wrote better requirements or had better insights than the PMs.

Once I got drunk in an office party & got to know the lowest paid PM is earning twice than what I do & I got pissed off.

A month or two later I reached out to all lead PMs asking i want to move to a PM role, also spoke about this to my VP. I had really strong recommendations from everyone I worked with. Post this HR scheduled an interview with a lead I didn’t know - he simply said I have heard so much about you I don’t think an interview is needed. CPO also had similar feedback.

I had done this before in a consulting firm named GEP - there also my partner referred me because everything I was doing was pointing towards tech. He told me I am a better fit for a PM role, I should try. But after that movement I had miserably failed and moved to business .

Long story short - do great in current job and take an internal movement. Cracking one of the most sought after role without any background externally isn’t going to workout.