I work in a Technical PM role at a large North American Insurance company and used to work at one of the largest Banks as a Sr. Business Analyst (or Sr.Systems Analyst depending where you are).
>lots of our software devs write bad code
Ultimately, you get what you pay for, all our full stack devs are making 6 figures... While it might not be FAANG money they also almost never work overtime and the stress levels are relatively low.
>Are these folks embedded in the business?
No, thats my job. As a Tech PM I'm supposed to know exactly the business requirements, what my guys can do (to manage expectations) and any limitations of the software/business. I find the best PM's are the ones that have some Dev experience but also have extensive people skills and understand how to manage stakeholders.
>are there folks using the more technical bits of the systems that are business-oriented?
It varies, I started off as that business-oriented person (corporate finance) and eventually made my way over to the Data side of things and finally some programming work and now I'm running projects. While you won't get many analysts/portfolio managers doing dev work I do try and get them to have a hands on approach especially when doing QA and UAT work.
> Ultimately, you get what you pay for, all our full stack devs are making 6 figures... While it might not be FAANG money they also almost never work overtime and the stress levels are relatively low.
Yes, it's the blessing and the curse. They are lovely people. They have lives. They aren't working 24/7. But there is misalignment between senior folks who want to innovate and build internal tech around core IP and the talent level of the folks tasked with actually getting that done. Insurance hardly unique in that regard, but an acute issue nonetheless. Firms like GS, JPM, etc have fatter margins (I think) and can afford to pay devs/strats/etc.
Interesting to hear that you went from corporate finance to technical PM. Quite the journey. Would love to dig more into that if you're willing.
>Firms like GS, JPM, etc have fatter margins (I think) and can afford to pay devs/strats/etc.
From what I've seen on my end the Insurance firms have started paying somewhat of a premium to compensate for the lack of "excitement" that is associated with the insurance industry as a whole.
>Would love to dig more into that if you're willing.
>lots of our software devs write bad code
Ultimately, you get what you pay for, all our full stack devs are making 6 figures... While it might not be FAANG money they also almost never work overtime and the stress levels are relatively low.
>Are these folks embedded in the business? No, thats my job. As a Tech PM I'm supposed to know exactly the business requirements, what my guys can do (to manage expectations) and any limitations of the software/business. I find the best PM's are the ones that have some Dev experience but also have extensive people skills and understand how to manage stakeholders.
>are there folks using the more technical bits of the systems that are business-oriented? It varies, I started off as that business-oriented person (corporate finance) and eventually made my way over to the Data side of things and finally some programming work and now I'm running projects. While you won't get many analysts/portfolio managers doing dev work I do try and get them to have a hands on approach especially when doing QA and UAT work.