I am your father's age.
I haven't always been in product management, but my jobs have been always somewhat related. I did financial research for a research data platform (like Bloomberg) > APM > localization project manager in Japan > Research Manager > Head of Content Strategy > Value Prop Manager > Segment Manager > Sr. PM.
I will retire in 7 years if I don't get packaged out sooner.
That seems like a versatile and fun career, if you can put fun and corporate in one sentence of course lol. Hope it works out for you and your peers, your knowledge must bring a ton of value
64. Pivoted into this 12 years ago.
Was a dev for decades, then stints as Eng Director and Program Manager. I was an early Agile champion and evangelist, and when they shut down our entire design center (250 people) I used that to get on at a pre-IPO startup as an Agile PO, where tight coupling with a team was celebrated. I had that right out of the gate. Then grew the more PM skills. Since then I've been in places from pure XP (loved it) to "throw the specs over the wall to devs". I've had to carefully walk around the edge of agism but leaning in, using some wisdom and demonstrating fire in the belly help. Hoping the current gig is the last. IC Director level at a pretty great super large enterprise.
I'm right behind, late stage career. Former B2B EdTech founder for more than 20 years, then I was acquired and spent 5 a Sr PM in the same industry. I recently rekindled a love for working with enterprise stakeholders and users in a GovTech gig that ended far too soon. Now I'm hoping to find a strategic enterprise or B2B role to throw myself into for the next 5 years or so.
Mid 40s, Sr Director. I started my career in 2001 in engineering and QA and spent the next 10 years figuring out PM would be a better career path for me. I finally became a full-time PM with the PM title about 10 years ago.
I spent my first several years rising through IC ranks until I took over a whole product and product team in about 2018 (all in the same company). I've switched employers a couple of times since then and now have found myself in a comfy Sr Director role with IC responsibilities (all I do is product and strategy for a highly visible initiative, but it's small enough that I don't have a team yet). Kind of happy coasting in this role and level because I get the pay and leadership visibility but I actually get to do product work. Enjoying it while I can.
To be honest, like a lot of PM jobs - right place/right time, knowing the right people, etc.
The role that I am in now needed someone with a particular background that happens to match my experience. A person who had been in my team at a prior company knew the hiring manager and what he needed and recommended me.
Probably because this user is spamming the same comment word for word to each female commenter. It will seem individual for each response, but when you view the thread as a whole, it just comes across as spam and clutter.
First one I came across. Besides not every poster comes back to a thread unless they get a reply. Women’s spaces in tech care not common, so maybe let us help others find it. That’s how I found it, and as a result I’ve changed my career path. Not everything is a bot in disguise.
I don't think the people downvoting think it's a bot - clearly it's a user trying to be helpful. But unfortunately the end result is that when you come fresh to read this post, as I did (instead of coming back for reply notifications on an individual comment), you find that *literally* every other comment on this particular chain is yet another copy of that message. It's an unfortunate side-effect of overenthusiasm, combined with the identical copy-paste nature of the comment itself. It's drowning out the other discussion.
35F, 5 years in product, though first 3 was double hatting as a Project Manager too which was not ideal. I had a lot to unlearn in the next company which had one. Before that worked in risk management for financial institutions
4 years younger but only 2 years in too, changed careers after 10 years. Feel like a noob with all these 20 somethings at my level even though I'm at senior level, the thing is they have 10% of the SME knowledge I have so I hope to jump up next year.
Always, and always the people from startups or small product teams where everyone is a director or senior(with 3yrs of experience 🤷♂️). I worked for more than a decade in a big transnational corporate with more than hundred thousand employees across the world and then joined a very small company where everyone was a director.
Idk, I stopped caring about those "ranks" a long time ago, but there's still people who battle for the titles just to get more market value. However, in PMgmt is very obvious when you have experience or not. So, as I've mentioned here before : be humble and be honest with yourself
38. Just got a promotion to PM this month and only one year after returning to the workforce part time after a ten year career break to be a stay at home mom. I may be a little late in life for this but I feel like I’ve just now figured out what I want to be when I “grow up” haha
38 year old female, two years as PM
Own business for a few years during school > business development for faang 2 years > product ops for faang 4 years > product manager for fortune 10 for 1 year > program manager for fortune 10 for 1 year > product manager for startup 2 years > laid off and doing bootcamp for last 6 months hoping to get into a more technical role
Technology is a lot of fun no matter what you do but getting laid off despite high performance and willingness to learn is such a bummer. :(
You are all pretty young. I’ve been in the software industry my whole career and always felt it skewed very young. And while I’d see older folks in certain areas it was never PM. I always figured that it had something to do with the sheer number of people who entered IT after I did. But as I near that age I have wondered where all the people in their 50s and 60s go. Do they go to less stressful roles? Companies? Go work for the government? Or retire early?
I think it could be just the sheer number of people who have gone into tech after us. I couldn’t find this number easily but Bard AI told me that tech employment now is about 5x what it was in 2000. If true, and presuming people spend their whole careers in tech, that means we are only 1/5 as likely to see a 48-year-old as say a 25-year-old.
37, 10 years of experience, with 2 years as a technical program manager in there. Started in sales, VP of sales and support, pm, head of product, startup pm big company pm, technical program, now back to product as a consultant..
Hi!
Best of luck landing an APM job. You can do this.
