Development paths of project managers: What and how do project managers learn from their experiences?

•Learning experiences of project managers are mainly informal on-the-job and innate.•Learning from experiences is facilitated by (self-)reflection (with others).•The main lessons learned by project managers differ over time.•Line managers are important facilitators of the occurrence of learning experiences.•HR managers are rarely mentioned by project managers as facilitators of development.

The development paths of project managers are paved with formal and informal learning experiences. Knowledge of the learning experiences that project managers indicate as important for their development as professionals is limited in both the academic and the practitioner world. In the current study we explore what and how project managers learn from experiences, and what is perceived as supporting this learning. We used a multi-method approach, consisting of in-depth interviews and a short follow-up survey among 31 project managers. Results show that most learning experiences occur more or less accidentally on the job and support for learning from these experiences is limited. This suggests potential to improve the quality and pace of the development paths of project managers. Limitations of the current study, and implications of these findings for theory and practice are discussed opening up avenues for future research.