Context: I’ve been at Microsoft for a few years now and I love the tech space. My undergrad was in science and econ and I did my MBA in marketing. I am in Azure marketing and I love it because I understand the technology and love what I can do with it in marketing. I think I screwed up though....why? Because... I am not of a technical background. I don’t have a CS/technical degree. No engineering/pm manager will take a chance on a non-techie (on paper) to play it safe Question: Will I always have this glass ceiling of being a non-techie in a tech world? The coding bootcamps out there are super expensive and I doubt anyone would trust me when I say I self-taught coding through free/cheap resources. How do I breakthrough into tech ... real tech/pm roles? I really do love and understand tech even if my creds don’t say so. I feel stuck. Any insights? Trolls can DM me for your satisfaction but I’d like real feedback in the thread here.
Switch to program manager at Microsoft, then get into a product manager role somewhere else. Tech bar is very low for PM at Microsoft.
You’ll have to prove you can do the tech part by actually doing it on your own first, then try and make it the day job after. Take some of your Azure credits and put something out there, start keeping the projects you learn in github as you go, write up stuff you’re trying out on a blog/Twitter/whatever. Learn publicly, don’t be afraid to look new and ask questions, and show what you’ve got. You’ll be fine.
All fair points.
Technical skills are not an asset but a liability for a PM. Learn gravitas, bootlicking and corporate politics instead. You will be a VP in no time. What percent of VPs in product actually know how to write code ?
Why not just go to school again?
Hey op, personally I haven’t run into a competitive PM who wasn’t from a techie background. And i have thought about it. it’s not their tech background specifically that makes them good pm’s Just because techie pm and engineer have shared experience they empathize more. Like they respect the time it takes to build software and how long it takes to fix bugs Non tech pm’s just ask time estimates. If they try to just even learn sometimes the basics it would help. I know engineers are not the BEST explainers (🙋♂️guilty here) But if you keep attempting stuff that WILL make you a good pm. Some may disagree with me but software engineering is mostly building pipelines. Just understand where the data is coming from and learning those cycles will go a long way.
I have a friend who didn’t do bootcamps(he was cheap tho)(coz he spent a fortune on law school) and just self learnt front end on code academy. Try that multiple times but also take notes because code academy knowledge evaporates real fast. (Not a bad idea to make two accounts and do modules side by side) to really hone in the idea
Valid points on building stuff and putting it out there.
Prove yourself by building a ton. You will learn along the way. There was no bootcamps 10 years ago and there were still plenty of self taught developers. Microsoft also pays for education, take advantage of that.
Microsoft pays for degrees only. Not continuing ed 😤
AMA
Yesterday
2069
I’m a professional coaster AMA
Tech Industry
Yesterday
3440
ByteDance is officially fucked
Tech Industry
4h
1586
Avoid teams with only Chinese or Indians especially with a Chinese/Indian manager
Ask Blinders
Yesterday
1129
Tipping culture is really getting out of control! Waiter gave me ‘a look’ because I tipped her 10% for ‘BAD service!’
Tech Industry
3h
577
I wish I were East Asian instead of Vietnamese (Southeast Asian)
How old are you?
14, asl?
Bayhomeles, did you just discover blind?