6 YOE - How much comp to ask for?
Looking for PM roles outside of Amazon/AWS for the first time. I’m focusing largely on companies in the B2C space, as I’m kind of sick of a lot of the crap that comes with B2B and having to get on the phone and deal with complaints from customers with issues all the time. I’m an L6 PMT at AWS, have been in the role for 2.5 years and am on track for promotion in the next 12 months. I’ve had no trouble landing initial interviews so far, and am talking to ~10 companies (e.g., Robinhood, DoorDash, Zillow, Reddit), but remain uncertain of what number to say I’m targeting when asked. Most roles are at the senior PM, although I’ve had success in getting interviewed at principal level for a couple. Advice on what the right number or range is to share? So far I’ve been saying $300k as a starting point. Too little? TC - $260k YOE - 6 + MBA + MS in CS #pm #productmanager
Why would you go to Sr PM if you are on track for principal - that’s a down levelling. 300 is way too low. Ask at least 400k. I have friends who got principal role elsewhere after 1 year at Amazon without prior PM experience, but who chose companies based on the area of their expertise. People complain about Amazon a lot but honestly 1 year at AWS counts for 3 years elsewhere based on what you do here. I’m L6 pmt at AWS as well
If I can make as much as a senior elsewhere as I would as a principal at AWS (if I start at bottom of band I’d only start making $300k over in 12-18 months, and then need another year at least to make it to middle of band) with much lower stress and higher job satisfaction, why wouldn’t I? Slogging it out for another year, getting promoted, and trying again in a year or so is my backup plan if none of my offers now are attractive enough. $400k feels like a real stretch to me based on levels.fyi numbers I’ve seen.
$400k feels like a stretch for senior or principal?
OP, how did u land initial interviews at Robinhood and Reddit? Referral?
I just applied on LinkedIn. No referral (although I probably should have gone that route). I’ve been looking only semi-seriously until just recently, so I haven’t felt compelled to reach out to many friends for referrals.
What happened OP?
Yea that’s probly a bit low. I’d recommend looking up the ranges on levels.fyi and find the top 3 companies you’re interviewing for and use those as a range. Pretty sure DD, RH, and maybe Reddit go >300k at Senior
Thanks. I did take a look at levels.fyi, but the PM datapoints are pretty sparse. That’s why I’m trying to crowdsource some additional information here.
If you want a few good data points to use: LinkedIn SR - 430 Uber 5a/5b - 360-430 Google L5 - 350 Fb l5 - 350 You could give a range 350-400 which I think is pretty reasonable for your experience