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Project Management Institute

Engaged Employer

Overall a great organization, at a crossroads - Product Lead Project Management Institute Employee Review

5.0
Jun 11, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

In the 6 years since I have been working at PMI I never got bored one second. In my role I get to work with multiple internal and external stakeholders. A vast majority of the people I work with are smart and passionate. Most staff and all volunteers are proud of PMI and are dedicated to our mission, trying to develop and maintain the best products and advocating for better project management. There have been several changes in leadership in the years since I started, sometimes questionable, but the changes being made in the last months in the composition of the ELT as well as decisions made in regional leadership positions make me confident in the future of the organization. My team in involved in Product Development, and we can feel a much stronger and welcome attention to quality than we did under previous leadership, which was more inclined to outsource development as much as possible to external partners without much worrying about financial impact nor content actually produced.

Cons

As mentioned in several reviews we are going through a large scale reorganization. At this point it has mostly happened at management and leadership levels, with departments being merged and most of the Executive Leadership being exited and replaced by internal promotions, while a few external recruitments at leadership level have been announced in Marketing, Finance and Sales. I read reviews complaining that some promotions may have been made based on popularity rather than competence. Like someone pointed out, I would say that it may have happened in some cases. However based on my own experience working or interacting with some of the managers who were promoted in the last months both at HQ and regional levels, that they were all very skilled and driven people, who know what they are doing and have been the real doers in the organization for years, when others who were sitting higher on the orgchart may have taken a lot of credit for their work, while spending time attending meetings across the globe and making questionable decisions, talking a lot about culture or sustainability but having very little clue about what was actually happening on the ground and limited interest in addressing any issue at all. Some reviews complain about being managed like a "tech startup": I actually did work for a tech startup before PMI, and I can assure that we are far from being managed like one. In fact, the excessive rigidity of our processes sometimes reaches such a level of absurdity that in fact you wish we were operating more like a startup. So if the new leadership is breaking silos by merging departments, simplifying how we work, eliminating overlaps, focusing on our mission, asking everyone to be accountable starting with senior leadership, being transparent about our performance and bringing new energy to the organization as Pierre seems to be willing to do, I personally won't complain. But I do understand that it can create anxiety and uncertainty after years when some managers - not all - were just comfortable abiding by rules and doing just enough politics to survive. As an example, one of the product teams managing an offer launched by a former CEO had 17 people for a total revenue of less than a million dollars, and honestly it was very hard to understand what they were doing, when other teams desperately need resources and support. It was really time for a change, and having a more professional leadership team is a welcome change.

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Project Management Institute Response
2y
We are happy to hear that you’ve enjoyed doing interesting work, working with our engaged and dedicated community, and that you feel supported and encouraged by leadership. As you’ve noted, we have undergone a reorganization and welcomed several new executive leaders this year. We are proud that our new leaders are highly qualified and were carefully selected from a pool of applicants as the best fit for each open role on our executive leadership team. While change can bring about uncertainty or discomfort, the reorganization was designed to better enable our strategic goals, reduce overlap, improve efficiency, work-life balance, and make it easier for our community and customers to interact with PMI. We appreciate your suggestion about continued education for PMI leaders and welcome additional suggestions via the anonymous Ask Me Anything link on our employee intranet, OnePMI. All employees have access to PMI membership, courses, and certifications; Global Talent (HR) can answer questions about this and additional development opportunities. Thanks for sharing your experience!

Explore other reviews about Project Management Institute

5.0
May 14, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great company, great leadership, very clear strategy and a very passionate community.

Cons

Not many cons, maybe disorganized sometimes. Too many internal meetings.

1
1.0
May 6, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Remote work, but that is really it.

Cons

Compensation used to be competitive, but workload, expectations and initiatives have increased, Everyone is being asked to do more, and work harder with the same resources with no consideration for fair pay. Senior leaders are well aware of how they are perceived, but choose to do nothing, or simply say they are working on fixing things, with no tangible efforts seen. Our CEO is running the reputation, culture, and company into the ground for the sake of revenue. Him and his executive team are known bullies, and even though this has been complained about by so many of us, even to HR, nothing is ever done about it. We NEED board intervention. Just take a look at PMI's ratings. Even with the reviews obviously crafted and directed by internal leaders to try and suppress negative reviews. I will also add that career growth is non-existent, and the determined best fix for these concerns was training telling employees its their problem to figure out. Really makes us feel valued.

12
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