Honest career advice for early PMs

Inspired by:

• How Marc Lore hires people
• Forget Passion, Focus on Surfing
• 5 things to look if you want to have a great career
• Caliber of team, Company priority, Manager compatibility, Your likely singular impact, and Alignment with career goals
• Hitching your wagon to an influential fast rising star
• Get a CS degree and work at 3 breakout series B/C startups for 3 years each as an engineer/PM
• 8 ideas around job search
• 10 years becoming an expert in an old industry or 1 year becoming an expert in a new industry
• Vet the company like a VC
• Impact = Environment x Skills
• PM Your Career Like You PM Your Product

My own gyaan: How to think about your career, especially this: Titles and career lottery

Counter example: You Probably Shouldn’t Work at a Startup

Feedback on this post from a friend with whom I have diacussed the topic of machinery vs self a lot:

• Overtime focus on increasing that 20%. The more the output is dependent on you, the more you will grow (and hence better opportunities/money etc). Early stage PM (without dependencies in life) should also focus on what delta they add to the machinery. That will create your x factor over time.
• Another way to think about this is: If you are a PM who is working hard, but frustrated with his output and is feeling insecure, look around and see if the machinery is right. Do you have the right funding, momentum, visibility, smart people, market dynamics with you. Don’t take it too hard if numbers/output are not moving. You might not be able to influence the tide.

P.S I created the diagram and notes inside half an hour based on a discussion that I had with a PM who is considering a job switch. If there are any typos/errors, ignore them. Have feedback? Feel free to send a DM on Twitter.