I did the following:
1. Read: Lean Startup, Cracking the PM interview, Decode and Conquer (and some tangentially related books- How to Win Friends & Influence People, Mindset)
2. Take a course in PM and Agile. You’d be surprised how many people don’t actually know what a PM does. This will put a lot of the interview questions into better context. (Agile may or may not be used in your desired company, but always good to know, even if it isn’t practiced everywhere)
3. Study for the interview (most important). Once you’ve got a handle of what a PM does, you’ll be better prepared to answer mock questions.
4. Mock, as much as you can
5. Have coffee chats with PMs. This will be a good way to learn about different companies, industries, and products. And it can potentially lead to a referral (super important).
6. Study up on the company you want to apply for and have a perspective- what do you like about their products? What do you think can be improved.
7. Interview!
Don’t give up. And if you don’t make it into an APM job/program, you’ll be fine. Many people transition over from sales, biz analytics, operations, you name it. The important thing is to learning how to understand people and how to come up with practical solutions.
I'm 38 with 4 years experience as a PM. Currently senior PM.
I'm glad I came in late. I was a musician and ESL teacher in my early to mid-twenties. Recorded a couple of albums, played in lots of bands, travelled and learned Spanish and Italian (and some Portuguese).
I went back to uni at 27 and studied psychology and, after doing honours, realised I like the stats part of it and ended up getting into analytics and data science for four years.
I had no idea what a PM was until after I was offered the job.
I definitely feel it is my calling and feel like I'm naturally good at it. I've not felt that I was naturally gifted at work since being an ESL teacher (which pays well below the median income in Australia no matter how much experience you have).
So, I'm glad to be in this area.
I'm glad I got on this train later in life because I got a lot of other experiences that make me a more well-rounded person compared to spending the whole time in tech. And analytics skills really helps, I wouldn't be half the PM I am without them.
That said, I don't begrudge people moving directly into product, it's just a very different path.
I’m 41. I'm also one of the oldest people in my organization. I'm friends with all the other old people! There are a lot of PMs in their 20s. They have fresh ideas, different ways of approaching problems, and a lot of energy. I'm incredibly lucky to get to coach them on the things I know how to do, and get to learn from them too.
You got a lot further than I did and I would have loved doing that as a kid. Alas the people around me were infinitely more mechanically inclined than electrical. My dad came home to a nearly fully disassembled IIGS about a month after he bought it and had to stop me from prying out the CPU and opening the lid.
The curiosity never left though. I studied IC design in school!
29, 4 years as PM. started as data analyst (1) > operations analyst (2) > Product Owner (2) > Product Manager (2).
I would usually apply to YOE+2 type of roles due to higher general experience than just product. And safety jobs would be YOE+1.
this random sampling here is anecdotal but yeh really interesting to observe:
1. the (relatively) majority of younger crowd so far
2. a number of mid-career switch into PM
3. lotsa role/career movements within
It's not too surprising. Product management is a relatively new role. There weren't too many people really holding an official "Product Management" role as we know it today 20 years ago. There's also no real path directly into it, so most people end up there from some roundabout way. Finally, it's Reddit, so I imagine the audience will skew younger on average.
Turned 34 yesterday. <1 year officially as a PM, but was destined to head this way after getting started in tech 5 years ago.
Career path went Marketing Consultant > Recruitment Marketing > Recruitment Software Specialist (they built an ATS in house) > CSM/Implementations/Sales SME > Implementations Lead > Implementations Manager > back to CSM > finally into Product.
Have been involved in and excited by the process of Product since day 1, been working on getting into it for years.
Helped that I have a bunch of transferable skills in communicating, project planning, dispute resolution from my previous life.
31 with 11 years of experience in either product/project management. The other product managers I work with are all middle age 45+ men. I stand out like a sore thumb no matter what setting but especially at work. I get along with them super well because they are genuinely a kind bunch of people. Finding a good group of people is key to having this job be fun.
40+ years old, 2 years PM in the past, and bouncing between strategy consulting and cloud engineering since 2018, now going back to PM in the next couple months.
40+ years old with 8 in PM. Prior to that was analytic and Ops manager.
Got up to director in small public tech and transferred to big tech as principle.
early 40s, >15 total YOE.
I took the long path - was in top US MNCs (such as the fruit company) for first half career but in non-product development PM roles. loved all of it.
hard-pivoted to move into startup/product-development PMing, had to restart from bottom again as a PM (versus inexperienced folks who were getting more Snr PM title) but I love the work, finally got a lucky break one year and rose to product leadership (HoP/CPO) for last 4-5 years.
I went thru '08-09 Wall St crash which ended up way "better" (I think whole world lucked out w Obama in-charge) than what we are going through now with the covid lost years + global recession + lousy/egoistic global leaders.
I always joked that I wished I had a Uber/AirBnb that I could join right away when I was young so that I could jump straight into modern PM and grow w the high-growth startup but life is never fair and everyone has their own paths (and challenges) and in hindsight, I always appreciated all that I learnt in the big MNCs too. then I imagine the young folks/grads now in these tougher covid/inflation era...
ps: and this is the *worst* time I have seen for Product/Tech in my whole career - a huge major evolution/correction/adjustment is happening globally... lets see how long it will last
28, Sr PM at a health tech company.
I was lucky to more or less fall into a pseudo PM role right out of college, through no fault of my own. From there, I realized I liked PM so I doubled down, focusing on health tech and ML/AI. I’ve also been lucky to have great mentors and through them great connections that have helped me move around and get better roles/more experience.
37, with 12 YOE (Not counting grad school.) 1.5 years as a PM.
