134: How to Land a $300k PM Role in 2026 with Mukhtar Kadiri

About this episode

What if the reason your project management job search is stalling has nothing to do with your skills? On average, about 300 people apply to a single opening, and the odds of being the one who gets the offer are slim. In that market, strong project leadership isn't enough. Landing a six-figure project management role takes the same things that make projects succeed: clear decision making, a targeted strategy, and the ability to read how an organization really works. In this episode of Project Management Happy Hour, Kate and Kim talk with Mukhtar Kadiri, PMP, a project management career coach and recruiter with more than 15 years on both sides of the hiring table. Mukhtar helps project managers land roles in the $100,000 to $300,000 range and shares his insights with a LinkedIn community of more than 70,000 project professionals. His hard-won business lesson sets the tone. Early in his consulting career, he was called into an office and given a verbal beating by a stakeholder who sat nowhere near the top of the org chart. She turned out to be one of the most powerful people on the project. Once he won her over, she became his biggest champion, a mentor, and a lifelong friend, and