Create the Best it Consulting Invoice Template for Product Management

It consulting invoice template for Product Management

what's up guys this is Arnold here here back with another video now it's been a while since I've made a video but I'm hoping to be back better than ever making videos about Finance personal finance career and everything in between now since it's been a while since we caught up I've actually made a career change since we last spoke I've went from Consulting to product management if you recall in the past video I talked about how I went from engineering and Consulting and now I've made the switch to product management in this video we're going to talk about what product management is why I switched my Consulting product management and how I'm liking the career change so far now product management is sort of a hot word these days everyone wants to be a product manager but I'm hoping to demystify what it is show you that I'm not really just jumping the trend and tell you exactly why I made the switch without further Ado let's get started so just as a bit of an introduction previously I was a Management Consultant at a booty consulting firm I worked at Consulting for about two and a half years going from a big four consulting firm to a boutique consulting firm and now I've actually made the switch to the client as a product manager as a consultant I was working mainly in technology strategy so I was advising cios or Chief Information officers with their strategy digital organization design and digital strategy now that was very applicable towards product management in fact I actually jumped towards a client it was a client that I was working for as a Management Consultant that I'm working for today it really goes to show how important these relationships are it can really help you in the future if you establish these connections you never know when you want to switch to a new job so all that sounds really cool right I was doing technology strategy advising Chief Information officers as a 23 year old that all seems really cool right well today I'm gonna tell you why I exactly switch from that to product management so the first reason why I switched from Consulting to product management is that in Consulting the nature of Consulting is that you switch from Project to project company to company every couple months I wanted to focus on a particular product or even at least just a company product management allowed me to do that of course I'd be working for a single company managing a particular product and add a bonus is that I get to focus on a particular product now Consulting is really nice to understand a wide breadth of various Industries and products but in product I feel like you can focus on a particular product and really help it grow and see the success for it from start to finish now related to that the second reason is I can really see the impact on a particular product I can interact with the users and see how they're really feeling about the product now that is really cool you get to sit down with people who actually use things you developed that is extremely awesome in Consulting it's not quite like that you develop decks develop strategies that help companies turn the ship around or Implement a digital strategy but it's not as fulfilling in that way with a particular product you can really see the impact and the effect your product has on the people that use it the third reason is I get to stretch my engineering legs a little now if you recall my last video I got away from engineering because I wanted to do less technical stuff now it might be strange to want to go back to it but I realized that perhaps engineering and technology is something that is really close to my heart and it's really nice as a product manager to be at least a little bit closer to the underlying technology as a consultant you're working at a 30 000 foot view you're looking at strategies that is far far removed from the actual technology as a product manager you're influencing the direction of the product which is of course enabled by the underlying technology that powers it and the added bonus is that because of my background in computer engineering I can really speak to the developers in the same language I know exactly what they mean by API and they can't really BS me in the way that they can with some perhaps business Focus product managers and the fourth reason is that I get to go from serving the client to being the client now Professional Services it's really got its own pros and cons the cons being that you're really in a way a waiter for the professional world you're jumping from client to client and you're doing every whim of the client if they want to deck at 12 a.m on Saturday you're going to give it to them because they're paying you and your bosses give you the pressure to deliver that as a product manager you are the client you often work with Consultants to get deliverables it's really nice to be the customer for ones in this restaurant of the professional world the fifth reason is really the pay working in a technology company the pay was actually a lot higher than being in a consulting firm now this may vary from Consulting from the consulting firm and from Tech firm to Tech firm but I'm being paid substantially more than I was as a consultant as I do now as a product manager now I know I went from studying Computer Engineering with the potential of being a software engineer that you know makes a lot of money to working Consulting where you really don't make a lot of money but I realize that money is a little bit important the next reason is that there is far less travel being a product manager and working at a particular company than Management Consulting in management consulting I was traveling to the client every single week I was flying from Washington DC to Atlanta every single week Imagine That waking up on a Monday morning at 5am just to rush the airport take the flight and fly to Atlanta to make your client obligations and then working from Monday to Thursday which in fact could feel like you're working 24 7 because you're at a hotel room yes there's food yes everything is paid for but you're really still not sleeping your own bed being at home with your friends and family you fly back on Thursday afternoon in a jam-packed flight full of other consultants for the most part and you go home at a late on Thursday night and it feels like the whole week is gone you can't join leagues you can't really be part of the city that you live in in fact I moved to a new City Washington DC to be a consultant and I've only lived there for about 12 months before covet hit but I barely got to know the city because half my time was spent traveling to Atlanta every single week I really had no relationship with the city and felt nothing as I was leaving to go home during covet now in product management there is a little bit of travel perhaps your stakeholders or your users are located in another city or office but there's far less compared to management consulting for sure the next reason is better upward mobility and career trajectory that is closer aligned to my goals in the future I want to be the chief product officer or the CEO of a company being a product manager you're really training those Wheels you're being a mini CEO for your project seeking investment working with stakeholders developing a business case all that is really important and transferable when you're being a CEO or chief product officer the goal is that I can put more and more products under my wing under my portfolio and move up in the organization and the last reason is really better work life product management again you're not traveling you're working at a particular company you're not doing Client Services you are the client so therefore there's way better work-life balance compared to management consulting typically for the most part you're working nine to five very standard hours you go to the office you come back you come home and you can do whatever you want that is really what I'm looking for I want to develop a closer relationship with the city I'm living in spend time with friends and family the good stuff the reason why we do work in the first place so in conclusion these are the reasons why I went from Consulting to product management it has really benefited my life for the better I feel I feel like I've really developed a better relationship with the city I live in which right now is New York spent more time with friends and family and really having a better quality of life in the end so let me know what you think if you're switching from Consulting to product management or really another career to product management let me know your challenges and see where I can help I'll do my best to answer your questions and see how I can help in your switch from Consulting to product management or really from anything in product management with that don't forget to like subscribe and turn on that notification Bell I'm going to have a lot more content coming for you in the near future so stay tuned and see you in the next one foreign