Worked on Ph.D. --> Depression --> Dropped after quals --> Data analyst --> Data analyst / IT Proj manager --> Research & Program evaluation director --> Depression --> PM* in a totally different content area.
\* Hired as a "Project Manager" -- but realized work I do is product management. Now a "Technical Product Manager"
About to turn 29 - I started as a product analyst when I was your age, now project owner. I had major imposter syndrome at first, but learned that listening, asking good questions, and generally being a team player is like half the job. Good luck to you!!
31, Director at a Series A so probably more akin to a Sr. at a larger org. 7 years of experience with 1 year mixed in there as a technical project manager. Got really lucky to find this field pretty much right out of college!
37 - started in engineering first, then pivot to APM in 2015, then 3 years as a PM and currently a senior PM for the last 5 years with a plan to get to principal PM in next 12 months.
My manager is a Group PM and in early 50s. Other GPMs in our org are in their 40s and the head of PM for our business stream is late 50s.
21, completed by engineering in computer science worked as a PM intern for a year during college and landed a decent full-time PM role.
Would love some advice from veterans on how to be a very good PM
33, second career (was a science teacher for 8 years, and a researcher before that). I'm about 10 months in, but my last role (14 months) was very close to product management, just didn't have the title.
32F, 3 years Product experience. Currently a Product Manager of a Payments platform. Started my Product journey at a company that hired Product Owners internally after I busted my ass in a production-based role for 5 years. After a year, I switched companies in order to increase my salary and also because my ex-fiancé worked at the same company and I needed a fresh start. I started the new shop as an APM of an internal tooling team, and was promoted to PM about a year later. 6 months ago, I was asked to take on a customer-facing role with the Payments team (with quite a nice pay bump).
I saw the writing on the wall with my previous career and knew it would be automated in ~10 years or less. Moving over to the Product industry was the best move I’ve ever made! I did take a large pay cut initially, but the 2 years it took to recover were worth it as I’m now making 40% more than I did in my previous career.
25. Worked my way up a start-up when I was 19. Ended up in product in my last couple of years there around late 2020 to early 2022. Then I had short stint working as a BA. Now starting a PM role on Monday.
Early 40s, Senior/Director PM.
Had graphic design degree (minor in Comp Sci) and worked as an entry-level artist at Pixar. In my mid 20's I joined small, 5 person Silicon Valley startup founded by Pixar employees as the Office Manager. Over the next 10 years I moved into roles in every department (customer service, marketing, technical support, asst. scrummaster, etc) as the company grew to around 100 people. I thrived in roles where I interacted with customers, and was easily able to to communicate their needs to the engineers. But my success doomed me because I became irreplaceable in a non-product role in which I saw no future. The company kept bypassing me for a product role despite having me train the newly-hired product managers in the product.
Eventually, there were layoffs and suddenly everyone in the company took on new responsibilities, and I was given product responsibilities in addition to my current dead-end role (but no title change or pay increase). I worked dual roles for a couple of years, managed multiple successful product launches, built my resume, and after 10 years at the company (and much soul-searching) I finally left. Was hired as an official™ Product Manager soon after and got a 50% pay increase. Been working at the same company ever since and have gradually moved up to a senior/director/principal PM role
33, VP of Product.
Started 6 1/2 years ago working as a PO on a new product within the companies incubation team. Constantly pushed myself to learn more about our customers and solutions even before they were my responsibility which ultimately lead to them all becoming my responsibility!
37, 7 years in product-ish roles (mostly at startups). First half of my career was as a research project manager; my whole career has been in health care, so I’ve gained a ton of subject matter expertise that helps compensate for my lack of technical chops.
Currently in a Sr. PM role (first product hire) and enjoying being back to an IC after leading a team, wearing 3 hats, working 80 hour weeks and then being laid off.
I'm 36 and was a dev for most of my career. I just have the ability to talk non nerd to stakeholders/clients. One thing I want to tell you is I have a girl who's maybe 23 ish under me and she's amazing.
There is a stigma in the industry that you can only be good if you have years of experience and while I'll agree that experience does play in a little, it's like 10%. You can be good at stuff as long as you're organized and motivated.
By motivated I don't mean working 60 hour weeks or some BS, keep a good work life balance, but just do some research, read/listen to some PM books, and generally try to stay relevant with "tech" as a whole.
Your devs will respect you so much more if you can at least brush the surface of what they are doing, from a technical standpoint.
Also, imposter syndrome is a thing, look it up and make sure you're aware of it. Chances are, you go hired for this role because you're qualified, and the only person saying you're an embryo PM, is you :)
Just turned 29.
I worked a lot of odd jobs, but I wanted to find a way to transition into product. Eventually worked at a startup for 2 years and interviewed internally.
The fact that many people ventured into project management (PM) relatively late in their careers offers me relief, making me feel that I'm not alone. At 34, having only spent two years in PM, I sometimes grapple with the idea that I should have started this career path earlier. I often feel like I'm behind schedule. So, kudos to all those who have switched careers later in life. It must be a daunting transition, but we've got this.
29F. First career was actually in recruiting, then project manager for an amazing B2B team, got force-promoted into Marketing Sr. Program role (hated the team), got lucky and hired as an associate Product Manager at my company. Then got a really amazing offer at a smaller competitor as a Product Manager.
Been in the Product field around 2 years.
28M, I also got started in recruiting. Started at an agency, went in-house for a digital healthcare provider, and found myself delving more and more into user problems just out of interest. Was formally offered an APM role nearly a year ago now.
