You're weekly Q/A Digest is here

🔥Today’s Question🔥

Answered by: Areesha

I’m answering this question from the perspective of the Indian market and of course, salaries do vary depending upon location and experience.

We must agree, that compensation is important. 💰

But there are two opposing viewpoints on this.

There are several ways to land your first PM role with a competitive package but this also heavily depends on your location and experience (as I already mentioned).

Viewpoint #1

Here are the several ways you can try to land your first PM role with competitive compensation. 👇

Target the right companies

High growth startups

These companies often require versatile PMs who can wear many hats. They might be willing to offer a competitive package to secure your talent, even if you're coming from a different background.

Larger companies with established PM tracks

These companies have clear career paths for product managers, and their compensation packages are well-defined. These tech companies are known for their strong product cultures and competitive salaries (e.g., FAANG companies - Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google).

But, only if you’re lucky enough. 🍀

Keep in mind that you need to have a very strong understanding of product sense, strategy, business acumen, product pricing, product analytics, technology, etc. to crack and work at these companies.

If you’re ready to take the pains, it’s all worth it! 😍

Highlight transferable skills:

You might already know this from our post on Making the Internal Switch (For Transitioning PMs)

But I’m telling this to you again, always highlight your transferable skills.

Focus on your accomplishments in previous roles that demonstrate product management skills like user research, market analysis, project management, or communication.

P.S: Next week, we will send out an in-depth post on how to get started with your transition journey - with many more tips!

Quantify your achievements across your resume and interviews and prove that you can bring real results to the table.

Relevant to you:

• Nail Every Stage of Your Next PM Interview 

• FREE Hands-on Project on Product Design

• Making the Internal Switch (For Transitioning PMs)

Negotiate effectively:

Negotiation is an art.

But practice makes you perfect. 😉

Here’s some groundwork you can do to make your negotiation effective:

• Research average product manager salaries for your experience level and location. Use this data as a benchmark during negotiations.

• Be prepared to discuss the value you bring to the company beyond just your current title.

• Be open to discussing a total compensation package that includes salary, bonus, and benefits.

Viewpoint #2

The second viewpoint is that getting a competitive salary for your first product role heavily depends on location and experience.

Based on Experience 🎓

Here comes the battle between technical and non-technical PMs.

Well, the bitter truth is that technical product managers are paid more than non-technical product managers in an average startup or mid-sized company.

But why? 🥺

Technical product managers are engineering managers and product managers at the same time.

They have a strong understanding and work experience in several programming languages, APIs, types of applications, operating systems, and tech stacks compared to non-technical product managers.

Their software engineering degree and experience pay off.

Based on Location 🌍

You would be shocked to know this, but it’s true!

The annual salary of a non-tech APM in India is the monthly salary of a non-tech APM in the USA 🤯.

Don’t believe me? Read this blog on Exponent here and learn the average salaries of PMs of different experience levels in the USA.

The currency math 💵

The average salary of an APM in the USA is $80k a year, which is 68 LPA.

~5.5 lacs a month in Indian Rupees. 💰💰💰

~8 times higher than the average annual base salary (8 LPA) of an APM in India.

And this is just considering the base salary package of an APM with 0 or at least 1 year of experience in the USA.

If you have around 2-3 years of experience, you can easily earn above $100-112k or start working as a Product Manager with more than $112k a year which is ~93 lacs a year (close to a crore) in Indian Rupees.

To confirm this, I searched LinkedIn for APM jobs in the USA.

Look what I found:

• This is not a large company like FAANG. It’s simply a fast-growing startup in the USA.

• There is no technical experience or qualification required at all.

• All the other experiences fall into place with a 1-year experience as an intern or APM in any company in India.

• Many openings are remote and do not require you to travel to the US at all. Some remote openings require you to reside in the USA, so read the descriptions carefully.

There are tons of openings like these on LinkedIn.

Takeaway: Maybe it’s not your experience or background all the time, you’re not in the right location 😉

That's all for the week!

Cya next week!

Areesha ❤️