Mid 30s. TC: embarrassingly low (<130k, no stock) Have 14 yoe with bi and data engineering on Hadoop. Bs in CS from UC Berkeley. Mostly IT related work (not engineering). Interested in working for large tech company (FANG, Microsoft, salesforce, etc). TBH, haven’t done SE work for long time and I am not good at programming. Don’t want to get into SE now due to age. I am interested in business strategy or product management or account management roles. Do all large tech companies require SE experience for these roles? Do I have to get MBA to have a chance for these roles? I am willing to start at lower level and grow into these.
Don’t get an MBA. Is there a specific vertical or product that interests you? I think I read that GA has a PM cert.
What is GA?
Where are you located?
Boston
Used to work for a Boston based firm and was in your shoes. I am a PM at MSFT with years of experience and I say as long as you get into any of the big companies, you should have no problem fitting in, as long as you understand what you are working on, and try to dig in, if needed. I also don't code, but have a CS degree.
Is BI similar to analytics and/or data science?
Yes. It’s similar. I have done more analytics lately and less BI
You know 130k a year is wildly more than most people ever make, right?
A person can hardly save in Bay Area with that money. It depends where OP lives
I am not in Bay Area but northeast which can almost be same expense. Bay Area is the most expensive though
Find companies where you can play the user role (say, BI software makers like Tableau, Domo or EDWs like Snowflake?) and apply for a non engineering role there
Two strategies: (1) go to a startup and redefine what it is you do or (2) get into data science field in small to mid size company. I would lean heavily away from big companies if you want to change your career path - number one, why you over some fresh grad and two, your skills are irrelevant for how much you'll get paid.
I’d suggest getting an actual career counselor instead of hitting up Blind. Some companies, like SoFi, even offer them for free if you are one of their customers.
I would recommend HireClub where you can hire a coach and find one to help you figure out your path forward. Dont wait...it is a marathon not a sprint you are on. I can confirm the diversity and quality of the coaches based on many success stories from friends.
Any way to break into product mgmt within data engineering? Are all roles SE based
Product manager come from widely varying backgrounds -some even from completely non tech backgrounds.Having any sort of basic tech skills will help you provided you have the PM chops
Go Bears