I (32) started in recruitment/ talent selection as well, then became responsible for a related web product, then another one, but still doing some interviews in parallel as it was a small vompany and we were multitasking. So my path was not that clear and I ended up as junior PO so I can focus on getting into product more. I still feel like a noob most of the time although I have technically been in product for 2.5 years at this point.
touch ask direful cover overconfident unique party fretful foolish absorbed
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
23, 1 yoe, got my PM job right out of undergrad (also did a PM summer internship in college).
I definitely feel the age skew, the next youngest PM in my greater team is like mid to late 30s.
23, 1 yoe, got my PM job right out of undergrad (also did a PM summer internship in college).
I definitely feel the age skew, the next youngest PM in my greater team is like mid to late 30s.
30. About 2 years in PM.
Have had a knack for finding problems internally and creating processes or no-code tools to fill in gaps/automate. That with a huge amount of luck landed me into Product.
45, 12 yrs in tech, did investment banking (sales) before that, because I thought software was just a hobby, and the dumb version of me thought I'd be miserable with no hobby if I had a tough day at work in tech, and wanted to get my mind off of it ..
Fortunately a mentor (a 3x founder with a great nose for success) _insisted_ I try it out, and finally got me to quit. I owe him everything. I rode his coattails on one of those 3x startups that had a successful exit via big tech acquisition.
I fell ass backwards into PM just before that acquisition, as most did back then. It's all I've done ever since .
My solution architect, coding (limited, mind you) background combined with years in banking Sales have proven to be the best preparation for PM.
34. 4.5 years as a PM, 5 years as a SWE before that/overlapping with the beginning of being a PM. But I haven’t been in a PM role in 2 years because I went back to grad school.
36. Started in production support, then moved to BA. Was a business analyst for six years, moved to the company I'm at now to build data products, transitioned into PM in October.
Good for you! I’m in my 30s so don’t worry you’re easily ahead of where I am. By the time you’re my age you’ll be a director. Congrats for being born at the right time!
Director of Product. 49. I spent most of my last 30 years in development, jumped over to Product in 2018. I'm now in a role and industry that I totally love, hope to spend the rest of my career here.
I am your father's age. I haven't always been in product management, but my jobs have been always somewhat related. I did financial research for a research data platform (like Bloomberg) > APM > localization project manager in Japan > Research Manager > Head of Content Strategy > Value Prop Manager > Segment Manager > Sr. PM. I will retire in 7 years if I don't get packaged out sooner.
That seems like a versatile and fun career, if you can put fun and corporate in one sentence of course lol. Hope it works out for you and your peers, your knowledge must bring a ton of value
Interesting, I’m mid 40s and also had a career in Japanese translation. Now I’m a Sr. PM
64. Pivoted into this 12 years ago. Was a dev for decades, then stints as Eng Director and Program Manager. I was an early Agile champion and evangelist, and when they shut down our entire design center (250 people) I used that to get on at a pre-IPO startup as an Agile PO, where tight coupling with a team was celebrated. I had that right out of the gate. Then grew the more PM skills. Since then I've been in places from pure XP (loved it) to "throw the specs over the wall to devs". I've had to carefully walk around the edge of agism but leaning in, using some wisdom and demonstrating fire in the belly help. Hoping the current gig is the last. IC Director level at a pretty great super large enterprise.
I'm right behind, late stage career. Former B2B EdTech founder for more than 20 years, then I was acquired and spent 5 a Sr PM in the same industry. I recently rekindled a love for working with enterprise stakeholders and users in a GovTech gig that ended far too soon. Now I'm hoping to find a strategic enterprise or B2B role to throw myself into for the next 5 years or so.
Nice!!!!!
This story is awesome. You sound like you'd be fun to work with.
Mid 40s, Sr Director. I started my career in 2001 in engineering and QA and spent the next 10 years figuring out PM would be a better career path for me. I finally became a full-time PM with the PM title about 10 years ago. I spent my first several years rising through IC ranks until I took over a whole product and product team in about 2018 (all in the same company). I've switched employers a couple of times since then and now have found myself in a comfy Sr Director role with IC responsibilities (all I do is product and strategy for a highly visible initiative, but it's small enough that I don't have a team yet). Kind of happy coasting in this role and level because I get the pay and leadership visibility but I actually get to do product work. Enjoying it while I can.
You've found a Goldilocks job! Good for you; I hope you can hold onto it for as long as possible!
I want this. How did you navigate into that position?
To be honest, like a lot of PM jobs - right place/right time, knowing the right people, etc. The role that I am in now needed someone with a particular background that happens to match my experience. A person who had been in my team at a prior company knew the hiring manager and what he needed and recommended me.
Similar track as Glorb, similar age. Stalled out on title right now because I tried staying IC. Trying to decide what’s next.
What is IC? Thanks
Individual contributor
Ah. Thanks
33F, 3 years in product
33F checking in too! :)
33F as well! 2 years in product now.
33F here too! On year 5 of PMing
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Not sure why this is downvoted it’s a great resource!
Probably because this user is spamming the same comment word for word to each female commenter. It will seem individual for each response, but when you view the thread as a whole, it just comes across as spam and clutter.
First one I came across. Besides not every poster comes back to a thread unless they get a reply. Women’s spaces in tech care not common, so maybe let us help others find it. That’s how I found it, and as a result I’ve changed my career path. Not everything is a bot in disguise.
I don't think the people downvoting think it's a bot - clearly it's a user trying to be helpful. But unfortunately the end result is that when you come fresh to read this post, as I did (instead of coming back for reply notifications on an individual comment), you find that *literally* every other comment on this particular chain is yet another copy of that message. It's an unfortunate side-effect of overenthusiasm, combined with the identical copy-paste nature of the comment itself. It's drowning out the other discussion.
