
Why I left my PM role at Microsoft - PaulMest
https://medium.com/@adamjh/why-i-left-my-254-895-pm-role-at-microsoft-a91c75db37ad
======
austinz
Getting raises every year and a half for 9 years, making $250k at the end of
those nine years, and then leaving to pursue your dreams (with the concomitant
personal network, financial resources, and work experience) seems like a
pretty sweet gig to me.

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_random_
It was a nice post but the following is just a bit hard to reconcile in my
head:

 _> "Start something new; change the world"_

vs

 _> "a friend who’s founded an awesome startup (JogsForDogs)"_

and

"There has to be a better way to measure customer service ROI. We think we've
found it."

~~~
dcpdx
There are varying degrees of changing the world, and not all have to have the
aspirations of something like "organize the world's information and make it
universally accessible and useful." If you're creating value by helping
someone do their job better, or faster, or with less waste, etc, then you're
still changing the world just in a relatively smaller way. Perhaps a better
way to state it would be "making a change on the world". The startups that are
upending entire industries (Uber, SpaceX etc) get the most attention, but
there are significantly more focused on missions that may directly affect a
lot less people, but still improve their lives in a meaningful way.

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tdicola
Why did the title change on HN to remove the money? The blog post still has
the dollar amount in the title. Just curious, seems like a weird edit.

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millstone
When someone leaves a position like this, and then attempts to re-enter the
workforce a few years later, are they able to do so at around their old
salary? Or have they lost the bargaining chip and must restart substantially
lower?

~~~
HashThis
Microsoft would hire someone like this back in a hot minute. For lower level
Microsoft people who leave, they can come back at a higher level.

Microsoft needs great people. He will just have more experience in new and
unique ways, so he will be more employable.

For Microsoft employees who hit a level and can't get higher, they can
probably go to a startup for 2 years and come back at a higher level at
Microsoft.

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erobbins
note to self: investigate potential opportunities at microsoft.

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otoburb
Does anybody at Microsoft know whether "PM" refers to "Product" or
"Program/Project" manager? In either case, that sounded like a tough decision,
although hopefully he built up a large enough personal runway that helped make
the decision to strike out on his own easier.

~~~
ethomson
A "PM" at Microsoft is a "Program Manager". This is a relatively vague term
when it comes to responsibilities and deliverables and tends to vary from team
to team. Generally, though, they will tend to be more customer facing than
engineers - collecting information from the customers and creating a plan for
the Engineers to execute.

While this might sound like the old Office Space gag that they "take the specs
from the customers and bring them to the engineers", a good PM brings a lot of
value to the team and - in the classical PM role - frees up the engineers to
worry about implementation and less about what this message should say when
this error happens.

But a _great_ PM will come up with product strategy and just do _whatever
needs to be done_ to get the software out the door. Sometimes this means
working closely with lawyers. Sometimes this means working closely with the
security team. Sometimes this means writing code. Or making sure the marketing
team is on the same page as the product team. Or that the sales team knows how
to pitch this and has all the materials they need to present. Or presenting to
customers at conferences.

Sometimes this means baking cupcakes for the team, just because.

It's a time consuming, unenviable position in a lot of ways. But it's also
probably the position at Microsoft with the most ability to impact products
that ship to customers.

(Disclaimer: Microsoftie.)

~~~
FireBeyond
Great description, very spot on. I started to describe, then figured that this
sums it up just right.

\- Ex MSFT PM

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adricnet
Thanks for sharing. This echoes some of my thoughts before some recent changes
I made and is a good read for everyone to provoke some thinking about goals,
work/life balance, and of course, money.

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skc
Just realized how much I hate the term "change the world" that is so prevalent
in start up culture these days.

I suppose "World" could mean whatever you want it to mean though.

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pptr1
That is allot of money to leave behind. However, if you can be happier doing
something else for less money than go for it.

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kelukelugames
Because now I have enough money to do whatever I want?

~~~
kyllo
Yeah this guy mentions having a goal to save enough to not need to work for 2
years.

That seems fairly unambitious at that salary. If I were in his shoes I'd like
to think I would stick it out a few more years and be able to just retire
early and work on side projects for fun.

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princeb
is a quarter million even a lot anymore?

~~~
sp332
Average household income for Redmond is < $100,000. Median is probably a lot
lower. So yeah, it's enough to feel like you've "made it".

~~~
_delirium
Mean is over $100k now: according to the 2012 American Community Survey
estimate [1], mean household income in Redmond is $112k, and median is $96k.
Redmond is an unusually wealthy suburb, though. The median household income
for Seattle is $63k.

[1] There doesn't seem to be a way to link the table directly, but you can
search at
[http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/index.xhtm...](http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/index.xhtml)
and then click "Income" on the left.

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ser_tyrion
I'll play the 1% size violin

~~~
lostcolony
[http://blogs.wsj.com/wealth/2007/02/01/rich-o-
meter-20/](http://blogs.wsj.com/wealth/2007/02/01/rich-o-meter-20/)

Maybe 30th percentile, in 2004.

~~~
vonmoltke
That's net worth, not income. This is income:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_States#mediaviewer/File:Distribution_of_Annual_Household_Income_in_the_United_States_2012.png)

That salary is not quite top-1%, but it is at least top 3%.

~~~
nostrademons
This is also household income, not personal income. Last I checked, the 1%
mark for a single guy was roughly $192K/year, and for a household it was about
$388K. If his spouse makes an equal amount, he could very well be in the 1%.

