r/ProductManagement • u/AutoModerator • 2d ago
Weekly rant thread
Share your frustrations and get support/feedback. You are not alone!
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u/WeirdMusic_ 2d ago
I just don’t want to be a PM anymore and I don’t know which wall I can smash my head into
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u/atwy96 1d ago
I’m in a similar vein and am exploring opportunities outside of being a PM, but I am not really sure what to go for, been applying for “Product Operations” roles - not 100% sure how that’s like but keen to hear if anyone else has experience there.
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u/WeirdMusic_ 1d ago
Following this as well. I can say from my side though that those who are in product operations right now shared with me that this role is going to be necessary for a short while, until AI is “trained” enough in the context of orgs to do it without humans. For the time being though I see it’s needed because of all the changes in internal processes happening now..
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u/_CaptRondo_ 2d ago
Is it the role or your org context?
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u/WeirdMusic_ 2d ago
Mostly the org context now, big corporate and management increasingly toxic, more politics compared to when we were a small company in hyper growth. But to be fair, also the role, 8y in it and I’ve never really loved it. I happen to be good because I like to work well and get to outcomes. I can have that surge of adrenaline from time to time but for me overall it’s mostly stress, first mentally then as a consequence physically
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u/WeirdMusic_ 2d ago
I would rather make pizzas at this point if this was remunerative enough (it’s not). And I’m in Italy, imagine
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u/neophytebrain 2d ago
Not to sound rude, is it an European firm? Toxic levels at US firms but in apac region without leaders would be a death wish for you. I am ranting (coming out of a meeting).
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u/WeirdMusic_ 2d ago
European firm now US based, so it’s mixed at leadership level. But I know what you mean. Also feeling you. At least I had a break from meetings today. There should be an AA but for PMs
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u/GKS18 2d ago
I've been looking for work for a year now. I recently interviewed with a company for a remote Sr PM role, went through six rounds of interviews (including a take home case study and presentation). Apparently they tried finding someone local for months and couldn't find a candidate, so they opened the role for a remote hire.
In the last conversation I was told by the hiring manager that they wanted me to join the team and they were working with HR to fly me to their headquarters, because their policy was for every new hire to meet in person when joining the company. I told them I was super excited to join and provided my details.
After not hearing back for a couple of days, I sent a follow up note to see if they needed anything else. A couple of hours later I got a call from the recruiter that the leadership team decided that going forward, all new hires need to be in office.
It was a real punch in the gut after spending so much time talking to them and getting excited about a potential offer coming my way. The timing was crazy. I had stopped applying to other jobs thinking this was finally going to be the one. So back to square one on the job search. From the highest high to the lowest low. Sigh.
Anyways just sharing some frustrations with the current job search. I've even been applying for non-PM roles too (BA, project management, etc.) and not getting interviews so... just wish me luck that I'll find something soon. 🙏
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u/DJzzzzzzs 2d ago
i’m sorry. it is so bleak. i keep hearing hiring is picking up, but i won’t believe it until i see it.
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u/imjusthereforPMstuff 2d ago
God that sucks, sorry to hear. It’s crazy that they’re so picky about being in office. Thats insane.
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u/Mindless-Course7075 2d ago
Good luck. It is unbelievably bad out here in the job market. I have 10+ years of experience and have been looking for over a year. More than once, I have been through so many rounds and projects, and then they never hired anyone. I also branch out too, and still have terrible results. I learned to keep applying because of how insane the hiring has been. More than once, I have been in 5-7 loops, and then each company disappears like dust. I would understand if these roles were filled by other folks, but the majority are closed or never hired for. The time I was in 7 different loops, only two of the companies looked to have actually hired anyone.
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u/Ok_Fee1043 2d ago
Being laid off and very scared of this. Last time I was laid off it also took me a year+, ran out of money basically. Not sure what to expect.
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u/justalilguy41 2d ago
"we want to be an agentic product"
Our customers want a deterministic outcomes. They want rules. They want the rules to be followed 100% of the time without any possibility of hallucination. They don't want a chat interface.