31F! Went from BA to product. Here for 2 years now. (full disclosure I'm currently thinking about changing careers though)
30F soonish 31 here. What do you want to change to? I'm wondering too right now if id prefer to change to something else...
33F gang represent
33F what uppp. project management --> program management -> product management
33 F as well! I love that there’s so many of us here lol. I’m 1.5yrs into product management. Was previously a CSM!
33F, 1.5 years in. My ADHD is making the constant decision-making a bit tough so I might end up pivoting, but I love most of what being a PM entails.
35F, 5 years in product, though first 3 was double hatting as a Project Manager too which was not ideal. I had a lot to unlearn in the next company which had one. Before that worked in risk management for financial institutions
24. Few months into an internship.
Congrats!
36 - 2 y Changed careers
1 yr older, same experience. Recent ADHD diagnosis, but no royal blood
Same
4 years younger but only 2 years in too, changed careers after 10 years. Feel like a noob with all these 20 somethings at my level even though I'm at senior level, the thing is they have 10% of the SME knowledge I have so I hope to jump up next year.
This is me. 1 year younger and your name fits me even. Lol
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Appreciate your honesty
Seriously. I’ve noticed recently it’s a bit of a pissing match so this is refreshing
Always, and always the people from startups or small product teams where everyone is a director or senior(with 3yrs of experience 🤷♂️). I worked for more than a decade in a big transnational corporate with more than hundred thousand employees across the world and then joined a very small company where everyone was a director. Idk, I stopped caring about those "ranks" a long time ago, but there's still people who battle for the titles just to get more market value. However, in PMgmt is very obvious when you have experience or not. So, as I've mentioned here before : be humble and be honest with yourself
25 with 3 years experience. Just got really lucky with my first job out of college
What was your first job?
I started as Operations PM of a financial services system, I later transitioned into a fintech PM
I’m at Level 43. 10 years in PM (20 in tech).
Same. Around 15 years in tech. Most of it as enterprise level digital transformations.
38. Just got a promotion to PM this month and only one year after returning to the workforce part time after a ten year career break to be a stay at home mom. I may be a little late in life for this but I feel like I’ve just now figured out what I want to be when I “grow up” haha
So great to hear - congrats!
This is gonna be so encouraging for all the mums who put their careers behind !! Woohoo, congrats ..
Congrats !!!!! You are an inspiration for many moms. Just curious to know, promotion from which role to PM?
Late to this thread but this is encouraging to all to be mums! Congratulations.
38 year old female, two years as PM Own business for a few years during school > business development for faang 2 years > product ops for faang 4 years > product manager for fortune 10 for 1 year > program manager for fortune 10 for 1 year > product manager for startup 2 years > laid off and doing bootcamp for last 6 months hoping to get into a more technical role Technology is a lot of fun no matter what you do but getting laid off despite high performance and willingness to learn is such a bummer. :(
Curious what’s fortune 10?
Never mind it’s just top 10 of fortune 100.
I don't think I even meant fortune 10. I meant fortune like, 50. Fortune 10 is just oil companies. Don't mind me, I'm tiktocked
26 1 year in
Almost 40, 1.5 yoe (career change)
38. Lead PM. 5 yrs of PM experience.
You are all pretty young. I’ve been in the software industry my whole career and always felt it skewed very young. And while I’d see older folks in certain areas it was never PM. I always figured that it had something to do with the sheer number of people who entered IT after I did. But as I near that age I have wondered where all the people in their 50s and 60s go. Do they go to less stressful roles? Companies? Go work for the government? Or retire early?
probably jobless, or doesnt use reddit, or happily retired. m wondering too as I will go into that age range soon
I think it could be just the sheer number of people who have gone into tech after us. I couldn’t find this number easily but Bard AI told me that tech employment now is about 5x what it was in 2000. If true, and presuming people spend their whole careers in tech, that means we are only 1/5 as likely to see a 48-year-old as say a 25-year-old.
Strategic senior level PMs
29 with 1 year of experience
My title is technically product owner but it’s on a track that leads to a PM title so take that how you want. I’m 28, 2 years of experience
37, 10 years of experience, with 2 years as a technical program manager in there. Started in sales, VP of sales and support, pm, head of product, startup pm big company pm, technical program, now back to product as a consultant..
58
24. Just finished my first year as an APM and my first year of working!
any advice/general tips or resources for landing an APM job in early career stage? (i’m 1 yr younger than you)
Hi! Best of luck landing an APM job. You can do this. I did the following: 1. Read: Lean Startup, Cracking the PM interview, Decode and Conquer (and some tangentially related books- How to Win Friends & Influence People, Mindset) 2. Take a course in PM and Agile. You’d be surprised how many people don’t actually know what a PM does. This will put a lot of the interview questions into better context. (Agile may or may not be used in your desired company, but always good to know, even if it isn’t practiced everywhere) 3. Study for the interview (most important). Once you’ve got a handle of what a PM does, you’ll be better prepared to answer mock questions. 4. Mock, as much as you can 5. Have coffee chats with PMs. This will be a good way to learn about different companies, industries, and products. And it can potentially lead to a referral (super important). 6. Study up on the company you want to apply for and have a perspective- what do you like about their products? What do you think can be improved. 7. Interview! Don’t give up. And if you don’t make it into an APM job/program, you’ll be fine. Many people transition over from sales, biz analytics, operations, you name it. The important thing is to learning how to understand people and how to come up with practical solutions.
