Ask HN: I'm a PM, and I want to go back to coding

14 points by prgmatic 3 years ago | 18 comments

I'm in my mid-30s and I work as a Senior Product Manager at a software company (not a big one). I'm not really happy and I'm wondering if I should go back to coding. Albeit, I haven't been in a coding role in almost a decade.

My entry point into tech was web development (teens/college) but found myself intrigued by design and UX challenges, so I went from a front-end developer in college into product/UX design and did that for some years.

What I know now that I didn't know then: - Every role / skill set has its challenges, especially when you get into the more advanced tiers. In my early 20s I thought that "coding wasn't for me" because I was hitting seemingly insurmountable walls. Now I know those are simply the challenges that help you level up. - You can be good at anything and get whatever job you want if you set your mind to it. Surely some of us are more right-brained or left-brained, but I feel like there is an argument to why coding is creative and how PM/design is technical.

I guess I just miss coding. I miss not dealing with people problems. I miss the incremental feeling of achievement with shipping code. I don't like that my work performance is dependent on politics, ambiguity, and people stuff instead of things working or not working.

Product management doesn't have that same joy for me and I'm not sure if this is right for me.

How do I get back into a coding job? Will my trajectory / resume be a hindrance?

mooreds 3 years ago |

What are your salary requirements? That's probably the biggest sticking point, as you won't be a senior dev (in terms of coding skills). I'd address that relatively quickly in any interview process.

I think your skillset is well aligned with a team lead who has one foot in the coding world and one in the product/project management world. That's probably the type of role I'd look for. In my experience, consulting companies are far more forgiving for this type of transition than product companies are.

So I'd take the following steps:

* do some coding in your spare time to see if it matches with your ideas. No sense in making the jump if you are wrong. You might see if there's any small projects/hackfests you could participate in as a coder at your current company.

* write up a resume emphasizing your technical skills. This can be coding, requirements gathering, QA, architecture review/feedback, etc. Minimize your prouct management experience.

* find a consulting company looking for a team lead or senior engineer in a tech stack that you are comfortable in and get to know the hiring manager. Ask them for coffee and explain your situation and ask for their advice (people love to give advice) on how to find a coding job. Are there specific things you can do to make the transition easier.

* make a list of consulting companies that you'd like to work for and look at their jobs page. Apply, but do it through the back door, via someone you know there. If you don't know someone, find someone you can get to know (even a weak connection like an interaction on HN or Twitter is far better than applying through the front door)

* get hired :). Do a good job there, and make sure you get as technical as possible. Given your background, the company may pull you towards the project management side, but resist.

* after you've been there for 1-2 years, look around for a product company if that is your end goal.

HTH.

prgmatic 3 years ago | |

This is informative and helpful. Thank you!

thenerdhead 3 years ago |

Another way to look at it is to take your current job and make it "yours".

If you hate politics, don't play them.

If you hate ambiguity, create clarity.

If you hate people stuff, leave it to people managers.

You can be a successful PM and focus more on the creative sides, but only you will be able to do that. Most people just do the job as their managers think it should be done, and that's super fixed minded. Create your own definition of what a PM could be capable of doing that matches your intuition.

Otherwise just look to pivot to a IC coding role as PMs do this all the time and vice-versa.

GianFabien 3 years ago | |

Good advice. In my experience within some companies you don't have the autonomy to make those sorts of changes. The higher ups have a firm grip on how they want things to run and how individuals have to comply with their vision. In such situations I have found it easier to switch to another company.

dieselgate 3 years ago |

There's nothing stopping you from getting back into coding in general, that'd probably be the first step. Rivers Cuomo (of Weezer fame) can still be spotted around github issues and stuff - just as an example of someone who still codes even though it isn't their main job. Maybe you can stay at your current Org and pivot to some more code related tasks - start small and gain familiarity and work up from there. You'd have good support from others you already know and a good "thing" to put on a resume. No experience is bad experience for someone in your position.

Best of luck to you

Edit: was thinking on this and maybe just getting a dev env. for your work's codebase could be a good first step. even if it's just commented out code making a merge request and making a production deploy could be valuable too - however that may look

tacostakohashi 3 years ago |

> I miss not dealing with people problems.

As a coder, you don't get to ignore people problems. Unless you're very junior, and can get away with expecting your manager to filter that stuff out for you. Beyond that, if you want to get anywhere... you need to build relationships with your coworkers, users, testers, prod support people, manager, etc.

smarri 3 years ago |

I knew a newspaper journalist in his late 30s / early 40s who became a developer, and by the time I met him he was a senior developer and highly respected in the team and business. He was working at a tech 'scaleup' who were valued at +£2bn and that had been around for c.10 years. I think given your a PM and already in tech, it shouldn't be a problem. I'd use the fact you were a PM to your advantage.

beardyw 3 years ago |

I had this twice in my career, and in both cases I got back into coding as a freelance. Somehow it worked out well, possibly because of how your knowledge / experience is measured. I won't claim it was easy though.

vadimdne 3 years ago |

What do you do as a PM? Do you really make business decisions or just write stories/review UX screens?

IMO running a real product is the second best (and hardest) things to do. The first being running a company.

For this to be true, you should really like the product. And your decisions should directly impact product revenues. And product revenues should directly impact your income.

If that’s not the case with your current product, consider trying another one before switching back to coding.

amalgamated_inc 3 years ago |

> Will my trajectory / resume be a hindrance?

On the margin, but not in totality. Will you get a Super Duper Senior Coder job right away like somebody who's been coding that entire time? Of course not. Will you get SOME coding job? Sure.

Just pick up some web dev stack that's popular (e.g. JavaScript/TypeScript/React), get somewhat comfortable with it (a handful of weekend projects) and then start applying places.

I will say you picked a really bad time, tons of companies are laying people off and freezing hiring.

prgmatic 3 years ago | |

I'm not in a hurry to move, I would like to plan and prepare for the transition once I've sat with this feeling and understand that it's real and it doesn't just pass over me.

Perhaps I could use the next 6 months to study and create some weekend projects.

amalgamated_inc 3 years ago | | |

Sounds great. To be clear, I don't think weekend projects are a huge help in getting a job in the sense of having a portfolio, more to give yourself the confidence and polish your skillset a bit.

nextos 3 years ago | | |

IMHO if you can position yourself in a relatively niche domain, you may actually get more value than by creating weekend projects.

In your shoes, I would actually try to get hired now. Probably lots of companies, see e.g. Who is hiring / Who wants to be hired threads, would extend you an offer straight away.

silksowed 3 years ago |

i'm heading down the PM path from a CS degree background, working at a tech company for ~2 years. sometimes i wish i had gone into dev work so i could get better satisfaction in the day to day. it also seems like PM hiring is very picky which worries me if i lose my job. anecdotally lots of career pages have lots of open dev positions but few PM roles. is this a factor in your thought process for switching?

prgmatic 3 years ago | |

It’s an observation I made too. There definitely seem to be fewer PM roles and it makes sense - often there is 1:5 all the way up to 1:10 PM to Engineers ratio. My personal motivation isn’t necessarily a reaction to the market, but more so my general experience and satisfaction as an IC versus a PM. I just feel like I’m more of a coach as a PM than a player in the field. And as I look at my life and reflect on how I ended up here, I can’t ignore that it was very much about playing the game that pulled me in.

silksowed 3 years ago | | |

totally understand where you're coming from. lots of days i feel like my job is to get the right people involved in the problem, not solve the problem myself. best of luck to you, i might find myself moving a similar direction.

GajiOwo 3 years ago |

I am currently facing this same issue but I am a Startup founder and I want to go back to coding full time again