Career Advice: Has anyone made the transition from Communications/PR to Product Marketing?
I'm interested in moving into a Product Marketing role in B2B enterprise tech. My 10+ year career has been in B2B enterprise tech Public Relations and I've spent years partnering with Marketing in a way that I feel confident I'd be able to make the move and be successful. Are there other certifications or learning I should do before making the jump (except for a MBA, cause I'm not made of $$$)? How did you do it?
User deleted comment on 04/29/25 at 12:59PM UTC
User deleted comment on 04/29/25 at 12:58PM UTC
Barb Hansen
Startup Product, Growth & Strategy
9.62k
01/04/22 at 7:09PM UTC
I'm a product person (not product marketing) but in many previous roles, I did the tech product side and the marketing product side of product roles.
The great thing about all Product jobs is that there is no one way to do Product (except scrum), and most product people come to product from other positions (dev, marketing, sales) and since there is no degree in Product (or not one that I know of) we all bring different educational backgrounds.
I would listen to as many free product courses as you can (don't pay for anything yet) to learn the basics of Product*, the basics of Product Marketing and learn the lingo. Sprinkle that lingo into your resume, then start applying for Product Marketing (PM) jobs.
I would also suggest that you could lean into your PR background and look for PM jobs in the PR tech space where your PR background would be a huge asset, then you can use that PM job to catapult yourself into your next Product marketing job in other industries.
*Please learn the basics of Product in general not just Product Marketing, you'll be a better product marketer if you understand the full Product world. And some Product Marketing jobs include Product Owner/Manager roles so the more you know, the better you'll be at Product.