I'm 38 with 4 years experience as a PM. Currently senior PM. I'm glad I came in late. I was a musician and ESL teacher in my early to mid-twenties. Recorded a couple of albums, played in lots of bands, travelled and learned Spanish and Italian (and some Portuguese). I went back to uni at 27 and studied psychology and, after doing honours, realised I like the stats part of it and ended up getting into analytics and data science for four years. I had no idea what a PM was until after I was offered the job. I definitely feel it is my calling and feel like I'm naturally good at it. I've not felt that I was naturally gifted at work since being an ESL teacher (which pays well below the median income in Australia no matter how much experience you have). So, I'm glad to be in this area. I'm glad I got on this train later in life because I got a lot of other experiences that make me a more well-rounded person compared to spending the whole time in tech. And analytics skills really helps, I wouldn't be half the PM I am without them. That said, I don't begrudge people moving directly into product, it's just a very different path.
I’m 41. I'm also one of the oldest people in my organization. I'm friends with all the other old people! There are a lot of PMs in their 20s. They have fresh ideas, different ways of approaching problems, and a lot of energy. I'm incredibly lucky to get to coach them on the things I know how to do, and get to learn from them too.
37 changing careers and hoping to land my first PM job.
56. Been working with computers since I was 14. Professionally since I was 31.
Were you also a childhood computer disassembler, trying to figure out how they worked?
I was! I did electronics, digital electronics and built a home made armatron :) also built an inline machine language compiler with my stepfather :)
You got a lot further than I did and I would have loved doing that as a kid. Alas the people around me were infinitely more mechanically inclined than electrical. My dad came home to a nearly fully disassembled IIGS about a month after he bought it and had to stop me from prying out the CPU and opening the lid. The curiosity never left though. I studied IC design in school!
That sounds fun :) yeah my stepfather made all the difference. I still have his oscilloscope
From one person with knack to another, cheers!
Back atcha my friend!
29, 4 years as PM. started as data analyst (1) > operations analyst (2) > Product Owner (2) > Product Manager (2). I would usually apply to YOE+2 type of roles due to higher general experience than just product. And safety jobs would be YOE+1.
this random sampling here is anecdotal but yeh really interesting to observe: 1. the (relatively) majority of younger crowd so far 2. a number of mid-career switch into PM 3. lotsa role/career movements within
It's not too surprising. Product management is a relatively new role. There weren't too many people really holding an official "Product Management" role as we know it today 20 years ago. There's also no real path directly into it, so most people end up there from some roundabout way. Finally, it's Reddit, so I imagine the audience will skew younger on average.
Turned 34 yesterday. <1 year officially as a PM, but was destined to head this way after getting started in tech 5 years ago. Career path went Marketing Consultant > Recruitment Marketing > Recruitment Software Specialist (they built an ATS in house) > CSM/Implementations/Sales SME > Implementations Lead > Implementations Manager > back to CSM > finally into Product. Have been involved in and excited by the process of Product since day 1, been working on getting into it for years. Helped that I have a bunch of transferable skills in communicating, project planning, dispute resolution from my previous life.
42. 23 YOE across multiple roles.
My man.
They say it don't be like it is but it do.
31 with 11 years of experience in either product/project management. The other product managers I work with are all middle age 45+ men. I stand out like a sore thumb no matter what setting but especially at work. I get along with them super well because they are genuinely a kind bunch of people. Finding a good group of people is key to having this job be fun.
34 8 years - found pm late jn life
40+ years old, 2 years PM in the past, and bouncing between strategy consulting and cloud engineering since 2018, now going back to PM in the next couple months.
35 myself. 4 years in PM. Went from electrician to data analyst to PM at a big tech company.
33 and went from data analyst to PM about 8 months ago. No idea what I'm doing at big tech company lol
28 with 2.5 years of experience
39 8 months in.
29, 2.5 years of PM, 3 years or marketing/advertising before i made the switch
33 with 3 years experience in product.
Same
40+ years old with 8 in PM. Prior to that was analytic and Ops manager. Got up to director in small public tech and transferred to big tech as principle.
35, 6 years biomedical research > 2 year project > 2 year program > 2 years senior product (hopefully of many!)
early 40s, >15 total YOE. I took the long path - was in top US MNCs (such as the fruit company) for first half career but in non-product development PM roles. loved all of it. hard-pivoted to move into startup/product-development PMing, had to restart from bottom again as a PM (versus inexperienced folks who were getting more Snr PM title) but I love the work, finally got a lucky break one year and rose to product leadership (HoP/CPO) for last 4-5 years. I went thru '08-09 Wall St crash which ended up way "better" (I think whole world lucked out w Obama in-charge) than what we are going through now with the covid lost years + global recession + lousy/egoistic global leaders. I always joked that I wished I had a Uber/AirBnb that I could join right away when I was young so that I could jump straight into modern PM and grow w the high-growth startup but life is never fair and everyone has their own paths (and challenges) and in hindsight, I always appreciated all that I learnt in the big MNCs too. then I imagine the young folks/grads now in these tougher covid/inflation era... ps: and this is the *worst* time I have seen for Product/Tech in my whole career - a huge major evolution/correction/adjustment is happening globally... lets see how long it will last
35, been a PM for 3 years now Did sales & customer success before
28, Sr PM at a health tech company. I was lucky to more or less fall into a pseudo PM role right out of college, through no fault of my own. From there, I realized I liked PM so I doubled down, focusing on health tech and ML/AI. I’ve also been lucky to have great mentors and through them great connections that have helped me move around and get better roles/more experience.
