I was laid off earlier this year and only really started to look for a job in the past 6 weeks. I received an offer last week for a Product Manager role at a bank. It’s in a business receiving a lot of investment to grow and focused on their digital transformation. It also seems there will be an opportunity to build a product team under me in the next year or two. I’m not the most excited about this opportunity as I was hoping to pivot into more of a tech/fintech startup, but the job market seems to be challenging right now. About me: I have 5 years of experience working at a top bank. The last 2 years were PM experience and the 3 years prior were more analyst work. I took time off after the layoff and I’m now living at my parent’s for the time being to reduce costs. Questions: 1. What are your thoughts on the TC offered? 2. Would you recommend taking it given my current situation? 3. Do you have any feedback on working at BNY Mellon? 4. Is there anything else you’d recommend that I consider?
Got an offer with BNY Mellon two weeks ago. I accepted the offer due to layoffs and hoping to see how my experience pans out. ** Two-way door mindset **
Have you started?
Do not take offer from BNY mellon. I left that org within 2 months. It is real crap. People are shit to each other and upper management is crazy.
Can you share some more details. Which org at BNY Mellon were you in? How were people shit to eachother? How is upper management crazy?
Take the offer and keep looking
Have you done this before?
Job hunting is usually a fulltime job, though. . . you have to add your level of financial desperation into the thought process.
I worked at BNY. Left after 2 years. It’s the shittiest bank I’ve worked in. Your offer looks like the K level, specialist, VP (see how many different hierarchies there are?) For reference, that offer was the same offer I got 2 years ago. Adjusting for inflation, you could do better. On the other hand, BNY is good for coasting and just saying “Yes Sir.” As long as you do that, it’ll be an easy job. If you want to grow and do real product management, you’ll have to go elsewhere. Note: I’m at a fintech now, and BNY has a reputation across tech for never delivering what anyone needs- just making false promises and never delivering. BNYs time is done.
Thanks for the insight. How challenging was it for you to make the transition from BNY to a fintech? Were you getting interviews?
It was tough moving out of BNY, and took me a full year of interviews. I was getting interviews because it was 2021, when the market was hot. I must’ve interviewed 3 times per week, on average. I’d say I had a 10% application -> final round rate, which was phenomenal. This was attributed to 2 things: 1. The market interviewed anyone with a heart beat. 2. I paid for a PM interview course that provided “the correct” way to answer questions like a PM. Point #2 was important because I’ve had multiple interviewers tell me as feedback that I was “a bank PM, not a real PM.” In hindsight, they were right and I couldn’t be happier they provided that feedback. Being at a place like BNY affords you the opportunity to coast and only work like 20 hours. As long as you spend the other 20 hours wisely, you’ll get a better PM job. If you don’t, you become one of the BNY dinosaurs.
What was old TC?
150k
I worked with someone once who was hired at BNYM with 8 others. 4 were let go on day 1. Later that week, a few other 10-year employees were laid off. Crying with boxes. When they sat down at a table at lunch, everyone sitting there silently got up and walked to the next table. Someone else screamed at them for eating something crunchy too loudly. I knew someone who consulted for them and hated their business practices, called them severe waste of time. But if you love the bitter taste of licking batteries, you’ll probably love it there.
Sounds like you know a bunch of folks who were at BNYM. How recently did these situations happen?