Hey everyone, I’ve been an investment banker covering TMT for a year now and while I’ve enjoyed working on some high profile deals and understanding financials, I’ve also realized that what has most interested me is learning about what companies are developing behind closed curtains and their market opportunities. As part of deals, I’ve been able to listen in on customer calls and see how companies define and conduct research that goes into building their core products, and I can’t hep but wish I could take lead in a more creative role. (Plus, I’ve interned at startups before and miss that entrepreneurial feeling) Was wondering if anyone has any advice or knows if investment banking backgrounds are valued in product management. Definitely wouldn’t mind being an APM or taking on other roles that could set me up for something like this, either. #pm #product #productmanager #investmentbanking #ib #finance
Won’t be easy - very hard to get your first PM role. I had IB/VC background and knew execs at lots of startups and thought it’d be easy. It was not - you quickly realize that you’ve never actually built anything or even worked with engineers before which makes the interview that much more challenging. And there are only a few junior PM roles available. My advice is 1) study up on PM interviews and practice a lot, 2) start building a side project with an eng friend so you have something to talk about, 3) target companies with PMs that also have IB/consulting backgrounds, 4) consider making the switch to a fast growing mid size startup (100-300 employees) onto a biz ops role with intention of moving into product later 5) look for companies that have defined APM roles or mid size companies (100-300) that are large enough to take a chance on a junior PM but not so large that every PM role is well defined
Thanks for the advice! Do you feel like your background is valued/has been useful at all? I’ve reached out to some ex-bankers turned PMs and agree that it looks like ops is the way in. Not sure what it means in terms of possible pay cut/lifestyle but honestly willing to make the leap.
Good advice, though #4 feels risky since you will be competing with tons of other internal people also looking to transition to PM.
Join a company in a financial or ops role and then make the switch into product once you’ve established yourself within the company. During your time there, get to know other PMs, projects they’re working on and see if you can help out to start getting some experience. You can make the case that a team needs an APM or once an APM role opens up, you can throw your hat in the ring. I made the switch from IB into CorpDev at a fast growing tech co and made the switch into PM after a couple of years.
Thank you! How did you enjoy Corp Dev vs product, if you don’t mind me asking?
Honestly - I really enjoy both. If there was a great corpdev offer, I’d go back and know that I would be a better corpdev professional bc I had product experience. Both were/are high impact and strategically important to a company’s growth (assuming you find yourself on an important product), use lots of data analysis (cash flow vs users), and work through influence (convincing c-Suite vs engineers). Product has the added benefit of being able to say look at this thing that I built out in the wild!
Thank you! Was reading through posts and this is all great to know. Definitely seems like startups are the way to go, which personally I find exciting vs a well-established public company
Check out stripe and plaid. I forget which but in their job recs they ask for consultant / banker types and a lot of their team seems to be from that background rather than PM.
Thanks for the tip! Def seeing a few ex-investment bankers in product via LinkedIn search
Why would anyone want to be a product manager when they can be a portfolio manager?
PM role is a severe downgrade from IB. Don’t do it for the money. Look for opportunities to break into PE / VC through your network. It will take time, but it’s worth the wait.
Completely disagree with this. PMing at a F/N/G pays at par if not more than IB, and much better job satisfaction IMHO. Yes you’ll get paid much less at startups or in equity. I’d rather build products than PowerPoint decks. Source: I used to be an MBB consultant. No IB, but similar pedigree.
You validated my claims. Thank you!
I thought IBers make 1mil+ per year (after 5+ yoe) ?You ain’t ever gonna hit that as a PM Normally people want to go from APM to IB, not the other way around
Does PM TC plateau at a certain number? If yes, in your opinion, what is the number like?
It’s similar to engineering salaries. As an IC or lead it plateaus at around $300-600k in most cases, depending on the company and usually with at least 10-15 YoE. Directors or CVPs make more, but it’s very tough to get there. The best exit is to start your own company - there’s no plateau there.
A friend went from Ibanking to now an SEO product manager (really more product marketing) because he was too fking lazy in his job. Making similar money since he left his ibanking job after 2 years as an associate
OP, if you’re still here and you haven’t changed your mind yet, go after Amazon. They love business-minded MBAs. You’ll be underpaid, but you’ll get your foot in the door.
Not an MBA :( got in after undergrad!
MBA was metaphorical, degree is not a hard requirement.
Check out PMHQ - blog/site started by ex-tech banker who made it into PM
Thank you, I’ll check it out!
Feel free to dm! Tech banker turned pm as well