1–10 of 16 posts
Do you like writing docs? Was is hard making the transition? What was the biggest surprise?
Staying in the same engineering domain when I transitioned into PM helps keep my technical curiosity engaged. I can do with less red tape and office politics, but it comes with the job, so it is unavoidable.
Hope this data point help you out.
My path was IC to Lead Engineer to PM. The Lead Engineer role really help me to get an idea what the next step would be. I liked it and made the transition about 7 years ago. Staying in the same engineering domain when I transitioned into PM helps keep my technical curiosity engaged. I can do with less red tape and office politics, but it comes with the job, so it is unavoidable. Hope this data point help you out.
PM's make significantly less & are significantly less in demand
> What was the biggest surprise? PM's make significantly less & are significantly less in demand
> What was the biggest surprise? PM's make significantly less & are significantly less in demand
Idk about significantly less. Based on some research I've done, they make less, but nothing that I can't live comfortably with. Also just because something is in demand doesn't mean that I enjoy doing it still.
I have seen many senior/staff/principal level people try making the switch and sadly it doesn't translate well because of this. Product work is significantly different than engineering work. Some PM 1-2 are actually more effective than late in career transitions that I've seen over my career.
If you think of work in three categories: Experts, Operators, Politicians. You are going to have to play each of these roles as a PM. Previously you could get away with doing just one as a SWE.
Although I love technical writing, the demands of the job do not allow one to do as much IC work like writing docs. The biggest surprise that will humble you is that nobody knows what they are doing including leadership teams on all levels. PMs have to lead with no role power and that is a challenge in itself if you don't have manager allies to do what's right for the product.
But after a while I started to flounder. I couldn't figure out what we should build next and didn't know what to do. I had no training whatsoever. I tried to study PM methodologies but there are a million competing ones, a bit like self-help books. I don't really know how one becomes a good PM.
(Edit) To clarify I am no longer in this role. After that experience I've been working on creating my own startup, which is like SWE and PM combined, minus the salary.;-)
At first I liked it a lot. I could be confident that the product we were building was worthwhile (unlike in engineering where I just had to take the PM's word for it). But after a while I started to flounder. I couldn't figure out what we should build next and didn't know what to do. I had no training whatsoever. I tried to study PM methodologies but there are a million competing ones, a bit like self-help books. I d…
My path was IC to Lead Engineer to PM. The Lead Engineer role really help me to get an idea what the next step would be. I liked it and made the transition about 7 years ago. Staying in the same engineering domain when I transitioned into PM helps keep my technical curiosity engaged. I can do with less red tape and office politics, but it comes with the job, so it is unavoidable. Hope this data point help you out.