I have been working towards the goal of becoming a Product Manager and have found partial success after preparing 4-5 months. I have an opportunity to take up a PM role internally. By talking to a couple of PMs and observing how PMs talk about their day to day, it feels like their is no support structure for PM roles. They need to be able to pull it off without anyone having clear accountability of the project aka dotted line reports. I understand in an ideal world, a PM would have an amazing Eng Manager as counter part who will help execute the projects but most of the people I am talking to in different orgs say that it’s really difficult to find such people. Now, I have always given preference to my day to day happiness cause I know I can not perform if I am not coming in to work happy most of the days. Would love to understand if I should take it or continue with Program Management where I have a team of people who are much more collaborative, believe in succeeding/failing together. Thank you and I really appreciate your advice.
Why not try it and see? After working towards this goal, why give up now you have gotten the opportunity to do it? There are trade offs to every job. There is something about PM that intrigued you so I suggest following that instinct and seeing where it leads you. Even if after a year you decide to go back to your current field, it will give you a lot of perspective to have had PM experience. I know many engineers, managers, designers who have done a stint of PM in their careers.
Agreed. You have an opportunity, so take it and decide for yourself whether you like it.
This. I suspect most PMs unhappiness comes from them constantly comparing themselves to engineers. Pm is a pretty good gig if you can't code.
You can always go back if you don’t like being a PM.
Try it and see if you like it. Don't get cold feet now!
PM is the best job I’ve ever had bc it’s an ideal position for my strengths (things I’m good at + enjoy). There are def bummer parts of my job, like almost any job!, but Im happy 90-95% of the time. Why does PM interest you? Try it if you think that you’ll love creating vision and inspiring a team of subject matter experts to make that vision reality. If you end up hating it after 1 year, pivot that experience into something else.
PM is awesome. Lots of responsibility, ownership, and also pressure. But it’s so much fun. It’s technically my third professional role (had a totally different career, learned to code and was a mediocre engineer for a year), and it’s definitely the best. For me. All depends on what you’re looking for and what your skill set is.
I like the challenge. PM puts you up to your eyes and asks you to swim. Watch as all your relationship issues, psychological issues, and hard skill challenges face you every day. The only way out is forward and through, because nobody has time for your shit nor cares. Fight, fight, fight. Grow, grow, grow. Finally succeed at something while simultaneously failing at something you had no idea was important or even going on. Lose sleep about it. Wonder why you took the job or are still in it. Go in the next day and kick ass, think you're amazing and a gift to the field. Next day find out people are using social and political tactics to pull your strings because you became good at your job. Learn how to cope. Become too tired to do the things you previously mastered. Relearn new ways. Ask others how they do it, learn a few things, then get frustrated because you didn't have time to network for the past 3 months from executive pressure. Win an award. Think you finally can relax. Lose a team member by surprise. Yeah, this is PM. I'm good for a while due to awesome learning experience. However, in the long run fuck this. I do NOT want to get promoted. I've seen my manager's schedule and stresses and I do not want that shit. I'm learning my skills for now but the long run plan is sideways then out.
What does “out” look like to you?
Either a different role or different cause that seems more worth it. My company wants to double revenue, double the amount of time customers spend using our product, and double the number of customers we have. We've completely forgotten about trying to help anyone. Obviously, nobody wants to spend more time in their HR system. Get your W-2, look up an employee, and close the browser tab. That's HR. Make it more enjoyable and valuable, not more lengthy without actually adding value. I would like to be part of a more compelling vision. What was behind your question by the way?
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PMs and Engs at Microsoft get very similar pay per level. Not sure about Facebook.
Mobility is still an issue. It’s easier for engineers to pivot but for product management, hiring managers usually look for domain experts.