Hopeless Project Manager- seeking Blind’s best advice
Current financial situation: Hello Blind, i have recently been on total financial loss of (not investment) $120k and I managed to pay using some credit card debts, personal loans and savings from mine and my wife’s account. Making that money and bringing my family to sound state has caused me tremendous mental pressure and my work performance has not been so good lately. I am DL (traditional PM) at Accenture where I make $185k and my wife makes around 80k, total 265. We are a family of 4, one child goes to elementary and the other one to daycare. Monthly expenses are north of 9k that includes mortgage of 3100/mo. We are hardly saving less than 5k a month but we have debts to pay $30k in credit card, 30k in personal loan (no interest) and 35k in federal taxes. Saving a couple of thousand a month will take me years to pay that $120k loss. Career status: About Career, I have a BS and have been working as a traditional project manager and been managing various types of sdlc/implementation projects (now ServiceNow). I have CSM, PMP, ACP, ITIL v4, AWS practitioner and ServiceNow CSA but no coding experience. I has been very hard to transition to product manager role and none considers my resume for such. At my current employer, if I perform outstanding for next 3 years, I will get promoted and that will pull my income to perhaps around 230k, the bonuses are not good. The Ask: I have been following blind since 2019 but had been a very dry experience because i see people with 1 to 3 yrs experience making $350k TC and it took me 10 years to cross 130k. I am very dedicated and can learn anything and can devote up-to 70 hrs/week but what career path transition and what skill sets ot what role can help to move my TC 350 or over? Which companies and what roles should I Try? If anyone is interested to help me, please advise. PS: Blind has been a sharp platform for high performers and high TC makers and for that reason you might find my post dumb and silly. Please forgive me, I come from a very long way home from the place where I did not have electricity, running water, or grocery store near by; walked on my foot one hour back and forth each way to go to school; dropped out colleges and started over at the age of 28 at community college in the US and graduated from Georgetown. Long story short, I have done every labor job including driving yellow cab in NYC to pave the way to my current state. Life is beautiful, live well and do well while it lasts! Thank you for your wise counseling! Regards, Pal
You need to first come with a plan What are the low hanging fruit you can get ? Lowering your expenses ? Transferring your children to public schools (or fin aid or scholarships) Identifying where you need to reskill so you can earn more ? This will make the financial issue better Then think about medium fruit like - Getting a better paying job that’ll increase your wife’s TC and yours ? Moving to a LCOL etc This will help the career Then do the same for long term . Which will help everything You clearly have the credentials . You just need a stable mind and a disciplined plan that you and your wife will follow and execute Maybe look into product management since it’s clear you have a lot of similarities to it. That’ll pay
I appreciate your feedback. You are very kind. Thank you!
Agreed with @Llama. A bunch of small changes can add up to alot. Find places to cut costs that your family can manage easily- can be with less entertainment/leisure spending, selling expensive cars for cheaper, less going out to eat, less subscriptions. If you both are remote, consider finding a cheaper place to live that still satisfies your needs. Your combined TC is solid and saving close to 5k/mo is really good- most people can't save that much per month. Consider starting a side hustle with your wife, this can be like: event photography, catering small food orders, or something random like custom candles- there's a market for everything nowadays and most people like supporting local. This can add up to a couple grand per month if done right, maybe even more. It'll take some time, but once you are done with all your debt- let's say you pushed your savings to 7k/mo, now you're saving 84k/yr which is really good and you can wealth build. Pay off your highest interest rate debt first if you can to save more.
Sorry to sound but you should spend based on income . Looks like bad financial planning to me . What you are making is dreams for many here is USA. Also you own your career. Do preparation , mock up interview than people would be in position to refer you for PM position.
Brush up on technicals, take a technical PM course online if necessary, YouTube is awesome but is unstructured and aggressively apply for a technical program or product role, if not faang at a company that’s better than Accenture. This will bump your tc & give you some room to relax & think. Clearly, you’re a persevering man & should be able to achieve even if challenging in the short term Try to find a mentor (blind, network or online) to guide your prep, it’s difficult to navigate something new on your own Next i’d do whatever it takes to pay off those credit cards, or any interest bearing loans foremost. Not sure if this is an option, but see if your wife can upgrade her job as well.
Sell your house and pay off the debt as the interest on loans will negate any equity buildup. This will take off the pressure. Then may be do part time masters or coding boot camp if you just want a high TC - lots of advice on blind on this. Not everyone likes coding btw