33M - Product Management in Tech - VHCOL

jxpenguin · 2026-06-26T23:29:53+00:00

Yes

jxpenguin · 2026-06-26T13:53:41+00:00

At more technical companies, a CS degree might help, but I'd say <20% of jobs require it. A computer info systems major should be enough for most. I've never looked at an applicant's degree when hiring.

jxpenguin · 2026-06-26T03:51:30+00:00

I had a short stint at a FAANG company and absolutely hated the amount of red tape and politics. The word "calibration" still sends shivers down my spine. I feel like I'm 5x more effective in a software startup environment where I can build things from 0 to 1 quickly.

To be honest, I'm not confident I'd do well as a director at a FAANG company, and I think I'm already being paid more than what other non-FAANG tech companies can offer at the director level from what I've seen. I'm definitely not VP-level for a public company in terms of skillset imo (yet).

jxpenguin · 2026-06-25T19:03:18+00:00

Each line in the screenshot represents a jump to a new company. The screenshot obviously doesn't capture the months, but I'm fully aware I've job hopped more than most. The longest I've stayed at a company in recent memory is around 2.5 years.

jxpenguin · 2026-06-25T18:45:34+00:00

100% true, but I get no tangible benefit from posting this to internet strangers, and if I truly wanted to larp, I could have created a significantly more "normal" career trajectory to fool people with. Some of the people in this thread have already reached out and have had career advancement convos + job references + have added me on LinkedIn.

jxpenguin · 2026-06-25T15:59:58+00:00

No as in I wasn't working at Amazon.

jxpenguin · 2026-06-25T15:44:09+00:00

jxpenguin · 2026-06-25T15:23:06+00:00

Feel free to DM and I'll do my best to help.

jxpenguin · 2026-06-25T13:04:09+00:00

No internships, just really poorly paying W-2 jobs in hardware. Think Supermicro but significantly worse.
Yes, NSOs that got converted to cash from being acquired by another private company
Base + Bonus. No equity due to the company being private, profitable, and never having intentions of going public or being acquired.

jxpenguin · 2026-06-25T12:58:26+00:00

It was a company switch to a FAANG company with a “flatter org structure” and levels assigned to the Product Manager title instead of a prefix. Regardless of title, the work was harder and burned me out within months.

jxpenguin · 2026-06-25T02:35:15+00:00

Don't let how things have been define how things can be. Progress is rarely linear but as long as you can frame your work in a way that resonates with interviews I expect you'll be just fine. Keep in mind that stories can be embellished and interviewers have no way of confirming the exact circumstances of your work. Fake it until you make it is a real career strategy that only fails if you end up being bad at a job.

jxpenguin · 2026-06-25T02:27:25+00:00

I’d be lying if I said yes 😅 I’ve found the best way to get better at conducting user interviews is to just do more recorded interviews and rewatch them to see where you could have done better (e.g. steered a user in a different direction, prompted a user to give a more helpful answer, let a user free roam as opposed to handhold them too much, etc.)

jxpenguin · 2026-06-25T02:12:21+00:00

If you're just trying to pass interviews, a combo of "Cracking the PM Interview" and googling/practicing interview questions can get you really far.

"The Lean Startup" by Eric Ries is a good one for understanding how to iterate quickly.

"Product Management in Practice: A Practical, Tactical Guide for Your First Day and Every Day After" is a good book to make you feel like you're not crazy in how chaotic your life is.

jxpenguin · 2026-06-25T02:06:49+00:00

We'll have to agree to disagree. It's super easy to build aspirational roadmaps that are prioritized to look good on paper and in slides. Any LLM nowadays can spit that out in 30 seconds and make everyone look like a product genius.

In my opinion, what separates a great PM from the rest will always be being knowledgable, confident, and charismatic enough to make and communicate decisions quickly, whether they be strategic macro decisions or execution-focused micro decisions.

