Last April I made a post asking why PM? It received a lot of of responses. I made the shift into PM it’s been 2 months and I HATE it. I thought I was going to be making impact building new products but no I’m just going to meeting from 9-5 daily I do not see any tangible results. I MISS being a dev so much. DO NOT SWITCH TO PM IF YOU ARE BURNED OUT INSTEAD TAKE SOME BREAK DO SOMETHING NEW BUT DONT SWITCH TO PM. No hate for other PMs but this role shouldn’t even exist if we’re being honest. #pm #product #productmanager
How did you make the switch? I'm currently a Dev and I want to make the switch to pm
Just max apply. referral help but just polish your resume and apply. Interview stage don’t talk like a dev talk as a pm meaning you need to have communication skills that’s beyond what devs have.
OP is it much easier to switch from dev to PM in the same company? Max apply internally or externally? How do u convince an external PM team to hire a dev as their PM?
What is your regret? Isn’t it easier to just fake and blur out stuff you already know?
As a dev I worked hard 2-4 a day then the rest I’m just handing out or learning something new. I am able to push back on attending meetings now those meetings I have to be there for it no matter what. As a pm I spend the whole day in meetings that are pointless.
Hmm makes sense, but you don’t have to show a result or present an outcome. You just have to handover stuff, doesn’t that relax you after work hours?
I'll agree that PM role often sucks if you don't really want to be doing the job, and it is definitely not a place to go to avoid burnout (lol it's one of the highest burnout roles in the industry)... BUT: The role should definitely exist. Sounds like you either haven't become an effective PM yet, or your company isn't utilizing PMs properly. The meeting load is real -- you have to manage it to make sure you can deliver impact. Your day to day production work is limited in ability to deliver impact by itself (unlike engineering), so you need to learn how to guide and influence teams, projects, and strategy to deliver impact. Your impact is no longer just your work, or measurable by how much decent code you ship. You need to think through and define measurements of impact for you and your team, make sure you are collecting the data to validate your progress, and then report that progress broadly. It sounds like you are struggling to have impact and that's painful, but that doesn't mean the role is unimportant or can't have impact. It just means you need to grow into being effective at it, and you need to go through an adjustment in mindset as you shift from direct to influence based impact. Give it more than 2 months if you really want to do the job well...and if not, if you aren't up for a lot of hard work and frustration in the name of helping your team deliver better software, focused on the right problems, faster, do yourself and your team a favor and shift back to dev or something else.
Thanks
OP, I'll add that once you get into the swing of it PM can be *very* rewarding. On multiples occasions I've had the opportunity to develop, pitch, champion, and lead execution of ideas and strategies that have generated hundreds of millions of dollars for the companies I've worked for. I never could have done that as an engineer.
Switch back while you still can...
OP, I need a pm referral. Care to refer? I know you hate it, but I want to break into PM.
As someone who made this switch years ago, I deeply regret it. Product management is a bunch of horseshit.
Change your scenery, try a bunch of roles and post below if you still agree with some reasons
I agree completely.
Cuz you aren't good at talking to and convincing stakeholders? 😂
I agree, That’s why I prefer very technical PM roles that require expertise on the space, The job will often just be stakeholder wrangling and roadmapping 24/7 otherwise
Being a PM means keeping your eye on the long term goal. You won’t have daily tasks that give you a feeling of being accomplished. Often times you spend weeks or months collecting information, writing docs, and meeting others to persuade a group of people what the best direction is to go. It’s a lot of stress with the feelings of deep satisfaction from a job well done only showing up a handful of times a year. Try to stay focused on the long term and working towards that. Or, you just really like being a dev. No shame in that, just boomerang back.
PM has become an over hyped discipline. The entry barrier has reduced which has diluted the job description causing teams to hire a PM to solve tactical problems such as poor org structure and poor stakeholder management. These problems take time to solve but like you said, no tangible results to show. That said, 2 months is too soon to judge and drop out. Hang in and learn new skills. When I switched to PM from dev,I learnt critical thinking, communication, persuasion, asking the right questions etc., These skills come in handy as you grow as a dev. Happy to share more pointers if you’d like.
Thank you.
Newly transitioned PM here. @amazon i would love to get your tips. Also if you have anything to share about how you went about your skill building, that would be great. I am trying to improve on same set of skills you mentioned.