How I went from 50k to 290K in TC as a Project Manager in 4 years
Hey everyone,
I’m currently a Technical Project Manager at Oracle that’s focused specifically on IT infrastructure/cloud. I’ve been super lucky and blessed to be able to say that within 4 years from starting as a non-technical project coordinator I’ve went from making 50k to now getting an offer of 290K (TC) from Facebook as a Program Manager (data center infrastructure). I didn’t start as an engineer or developer, and I learned all my technical skills through certifications and experience.
Here’s the timeline of how this all went down:
[2015 – 2016]
– Project Coordinator at small startup (50k Salary)
– IT Project Manager at same startup (65k salary)
[2017]
– Changed companies to small consulting firm - IT Project Manager (80k Salary)
[2018]
– Moved to Oracle as a Technical Project Manager (115k Salary)
[2019]
– Given raise at Oracle (121k Salary)
– Offer at Facebook for Program Manager in Bay Area (TC 290K)
Because of the success I’ve seen, I wanted to share some insights to the other Project Managers/Program Managers in this community in regards to moving up in salary and being competitive as a PM:
1. Technical Skills - (for people who didn't start as engineers)
My advice here is that if you are an IT Project Manager, specific to either cloud/infrastructure or software development, take the time to focus on one of those paths, stick to it, and learn as many technical skills as you can either through certifications or formal education. This also helps build credibility with your teams and engineers in the workplace. The more you know, the more valuable you are. The more valuable you are, the more you can negotiate pay :)
2. Keep Moving jobs + Learn to Interview reeaaaallly well
[Keep moving jobs] – The fastest way to see an increase in salary is to keep moving jobs, and negotiating higher pay with a new position. I would not leave earlier than a year or a year and a half, since it might put up a red flag to potential employers.
[Learn to interview well] - I recommend trying to interview as much as you can and always keep your eye out in the market for jobs you can apply for. To prepare for interviews, go through your experience and build and memorize at least 15-20 stories that you can talk about in an interview using the STAR format (situation, task, action, result). These stories should cover your experiences such as your successful projects, challenges with project teams, a failed project, etc.
3. Set goals and don’t give up
When I started in this career, my goal always was to work as a Project Manager /Program Manager within one of the “FAANG” companies. I wanted to be able to continue to learn and grow through working within one of these prestigious companies.
Prior to getting an offer from Facebook, I had interviewed there 3 other times for other positions, and was rejected every time. One instance, I actually went on site, spent the whole day interviewing with 7 people, and then eventually got a rejection a week later. Prior to Facebook, I also interviewed at Amazon 4 times, got rejected every-time, and never was invited on site. Whenever I got knocked down, I was upset for a couple of days, then just got back up and tried to figure out where I went wrong.
Looking back, it's been a crazy road so far, but I hope this inspires people to keep moving forward if they have a goal.
Thanks for reading this, and good luck :)
#projectmanager
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