Longevity of a product career

Ask me anything except my company name, or things that can reveal my identity. I may respectfully choose not to respond to your question based on my own judgement. Here’s a brief intro about me: I’ve worked as both software engineering manager & software technical architect over the last 18+ years on various tech stacks managing backend, frontend and a little bit of cloud. I have seen ups and downs in the software industry. Currently I’m working as a senior architect in one of the product based companies in India.

With the recent influx of talent who are trying to enter the world of PMing just because they overheard that PMs are CEO of the product, and they get paid really well, the bar throughout the industry is decreasing. While we need more PMs, I feel most of the 2-3yoe PMs i'm meeting either for interview or guidance are more like COGS in the wheel. They are doing more and more of Program Management. Any PM at any level should spend atleast 10-20% of their time thinking about product vision, and how will the world look like if their product succeeds in 1y). We need folks like Anuj, and other senior veterans, to come up and train the middle management of most of the companies to really improve PMing as a function in India

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.

Lately I am seeing a lot more people talk about the fact that being a PM is a sub optimal strategy for an eventful career in Tech. However, let me remind you that people in tech tend to be predominantly engineers and they like the people skills needed to be good at making Products for actual humans. I have personally witnessed PMs be great at talking to various teams in Engg, Design, Analystics and Operations. They are so good at talking that they forget that they actually need to work and not just speak all the time. I feel that PMs are all talk but now work and just chill around the foosball table all day. Once in a while they will go and flirt with that new chick that joined their team. In case the joke wasn't clear, "PMs are the cesspool of Tech". 😂

I am a 3rd year student from tier -3 private college, pursuing btech is it possible to get PM roles just after under graduation, have seen people from tier -1/2 pursuing vague branches like coal mineral sort of engineering and still be able to crack roles as a PM at tech companies . Also one should aim for a role like this after undergrad or just it demands more exp? Also any roadmap you would recommend

I have overall 4 YOE in software engineering space now and have been considering long term view of my career and what my future would look like. Is MBA a better choice for long term growth and trajectory, I have been working primary in frontend software engineering space and still find it exciting and challenging due to new changes and updates coming everyday. But is product management better for the long term, what is the career graph for frontend engineers after maybe 10-12 YOE ? Also how does AI impact both roles in the long term ? Any past software engineers turned PMs what are your thoughts?

I believe that PM roles require much more experience in understanding the product rather than making product teardown as projects which literally anyone can do. I don't see a real skill involved, it's like a person who is a consultant but being overpaid because he is too much involved in the product. It's the startup culture which started. I think Project/product manager roles should be a promotional mark for experienced software developers or analysts.

Met a PM from IIT / IIM with 4 years of experience. He is working at a well know soonicorn at a salary of 17 lakhs per year . He used to draw 30 lakhs per year in his last role before we was laid off . Interesting Times ahead