I am currently a department-level administrative analyst with a municipal government serving 440,000 citizens. Prior to my current position, I spent just under two years as Quality Assurance/Improvement (program evaluation) Program Manager with a county-level human services agency and 3.75 years as Director of Communications (i.e. public relations)/At-Risk Programs Coordinator for a small public school district. My educational background includes the requisite MPA degree, along with an additional 36 semester hours of doctoral-level public administration course work. My desire is to "break into" the town manager field. Would the aforementioned experiential and educational backgrounds be sufficient, typically speaking, for me to secure an ATM position? I have no desire to, ultimately, secure a CM position in a large city. I merely desire to utilize my skills and knowledge to secure high-level management positions in smaller municipal organizations. (Small town management is simply a personal preference.) I am more than willing to relocate for the right position.

Any advice from the town management folks out there would be greatly appreciated.