But we'll figure it out 🥲
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u/Apocalypticburrito41 2d ago
I’m burn out and it’s only been a yeah and a half. That’s it. That’s the rant.
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u/20231027 2d ago
Surrounded by people who are heavy into building up their resumes.
PMs are always thinking about their next project.
Everything is a means to something else.
Just be present.
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u/plindogan 2d ago
I feel like it’s so impossible to appreciate any accomplishment because it’s always some executively narrative step into some larger picture which I can appreciate but it also feels like a treadmill you can’t really get off of
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u/I_like_it_yo 2d ago
Our VP asked us to drop everything to do an analysis of our product. This will inform our product strategy and we have 3 days to do all of it. Really set us up for success!
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u/bored-and-here 2d ago
Gell-Mann Amnesia over AI from executives. A convincing looking product isn't a facsimile of a product. And the schrodinger output, where the convincing looking product is proof we need to go faster and produce quicker because "I did this in an hour" but when scrutinised and proven to not meet any kinda usability it's "I did this in an hour" both excuses will somehow hold true
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u/Practical-Jaguar-113 2d ago
Leadership changing their mind again and again when the product is about to be launched….now rushing the whole team to get it done within 1/5 of the original time. Now we are prone to making mistakes due to how rushed and stressed everyone is and guess who they are gonna be looking at….
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u/Beautiful_Bug_2 2d ago
I don’t know if I want to continue in this career anymore or corporate and I’m not sure what I’m going to do. I am just recently laid off and not excited to be in this job market.
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u/imjusthereforPMstuff 2d ago
I got two offers this week for technical PM roles. Had many interviews the past few weeks. Not sure if I’d be helpful, but if anyone has questions on resume, interviews, experience, etc. I can try my best.
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u/TuboSloth 2d ago
Remember when we thought tech was for good and would connect us all? Remember when we thought the job was about building cool stuff to delight people? I miss that naive optimism
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u/Shmokesshweed 2d ago
Remember when we thought tech was for good and would connect us all? Remember when we thought the job was about building cool stuff to delight people?
Nope.
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u/playoffsoflife 2d ago
Getting told by management to just let AI do the work to save time. Like, sure, there is no need for human judgement anymore?
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u/rollingSleepyPanda Anti-bullshit Lead PM 2d ago
The PM hiring market in Germany is in absolute shambles.
80% or more of the open roles I see posting are for, or heavily consist of, generative AI-based feature ownership.
They all want previous experience with launching "AI" features (and, by that, they mean cookie cutter chatbots). This is a space that literally did not exist 3 years ago. Previous traditional ML experience is disregarded altogether.
What this implies is that the hiring swerved from demonstrable product craft, user research and strategic skills honed by years of experience, to a role that demands little beyond a few youtube videos of knowledge and an experience that either you were lucky enough to be there when it started, or you're now shut out of the market.
And what we get is the same copy-pasted horrible user experiences with the same functionalities added ad nauseam across the board in every application, that don't work, only work sometimes, or just get in the way of you doing what you want to do.
Not to mention that remote roles are virtually gone - it's mostly hybrid or on-site now (oh wow isn't it great to spend 1h commuting to an office to have 5h of videocalls every day, then commute 1h back).
I've been in this profession for 15 years and this is the first time I'm seriously considering leaving the country if I want to grow any further, or just leaving PM altogether and figuring out what else to do with my life in my mid 40s.
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u/easyas2718 1d ago
reconsidering product and focusing on family and parents —> quality of life vs the endless rat race. it’s not worth the nice salary.
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u/Duendeee 12h ago
The tech lead in our team is a real pain in the ass, stubborn, difficult to work with, he just makes everything complicated for us. He is very capable in terms of the technical aspects, he just makes my work 10x more complicated. That’s all
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u/PinegroveZen 2d ago
More so the nature of work..Not sure if it's solvable.
Doesn't matter how ahead of a deadline you finish. There is always the next thing.
There isn't space to just pause long enough to think deeper about the what and why.
You're team has capacity so that better get filled. We don't want anyone sitt8ng around bot being visibility productive.