Has anyone here escaped an agency PM job?
Long story short, I got bait and switched into a Sr. PM role at an agency last summer (moved from a PM role at another business). I've had great results within the scope of my role, but it's not what I'd call real Product work. Rarely deal with building revenue-generating products -- mostly focusing on things to drive lead generation or user engagement -- and get few opportunities for customer discovery.
Since starting my job search in July, I've had a brutal time getting people to look past the fact that I'm at an agency. Stated rationale is that I'm not working on one product for a long term, or able to show revenue growth.
* Salesforce rejected me after final round for explicitly this reason.
* Chime just rejected me after final round, presumably for something comparable.
* A major third-party PM recruiter outright refused to represent me because I'm agency.
* Made it through final rounds with 2 local startups; 1 opted to not hire anyone for the role, the other offered $50k less than I currently make.
Short of starting my own company, I'm not sure what I can do to get around the stigma of working Product at agency. I feel trapped and, honestly, increasingly scared.
Has anyone here been able to find work at a product company after working agency? Would love to hear how you've made that happen.
In case it'd be of assistance, I've attached an anonymized version of my resume.
TC: 150-160k CAD
comments
I do believe there's learnings to be had for a Product person at an agency; I'm certainly doing my best to lead my reports to whatever opportunities for career development that I can... But there's just too much of a stigma around the environment for me to recommend it to anyone interested in a Product career.