At a potential crossroad between product mgmt or continued infosec career
jplee3
Member Posts: 51 ■■■□□□□□□□
Hey guys,
Currently I work in QA and got advanced notice of termination. I've been more involved with testing the security portions and features of the software as I have a background in security. In fact, for any future technical roles, I'd want to stay in infosec as much as possible but perhaps moving towards management (I've never been in a mgmt position however). Just within the past week, a couple opportunities came up to interview for a couple different positions:
1) entry-level product mgmt position at my current company - it's a move up and would expose me to the business side, and grow and stretch me in that aspect too. There would likely be some aspects of driving security features within the product but it's a more general PM role. The job would likely stay at the office (but we are flex in terms of working from home, and coming in as needed, etc). Less technical skill required and more developing and growing business sense, etc.
2) senior-level infosec engineer position with QA experience at a large financial institution - seems this would also be a slight move up but not a managerial role and would also be 100% telecommute. This is a pretty technical role and it seems I'd be doing more of the security stuff I'd be interested in rather than security being a peripheral afterthought.
This is all just speculation as I'm *only* interviewing at this point. No offers on the table. I'm going to feel it out to see more about position #2 since I don't have too good of a feel outside the job description, but it seems right up my alley in terms of what I'm doing now but more so with the security-emphasis. Position #1 would be a big paradigm shift and I don't know if it's something I'd like or not... it's kinda more like one of those "only way to find out" kinds of decisions. Based on what I was told, it sounds super-challenging and something I could end up liking but I really don't know.
Anyone have similar experiences or advice? Of course, I'm not in a place where I have to decide on an offer but just kind of thinking ahead in general.
TIA
Currently I work in QA and got advanced notice of termination. I've been more involved with testing the security portions and features of the software as I have a background in security. In fact, for any future technical roles, I'd want to stay in infosec as much as possible but perhaps moving towards management (I've never been in a mgmt position however). Just within the past week, a couple opportunities came up to interview for a couple different positions:
1) entry-level product mgmt position at my current company - it's a move up and would expose me to the business side, and grow and stretch me in that aspect too. There would likely be some aspects of driving security features within the product but it's a more general PM role. The job would likely stay at the office (but we are flex in terms of working from home, and coming in as needed, etc). Less technical skill required and more developing and growing business sense, etc.
2) senior-level infosec engineer position with QA experience at a large financial institution - seems this would also be a slight move up but not a managerial role and would also be 100% telecommute. This is a pretty technical role and it seems I'd be doing more of the security stuff I'd be interested in rather than security being a peripheral afterthought.
This is all just speculation as I'm *only* interviewing at this point. No offers on the table. I'm going to feel it out to see more about position #2 since I don't have too good of a feel outside the job description, but it seems right up my alley in terms of what I'm doing now but more so with the security-emphasis. Position #1 would be a big paradigm shift and I don't know if it's something I'd like or not... it's kinda more like one of those "only way to find out" kinds of decisions. Based on what I was told, it sounds super-challenging and something I could end up liking but I really don't know.
Anyone have similar experiences or advice? Of course, I'm not in a place where I have to decide on an offer but just kind of thinking ahead in general.
TIA
Comments
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Mow
Member Posts: 445 ■■■■□□□□□□
Sounds like a soul-searching is in order. I don't think I could make the shift to management, it just doesn't interest me. That's my thoughts. You need to think about what you would prefer. Sure you don't know unless you try, but you surely have some idea, you have managers there that you probably report to, so do you think you would like their job? -
jplee3
Member Posts: 51 ■■■□□□□□□□
Good point. I really don't know what to make of it... I think if I were promoted to a lead position I'd know a lot better. I've been in some positions where I was forced to take a project mgmt role, but even then that's not extensive as owning a product straight up. It's a huge responsibility and paradigm shift stepping up to that role. I feel like it one sense, there's not really any room to grow as much in a technical role but that could merely be because I've been limited in the current position where I've been next to lead but never lead... if that makes sense. I don't know if I'd really get a better opportunity moving 'horizontally' into another company's organizational structure; guess I'll just have to feel it out and see what it looks like. I think right now I'd probably want more of a technical project manager/lead role where I'm coordinating cross-team but still involved in the technical aspects.
As a product manager, I think I would lose a bit of focus in that area and my view would turn more into a product-wide view translating customer needs into requirements. This does sound interesting at a high level too, and something I think I would be interested in. Perhaps it's best to spend more time honing my technical skills though and making product management somewhat of a 'target' once I've gotten a wider technical skillset. Two QA leads I worked with closely (one I worked for actually) recently moved up to PM and I've talked to one of them about it - he likes the non-technical role better despite having a very technical background, but his goal from the get-go was to move into product management. I'm going to talk to the other PM about her aspirations and the transition tomorrow.
I think the PM role would be 'risky' in the sense that I don't know if I'd like it or not. And if there's a chance I won't, I might be in a rough spot for a while. That's not to say the other position would be all roses but at least I'd have a better idea of the expectations.