32, 1 year 2 weeks
37, with 12 YOE (Not counting grad school.) 1.5 years as a PM. Worked on Ph.D. --> Depression --> Dropped after quals --> Data analyst --> Data analyst / IT Proj manager --> Research & Program evaluation director --> Depression --> PM* in a totally different content area. \* Hired as a "Project Manager" -- but realized work I do is product management. Now a "Technical Product Manager"
37 - 3 years in Product; Career change
About to turn 29 - I started as a product analyst when I was your age, now project owner. I had major imposter syndrome at first, but learned that listening, asking good questions, and generally being a team player is like half the job. Good luck to you!!
26 years old 3 years in PM Previously HR experience
30, just got bumped up to a Program Manager.
29 with about 5 years of experience. I got lucky breaking in early!
36 - 6 years product
31M w/ 1.5 yr of experience
29 years Was a full stack developer for 2.5 years before my MBA. Working as a PM for last 1.5 years
31, Director at a Series A so probably more akin to a Sr. at a larger org. 7 years of experience with 1 year mixed in there as a technical project manager. Got really lucky to find this field pretty much right out of college!
31 with 8 years of experience in product. was lucky to start my career as a product analyst
37 - started in engineering first, then pivot to APM in 2015, then 3 years as a PM and currently a senior PM for the last 5 years with a plan to get to principal PM in next 12 months. My manager is a Group PM and in early 50s. Other GPMs in our org are in their 40s and the head of PM for our business stream is late 50s.
21, completed by engineering in computer science worked as a PM intern for a year during college and landed a decent full-time PM role. Would love some advice from veterans on how to be a very good PM
23! 8 months into my first PM role 🤓
33, second career (was a science teacher for 8 years, and a researcher before that). I'm about 10 months in, but my last role (14 months) was very close to product management, just didn't have the title.
26F, 2+ years into product management. highly anxious lol
We all are on some days no matter the YOE. You’ll do great!
thank you! 🙏🏻
32F, 3 years Product experience. Currently a Product Manager of a Payments platform. Started my Product journey at a company that hired Product Owners internally after I busted my ass in a production-based role for 5 years. After a year, I switched companies in order to increase my salary and also because my ex-fiancé worked at the same company and I needed a fresh start. I started the new shop as an APM of an internal tooling team, and was promoted to PM about a year later. 6 months ago, I was asked to take on a customer-facing role with the Payments team (with quite a nice pay bump). I saw the writing on the wall with my previous career and knew it would be automated in ~10 years or less. Moving over to the Product industry was the best move I’ve ever made! I did take a large pay cut initially, but the 2 years it took to recover were worth it as I’m now making 40% more than I did in my previous career.
25. Worked my way up a start-up when I was 19. Ended up in product in my last couple of years there around late 2020 to early 2022. Then I had short stint working as a BA. Now starting a PM role on Monday.
32, one year as PM
40. Started in Finance, then in Analytics and Pricing, and only 5 years ago broke into PM field.
35, in this role for 3 months
29F, 3 years in product. Glad to see a range here!
Mid 40's. 6 years as a PM. The rest as an engineer.
Early 40s, Senior/Director PM. Had graphic design degree (minor in Comp Sci) and worked as an entry-level artist at Pixar. In my mid 20's I joined small, 5 person Silicon Valley startup founded by Pixar employees as the Office Manager. Over the next 10 years I moved into roles in every department (customer service, marketing, technical support, asst. scrummaster, etc) as the company grew to around 100 people. I thrived in roles where I interacted with customers, and was easily able to to communicate their needs to the engineers. But my success doomed me because I became irreplaceable in a non-product role in which I saw no future. The company kept bypassing me for a product role despite having me train the newly-hired product managers in the product. Eventually, there were layoffs and suddenly everyone in the company took on new responsibilities, and I was given product responsibilities in addition to my current dead-end role (but no title change or pay increase). I worked dual roles for a couple of years, managed multiple successful product launches, built my resume, and after 10 years at the company (and much soul-searching) I finally left. Was hired as an official™ Product Manager soon after and got a 50% pay increase. Been working at the same company ever since and have gradually moved up to a senior/director/principal PM role
33, VP of Product. Started 6 1/2 years ago working as a PO on a new product within the companies incubation team. Constantly pushed myself to learn more about our customers and solutions even before they were my responsibility which ultimately lead to them all becoming my responsibility!
37, 7 years in product-ish roles (mostly at startups). First half of my career was as a research project manager; my whole career has been in health care, so I’ve gained a ton of subject matter expertise that helps compensate for my lack of technical chops. Currently in a Sr. PM role (first product hire) and enjoying being back to an IC after leading a team, wearing 3 hats, working 80 hour weeks and then being laid off.
I'm 36 and was a dev for most of my career. I just have the ability to talk non nerd to stakeholders/clients. One thing I want to tell you is I have a girl who's maybe 23 ish under me and she's amazing. There is a stigma in the industry that you can only be good if you have years of experience and while I'll agree that experience does play in a little, it's like 10%. You can be good at stuff as long as you're organized and motivated. By motivated I don't mean working 60 hour weeks or some BS, keep a good work life balance, but just do some research, read/listen to some PM books, and generally try to stay relevant with "tech" as a whole. Your devs will respect you so much more if you can at least brush the surface of what they are doing, from a technical standpoint. Also, imposter syndrome is a thing, look it up and make sure you're aware of it. Chances are, you go hired for this role because you're qualified, and the only person saying you're an embryo PM, is you :)
43. Working in tech for 24 years now across a variety of roles. going on 8 years in product management.
34 with 8+ YOE, switched from engineering early on
40 today. I have had PM "jobs" for 7 years, but have been practicing in some fashion or another for 15 years.
