I was a Product Manager in the 90s, a VC in the early 00s, and a founder in the 10s. Fave job was probably my 90s stint as 1st PM doing the launch and growth stage to IPO, but then the outcome was favourable, so perhaps it was that rather than the precise nature of the work.
What are the “trophy jobs” in tech?
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Re: What are the “trophy jobs” in tech?
#12Huh, in my circles the real trophy jobs are quant roles at top firms. And given the caliber of the people there - and the compensation - they're arguably not trophy roles. Tbh ppl going for the pm/vc path are seen mostly as tools.
The people I know working as quants are jelous of me getting free food & working from my bed.
Re: What are the “trophy jobs” in tech?
#13Position on the board of directors of a publicly traded (tech) company, can't get more "trophy" than that.
Re: What are the “trophy jobs” in tech?
#14I go to work to exchange labor for money to support my addiction to food and shelter. If having a job on my resume will help me increase the amount of money I can trade for my labor in the future, I consider that high status.
Re: What are the “trophy jobs” in tech?
#15Quants at prop trading or buy-side HFT (not banks).
There’s a lot of substance in those jobs (denominator), but the status is insanely high (numerator).
Smart. Quants are generally “smart” with diverse software, hardware, and math knowledge.
Scarcity. In the United States, the entire industry might hire 1,000 to 2,000 new grad quants per year.
And most importantly, a realistic path to $1M+ TC by 5 YOE, and $10M+ TC is not uncommon for 15-20 YOE.
Re: What are the “trophy jobs” in tech?
#16Devrel where you spend your time being a public speaker more than a technical professional, talking about code that you've never run in production?
Re: What are the “trophy jobs” in tech?
#17I don't think that Product Manager is exclusively a trophy job, if at all. It takes quite some skill to manage a product properly, maintain healthy product boundaries, create a sensible roadmap, combat feature creep, etc. A product manager's skill set can make or break a product.
I agree - as a Product Manager in my third role it is not all that easy and can be in some companies really frustrating.
I would say a great data scientist/ head of data science with the freedom to operate would be even more of trophy job in my view.
Re: What are the “trophy jobs” in tech?
#18Oh my god, that's disgusting! Trophy jobs? Where? Where are they hiring for those?
Re: What are the “trophy jobs” in tech?
#19CTO / VP of engineering at small VC-backed companies that employ less than 50 engineers. My current CTO spends most of his time spamming ChatGPT-related stuff, and discussing "key objectives" he replaces every few months, thus having next to no accountability. It was the same at my previous job.
Re: What are the “trophy jobs” in tech?
#20I know recruiters working half the year making $500k from beaches in the Caribbean.
Recruiters suck, but they do provide value.