My goal in the future is to be a product leader and/or founder. Which of these jobs right out of college would serve that goal best, in your opinion: - Software engineer at a big Bay Area unicorn - Product manager at a startup in Berlin that just closed a funding round at a $20-50 million valuation Compensation at the unicorn will be 3x just based on salary and bonus, and 4x including equity. I like working in product better after trying it out as an intern over a summer, but I'm okay with being a dev for the next few years if that sets my learning/career up better. EDIT: I've interned at both companies, and have seen and like people/product/business processes at both.
Experience as a Dev will make you a much better PM.
If you're asking, I'd question you being a leader. Most leaders don't ask what's the right or wrong thing to do. They just do it and pivot with the changes that come along their way.
Troll
Leaders are not autonomous. That's how you fail.
I was facing a similar dilemma myself about a month ago (though my two options weren't as stellar as yours). decided to go with the PM role, and I couldn't be happier. particularly, I enjoy how many different things a PM gets involved in. if your ultimate goal is to be a PRODUCT leader, or even a founder, the earlier you start working on product problems the better.
Can you keep your dev skills sharp while being a PM? A PM who has forgotten how long it takes to build stuff is quite useless. If you want to be a founder though PM is a much better experience. You won't be a founder who will think things will be successful because of some tech-edge or his eng team talent. Do an honest cost of living comparison. Hard to ignore 3x dollars. Figure out how much of it you will keep. Starting a decent savings is a big deal too.
If your only metric of value for a product manager is not challenging the development process, then I might suggest learning some of the related skill sets of diciplines that comprises the 37 PM / PMM functions identified in Pragmatic Marketing Framework.
Be a Dev, most people in similar positions chose the PM role, but that's because they're mainly afraid of tackling engineering challenges. PM at many places can often be a whole lot of fluff. Might as well gain some hard tech skills while it's still easy
I'm a senior product person. I would recommend you take up the PM role. Keep your dev skills sharp but focus on learning the business and how to be a good PM. You won't regret it.
in the early stages of your career, it's sometimes good to look at rolls like a chess move. It's not so much this role as it is the one after or after that. after all, in the end, you will be successful and the money will come. that being said, you'll learn and we're more hats likely at the smaller company. Make sure that you have some type of mentoring or opportunities for growth and learning outside of yourself though. It's easy to grow stagnant whenever you have to figure everything out yourself and don't have anyone else to turn to for ideas. but at the same time, that could help you grow as well.
What do you love doing? Do you love coding and cannot imagine not doing it? If so then pick the Eng role
I would choose the Software engineer role and stay in it for a couple of years, evaluating the PM role. Once you build connection and gain better understanding of the industry, you Can switch roles. An european start up is going to operate hugely different from a SV unicorn
This is the right move