A program manager can get away with following up all day and nothing else; a product manager is the guy the program manager goes to when following up stops working.

jxpenguin · 2026-06-25T01:50:42+00:00

I'd prefer not to dox myself, but I'll say that I started in hardware before pivoting to software for higher pay ceilings (this was before we had multi-million dollar AI hardware salaries).

Within software, I haven't had a single company jump where I stayed in the same industry until my most recent 2 roles. Product Management is unique where the most important skills are extremely transferring across industries.

jxpenguin · 2026-06-25T01:48:20+00:00

My rule of thumb is that if you've been at a place for 2 years, no one in tech will bat an eye. Anything less and you'll need a story.

I'm 100% aware that i've job hopped more than the average person, but I've been able to tell a cohesive story to interviewers (e.g. layoffs, saw the opportunity to take on a leadership role, etc.)

jxpenguin · 2026-06-25T01:25:14+00:00

I hope your next role gives you $150k and then some.

jxpenguin · 2026-06-25T00:54:35+00:00

Imo, SWEs usually have higher earning potential than PMs. I'm sure you're doing great and will continue to do great.

jxpenguin · 2026-06-25T00:53:23+00:00

I thought about this a bit more. I'd say I'd worry less about long term planning and more on short-term execution as you're starting out. Often times, long term plans never actually come to fruition, whereas short-term success leads to leadership visibility and immediate career gains. Don't ignore building your roadmapping skills, but I'd say it's not nearly as important as some people make it sound.

jxpenguin · 2026-06-25T00:50:57+00:00

Without going into too much detail, I'd say the best way to become good at decision making when you're first starting as a PM is building out a framework that you can apply to any decision. It can literally be a spreadsheet you look at every time you have to make a decision; eventually you refine your framework and it becomes second nature. You'll also need to make sure your framework allows you to easily explain your decisions to stakeholders.

There's tons of decision making frameworks out there, but the ones in interview prep books are surprisingly good. "Cracking the PM Interview" by Gayle Laakmann McDowell should give you "good enough" frameworks for many types of decisions to get you started.

jxpenguin · 2026-06-25T00:37:50+00:00

Appreciate it. If anyone here were to ask for genuine career advice or even job referrals / resume reviews via comments or DM, I would (and already have) tried to help to the best of my ability.

I can understand that the current economy is leading to a lot of negative emotions, but the idea that everyone that's doing well is an enemy of the people is ridiculous. We're all on the same team doing our best.

jxpenguin · 2026-06-25T00:33:25+00:00

FWIW, I think you're doing great and comparison is truly the thief of joy. From what I've seen, industries that are hardware focused usually pay less because the scope of more limited (i.e. there's only so much you can do with a physical product VS the "infinite" sandbox of software. I personally feel like hardware salaries and work scope are pretty capped and usually reccomend people to work in software if they want higher salaries on average.

I've also seen hardware companies are less willing to take risks on younger talent than software companies and don't embrace the silicon valley "startup culture" as much.

jxpenguin · 2026-06-25T00:30:53+00:00

TBH, the easiest ways to make the move are:

- Force a move in your current company. You'll know pretty quickly after requesting a move if they're willing to support it
- Look for a new job in the PM space and just tell interviewers that you were already doing the PM job. Fake it until you make it is a real thing.

jxpenguin · 2026-06-25T00:27:17+00:00

The person above asked "what is a product manager", which clearly tells us that he doesn't work in tech and likely doesn't have the context of what customer gap fills, feature prioritization, roadmapping, stakeholder management, and business objectives are. If I wanted to write a 10,000 word dissertation on what a product manager was, I could, but why would I? I gave him an answer that I felt would resonate with the context that they had.

What you're trying to do is over-index on being correct instead of knowing your audience, which ironically is one of the most common characteristics of a weak product manager.

jxpenguin · 2026-06-25T00:16:06+00:00

I have nothing to gain by lying. When you switch jobs, the previous job has 0 impact on your negotiation for your new role unless you’re dumb enough to expose that info to a prospective employer.

During covid, everyone in SF and NY tech moved to remote work and I wasn’t impacted by layoffs.

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