New to PM, seeking a Mentor

Here's the problem I keep running into. It's exactly like you said, "Experience is key." Well, I can't get any experience because I don't have any experience. My previous organization actively punished anyone who tried to improve themselves (I had to keep it a secret that I was taking classes at all, or they would have fired me). So basically where I'm at is I need to know someone or else just lie on my resume to get a chance to work.

As far as the PMP exam, the experience requirement is actually pretty loose. The verbiage is something like 36 months of project leadership experience, but that doesn't necessarily mean "36 months with the title of project manager". I was involved with leadership in projects, and it seems to have satisfied the PMP requirements, but I still don't consider myself ready to dive head first into PM because I only ever got to lead small portions of projects, or else I was delegated some authority to execute part of a plan but I was never allowed to make any actual decisions.

It's been maddening, every time I've tried to thrive and develop myself and my career, some old fossil who's been with the company since the stone age comes along and cuts my legs out from under me because he thinks I'm trying to take his job.