Someone who has just handled a problem you’re dealing with will offer better advice than someone successful who dealt with those things 10 years ago. The latter’s memory is distorted, they might’ve never even contemplated your question and they’ll tell you what they think are the answers.  Want to know how to crack a PM role? Ask people who’ve just transitioned in the past year not PMs in famous companies with 5+ years of experience who made the transition 7+ years ago when the market was entirely different.  The real answer on how to crack a PM role will be from an average Joe/Jolene who struggled and did it, not the VP-Product of your favourite app who deals with very different problems daily.   The flip and there’s always a flip. It is good to pose this question to an experienced PM if they’re mentoring many people, have access to what’s working for their mentees and can serve as an aggregator of information.