📷 Mikhail Nilov
Anonymous Product Manager
After a decade of soul-searching and feeling misplaced in technical roles, an experienced developer has finally discovered their calling in product management—only to have friends crush their newfound clarity. Despite years of forcing motivation for coding work, they've realized their strengths lie in strategic, human-centric leadership roles rather than 'teeny tiny technical work.'
The timing couldn't be worse for this career epiphany. As they immigrate to Canada and face work visa limitations, established friends in the Canadian tech scene are warning them away from product management entirely. These friends argue that in North America, product managers have limited growth potential, earn significantly less over their lifetime, and wield less influence than technical people who transition into product roles.
Faced with this discouraging advice, they're questioning whether to abandon their hard-won self-knowledge and return to learning programming languages—a prospect that makes them 'shiver in misery.' Their dilemma represents a common struggle for mid-career professionals: whether to follow their passion and natural abilities or choose the supposedly safer, more lucrative path that feels fundamentally wrong. The added pressure of immigration status makes this decision even more fraught with long-term consequences.
I told them about the fact that I've finally decided to fully make the jump towards product management... They strongly advised me AGAINST making that career change.