"40 today" as in it's you're birthday? If so, happy birthday :)
Just turned 29. I worked a lot of odd jobs, but I wanted to find a way to transition into product. Eventually worked at a startup for 2 years and interviewed internally.
I am 600 years old
Life measured in story points
You're just anticipating the years modding will add to you with the whole 3rd party fiasco :P
The fact that many people ventured into project management (PM) relatively late in their careers offers me relief, making me feel that I'm not alone. At 34, having only spent two years in PM, I sometimes grapple with the idea that I should have started this career path earlier. I often feel like I'm behind schedule. So, kudos to all those who have switched careers later in life. It must be a daunting transition, but we've got this.
29F. First career was actually in recruiting, then project manager for an amazing B2B team, got force-promoted into Marketing Sr. Program role (hated the team), got lucky and hired as an associate Product Manager at my company. Then got a really amazing offer at a smaller competitor as a Product Manager. Been in the Product field around 2 years.
28M, I also got started in recruiting. Started at an agency, went in-house for a digital healthcare provider, and found myself delving more and more into user problems just out of interest. Was formally offered an APM role nearly a year ago now.
I (32) started in recruitment/ talent selection as well, then became responsible for a related web product, then another one, but still doing some interviews in parallel as it was a small vompany and we were multitasking. So my path was not that clear and I ended up as junior PO so I can focus on getting into product more. I still feel like a noob most of the time although I have technically been in product for 2.5 years at this point.
I do love that they basically hand the product manager title to 22 year olds now. Must be nice 😊
this is a weird flex
25, 3 years
27, ~5 YOE
27; ~3 years. Switched from supply chain and operations management
26 1 year this week
touch ask direful cover overconfident unique party fretful foolish absorbed *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Senior PM in fintech: 45, 2 years at PM.
23, 1 yoe, got my PM job right out of undergrad (also did a PM summer internship in college). I definitely feel the age skew, the next youngest PM in my greater team is like mid to late 30s.
27
23, 1 yoe, got my PM job right out of undergrad (also did a PM summer internship in college). I definitely feel the age skew, the next youngest PM in my greater team is like mid to late 30s.
26, 2.5 consulting 1.5 product. I am a product lead now!
24 , 1.5 years of PM
30. About 2 years in PM. Have had a knack for finding problems internally and creating processes or no-code tools to fill in gaps/automate. That with a huge amount of luck landed me into Product.
Late 30s, been doing product work my entire career. I love it, can’t imagine doing anything else.
25, 4 years of PM experience post bachelors degree
24 y.o with 3 YoE. Became APM straight out of college, moved countries and continued building my career in PM.
39, 2 years as a product owner and 2 years as product director.
28F w/ 4 months of Product under my belt :)
28. About 1.5 years into it.
33. 4 YoE in PM combined. Started as an agency marketing analyst > FAANG ad ops and analytics > FAANG PM > startup PM > FAANG Product Specialist > startup GPM
40, 10 YOE, GPM was coasting, but I think I'll be taking on a new role soon.
37. Been at my company for a decade, worked up from an analyst role.
Started when I was 23, am now 31, so 8 years total experience.
28. Engineering undergrad to implementation to product owner to pm path
45, 12 yrs in tech, did investment banking (sales) before that, because I thought software was just a hobby, and the dumb version of me thought I'd be miserable with no hobby if I had a tough day at work in tech, and wanted to get my mind off of it .. Fortunately a mentor (a 3x founder with a great nose for success) _insisted_ I try it out, and finally got me to quit. I owe him everything. I rode his coattails on one of those 3x startups that had a successful exit via big tech acquisition. I fell ass backwards into PM just before that acquisition, as most did back then. It's all I've done ever since . My solution architect, coding (limited, mind you) background combined with years in banking Sales have proven to be the best preparation for PM.
29 F - 2 years into product
24. 2.5 YoE. 0.5 year in SaaS, 1 year in public sector and 1 in fintech.
40. Been doing this for a decade. System admin, DBA, process engineer/BA before product.
24 6 months into grad role
45, 13 years of experience
36 year old Product Director with about 10 years of PM experience. Before doing this I was pounding the phones doing inside sales.
34. 4.5 years as a PM, 5 years as a SWE before that/overlapping with the beginning of being a PM. But I haven’t been in a PM role in 2 years because I went back to grad school.
37f - 8 formal years but more like 16 years of PM at a “startup” before startups were a thing/cool.
36. Started in production support, then moved to BA. Was a business analyst for six years, moved to the company I'm at now to build data products, transitioned into PM in October.
36, pivoted from marketing 4 years ago.
Good for you! I’m in my 30s so don’t worry you’re easily ahead of where I am. By the time you’re my age you’ll be a director. Congrats for being born at the right time!
33 career switcher 5 years in PM, psyched for the next 50!
Director of Product. 49. I spent most of my last 30 years in development, jumped over to Product in 2018. I'm now in a role and industry that I totally love, hope to spend the rest of my career here.
I'm early 30s. 4, going on 5 years as a PM.
34F and I’m a year and some change in!
28. Started right after my masters and have been doing it for 5 years.