For fellow retards and crayon eaters. I finally made it. Imma having a long flight, so AMA. Outside of the US: 2017 - $36k 2018 - $80k In the US: 2019 - $160k 2020 - $210k 2021 - $240k 2022 - $310k 2023 - 0 (took a break) 2024 (est) - $1.2-1.4M Product role. YOE: 12 Spoiler alert: left Vimeo a long time ago. Keeping this acc because of reasons.
What level were you in 2022, before the break. How did you get hired at Director/Head level, can you give any advice how to win and pass interviews for this level?
Sr IC. The advice I got from my coach is to try and extend an interview outside of time limits with very specific and deep questions as an opposite to my previous approach of trying to answer all questions asap and be done before the clock. What I did different now is I figured the biggest challenge of the company and suggested my way of dealing with it, which happened to be the way there were thinking of it.
Nice. Did they tell you the problem during the interview, and you solved it then, or you knew about it beforehand?
Does this TC include pre-ipo equity?
How did you end up with a role paying 4X your prev TC after a 1 year break? That's really amazing
I did a lot of self reflection publicly across Twitter/Linkedin and Substack. Which led me to write a few things together with people who are way out of my league. That helped me get extra credits and reasons to flex during interviews.
With the current market doesn't seem enough for such a bump.... nowadays even the shitiest company will ask for the same exact experience at a higher tier company
what location?
SF
Which location outside the USA? How did you move to the USA?
What kind of coach did you use? You mentioned one above. What kind of activities did you collaborate with others on during your gap year?
It’s an executive coach. The biggest issue for me was (and partly still is) a persuasion/communication and navigating all the details for the US political system (a work-related politics, I mean). So they helped me soft-skills, and I recently got a second one for more tactical experience in the domain.
As for activities - it was about articles, guides, speaking engagement, and advising.
So you can not buy a good family home in Bay Area yet with this tc and timeline still?
As a someone from abord, I have no plans to purchase a primary residence in the US, with all due respect.
What’s the exact breakdown? Base, bonus, options, etc.
Did you tell them you took a break? What was the response?
Here’s a direct quote (and yes, I have that in written lol) Quit {{company}} in {{date}} to help companies I invested in with {{something important}}, did a bit of a self-reflection which led me to working closely with some of the most well-known {{function}} leaders from Lyft, Patreon, Airbnb, Github, etc on {{things}}, became top3 {{fancy name}} contributors, and I’m about to launch {{kinda a cool thing}} on there this coming spring. Also recently became an advisor at {{company name}} - {{company’s market}} from {{year}}, backed by {{you all know what VC) with {xxx}M downloads.
What level are you and which company?
Director/Head of a function at pre-IPO company.
So it’s all funny money