Stop BSing on Resumes

Someone told me that it is an issue that can be solved by having high agency but it is exactly the thing that is penalized first. You can only affect the locus of your influence but when you need to get work done collaboratively it is mind numbing work. You need to sell, sell and sell. Not the right ideas always win but the loudest guy who is really chummy with the founders. Most founders can't do any better because it serves their ego. Doing things right means accepting that your throughput of ideas based in gut call is bad for the company. Having a system where meritocratic ideas win while "smart" show-sha people who are all talk and no show are fired straight up. I have myself witnessed the death of culture when the inner circle does as what they want to, and soon the it turns very toxic for everyone involved. I can tell you that right now I am pretty much sure that 4 people will leave within 1 year, even if they were offered a 100% hike. High agency means that you can only do the best with the cards that have been dealt to you. But even with high agency you cannot expect to solve big problems that extend beyond your scope of responsibilities.

PM of 5 years. Same place the whole time. We have a new Engineering Manager. They started 2 months ago and at first they seemed like they were very happy to learn our process and products. Then they soon started to manipulate the Engineering team which was very cooperative earlier. It’s incredibly demotivating. We are a small startup, and the culture isn’t great but seriously no need to be so dismissive of other people’s efforts and feelings. They are just fucking rude. No other word for it really. The problem is that they do NOT get the product side of things so you can’t explain anything to them. They start to physically roll their eyes when you go anymore product than the word “PRD”. I have never had to deal with someone like this and it’s really stressing me out as they are involved in effectively every project I work on. Advice that isn’t “quit” will be appreciated. I should also clarify that when I say “product limitations” I really mean how much effort goes into getting things right, the delays are shearing the roadmap apart. why do Software Engineers act so rude? How to solve this in my team?

It takes time to understand and master any domain. You have to do something substantial. Where has the humility gone? Does calling yourself Leader increases chances of getting jobs? It’s mind boggling And shallow.

I applied for the opening at JPL (Jio Pvt Ltd) in June of last year. Received the interview call on 4th July and concluded the entire process with the final HR round on 17th August (already painfully slow). This was followed by a period of complete silence from the HR's end, which finally broke on 30th September (after probably 30+ follow-ups) when they gave me a verbal offer and gave me confidence for the final offer release within a few days. Well, the final offer came on 27th December 2023, close to 3 months after the verbal offer (again, after probably 40+ follow-ups). Joined on 16th January 2024 (due to some emergency), and was treated to a GREAT campus in Navi Mumbai. --And this is probably where everything good with JPL ends. After spending 2 days, I understand that things are not what I expected from any Product organisation, and that I made the wrong decision. Gave myself 30 days to ensure the feelings were backed by more experiences, and I'm not acting impulsively. Day 31, I started interviewing with other organisations, and fortunately was able to get in touch with the HR from another organisation that I rejected for Jio, and they were kind enough to resend the offer letter. Dropped the bomb on 8th March 2024, startling everyone because people usually don't like leaving their comfortable lives at Jio. My L1 and L2 aligned on a 14 days notice period, but the "smartasses" in the HR department thought its a great idea for me to serve the entire notice period of 60 days, and thus I'm stuck here till 6th May 2024. Opening the forum for people with any amount of experience to ask questions about the hiring process, the culture, the turn-off, the decision to quit, ANYTHING.

A lot of folks working at startups seem to be "passionate " about their job. Some of them possibly, truly are. Some foolishly reverse engineer this passion because they're paid really well and they've been doing a good job and it's good personal PR to say "passion". A few reality checks. 1. Your cool Bangalore lifestyle is a result of investment risks/bets taken by VC's . 2. Your salary is as much about the market demand as it is about your " passion " and talent. 3. Startups will generally lower the bar for hiring processes to meet their demand for talent. Why need so much talent? Because the startup needs to spend that 100M$ Series C that just made them a unicorn. That's how they convince the VC to give more money. "We are going to 2x revenue by 2xing our salesforce and buying 10M$ worth of Saas that will increase our productivity by 5x. " And boom ...100M$ transferred into you SVB bank account. 4. You are as replaceable as a garbage bag on your dustbin. The HR is probably flirting with 10 other like you over linkedin. 5. The "values" this startup apparently espouses are mostly nothing but a honey trap and positioning to lure talent. It's great to have a nice tech job that pays well and allows you to gloat on twitter like a techbro but don't let it fool you into getting an inflated sense of entitlement. You're probably living on borrowed time....and money. :)

Transitioning to an SPM role (IC for now) in a new org soon and wanted some advice from the ones who’ve been there and done that (SPMs, VPs, Directors) What are some absolute must-do things in the first 3 months to set the groundwork for success? What are some common pitfalls to avoid? Any good resources that helped you, please share :)

The job market has dried up for senior product roles. Do you think the situation will improve soon? What's your overall outlook of product management as a career beyond 10 years? Do you see yourself doing this for another decade? Asking mostly from a supply and demand point of view. Also, has seen that the role is becoming more and more vague and replaceable. Context: Leading a 6 membered product team in a series B funded company. Managing the ceo/cpo opinion differences, moving to wfo from remote, high work pressure and too much reporting. I have been working with series A, series B companies throughout my career.

Sharing some reflections on this: 1. Product is not a function with a large hierarchy / multiple levels in the ladder. Managerial responsibility comes in very late in the product career and the spans are typically small (relative to other functions like engineering, sales, operations). This also means a steeper funnel to the top and only a handful VP Product roles in the industry. 2. Product is centered around technology and digital consumer trends, both of which are fast changing. This requires constant unlearning and relearning. But more critically, this also means that previous knowledge/experience hits a plateau on marginal value beyond a basic threshold (where you have developed some essential product semse and skills). 3. Product managers are also much higher-paid vs other functional peers, at comparable years of experience. This means that a PM gets to a very high salary (say, 1+ crore) by the age of 40 (15-20y into their career). Tech functions in non-tech companies (like FMCG, banking) cannot offer that kind of pay, meaning salary growth beyond a point is limited to tech-first companies / limiting addressable market for lateral moves. All of these considererd, how should PMs think about the longevity of their careers? Unlike traditional roles, this does not seem like a "retire at 60" job. What would be the realistic age one should plan for, at which career growth and salary growth will stagnate? What are ways in which a 80%ile PM can extend their career (eg: also taking up engineering management or P&L responsibility or growth function etc., to increase scope)? PS: this post is not for the top 5-10% PMs. They will always find roles at VP level etc, this is for the 50-90%ile bucket of PM talent.