PM looking for help deciding on an offer or to take a walk
Hey friends, Was laid off two months ago (not performance related, was business/finance related). Had a cluster of interviews that didn’t yield what I had hoped. Only landed one offer, that I am negotiating on Tuesday, but looking for guidance on whether I should proceed or walk and start my search over. YOE: 2 as a PM, 6 years prior in a non technical role Personal situation: Currently laid off/unemployed, okay on money, could last a while on savings. Offer: Title: Sr Product Manager. 160k salary, no annual bonus, currently ~$60k dollar value in options / 4 years Pros: Good team culture, good manager, I think I would do good work and add on to my skill set and experience. Company seems pretty stable. Cons: Clearly low pay, even if I negotiate hard, long term equity is pretty crap even if it turns into anything. Considerations: Im a job hopper who has had mostly <2 yr stints. The last two were layoffs, not performance related, purely business/financial issues, but it’s been coming up in interviews. I’ve had good answers, but another short stint would be terrible. Also, I’m relatively new to being a PM, 2 YOE. I know most of the great offers here come with 5-7+ YOE. Clearly I have a gap to close to get to that experience level, so I trying to get optimize to get the experience as a PM on paper and to fix the perception that I am a job hopper. In the short term, it might take longer than the average PM here on blind. I also obv worried about taking a bad deal that will have huge opportunity cost. So big question: is it even worth negotiating/considering this offer? Or should I walk and continue looking for a better deal at a public company/high value startup? Or is it better for me to get more experience and wait a few years before getting a great gig. Thanks in advance TC: used to be 200k
Take the job, interview more while working
Take the job. And there's nothing wrong with hopping every 2yrs.
Or less.
You're worth more when you're employed. Take the job!
Take it. Also even if people told you it wasn't performance related, it could still be (if you were seen as a top performer, they'd fire someone else and keep you).
Yeah, layoffs always signal this to me unless a whole team/business was killed. I’ve heard of people being so highly paid that they laid them off & took the risk of a lower paid person being able to do their job - but again, that signals they weren’t performing super high or the company had basically given up on itself and was cost cutting.
In my case, one of the layoffs was an incubator division being folded. The other was financial/accounting issues and I believe I was one of the higher paid members. But I can totally understand the basic POV on it, this I’m trying to be realistic about my situation
Take the job. A bird in hand is worth 2 in the bush. Keep looking. Introspect - why were you laid off instead of huge coworker. Change that. Also focus on an industry and make yourself an expert in the industry. Engineers can be generic. PMs need to be an expert in the market.
Thanks everyone, this is helpful! I really appreciate your concerns about why I was not retained during the layoffs because these are the suspicions of the people interviewing me. The official and mostly true reason for me not being retained is a mix of bad luck and me not being irreplaceable. Being introspective, I know I’m not top, top tier yet, so that’s definitely something I have to work on
100% take the job. Senior PM and that salary is amazing for only two years of PM experience. I've also been laid off several times - not performance related but part of several mass layoffs - so I fully empathize with what you're going through during interviews. Take the gig, sharpen your skills, and worry about bigger and better after a couple years. Now is your time to learn and grow! Sounds like a great opportunity. Congrats!
Take the job, rehab your rep and take a shot in two years. Two layoffs is going to signal 'low performer' to almost any hiring manager