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Ask HN: Late 30s PM career change to dev?

6 points by quokkafriend ↗ HN
I am in my late 30s, currently a mid-level PM that has spent the better part of a decade at series A and B startups. I have previous experience in analytics and occasional dabbling of amateurish coding on the side.

I have always wondered if I'd be happier and less stressed as a developer. I've historically had difficulty with work life balance in a PM role; much of this problem is me, but some is the PM life as well. Every couple of years I wonder about going to code camp.

I am not worried about having to start at the bottom again and earning a entry level salary but am worried about ageism. Worst scenario would be I end up in a situation where I can't get a dev job and I've created too much of a gap to return to a good PM role.

With an earlier analytics background perhaps data engineering would be a softer/safer path, but I also like the idea of full stack or mobile.

Success to me might look like being as capable as a decent-performing mid-level dev at a pre-IPO scale-up within 5 years of taking the leap. I am going to be real with myself that FAANG would be a stretch.

Have any ex-PMs here made a later career switch like this? Any ENG hiring managers have advice? Am I crazy?

5 comments

[ 2.3 ms ] story [ 15.8 ms ] thread
bckr
Do you like writing code? What parts of your job do you like best? What if you don't get the work life balance ugly want? Would that mean you end up regretting the jump? Do you know devs who have better work life balance.

You're probably crazy but at least you can be methodical about it. Merry Christmas

quokkafriend
The right questions I think! Merry Xmas to you too.

Yes I enjoy writing code for the most part. Was one of my more enjoyable classes in university and is satisfying to see little hack projects start to come to life. I dislike most debugging build / package dependency issues, but I imagine that gets better once graduating past my amateur stage.

I think my personality is better suited for development. I enjoy the problem solving of my current job and the broader cross-discipline considerations, but interaction actually drains me, and that's such a big part of the PM role.

I can switch jobs to find a better work life balance company. Yes I know plenty of devs that have great balance and been in company cultures that generally protect theirs much more than the PMs'.

pksebben
Was never a PM, but I did just transition into writing code (from bartending, no less) and I'm past 35, so I can say that for usn's ageism isn't a hard barrier.

Haven't been through enough of the industry to say that it isn't a thing but so far it hasn't gotten in my way any.

tomcam
Man, blog that story and post to HN. That’s gotta be a wild ride.
pksebben
Thanks for the suggestion, I think I will! It has definitely been, as you say, a wild ride. Sort of awkwardly, the quarantine ended up being one of the best things that could have happened for my trajectory. I wouldn't have asked for it, but a year of cloistering to self-teach was invaluable.