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Your experience in financial services, AI strategy, capital markets, and risk management is actually your competitive advantage. You understand how large financial institutions evaluate, buy, and adopt technology, including the regulatory and business constraints that technology companies often struggle to navigate. Don't compete for generic PM roles where you're starting from scratch. Target companies where your domain expertise can help them build better products for financial services customers. My recommendation would be to pursue PM roles directly, particularly in enterprise AI, data platforms, risk, compliance, and financial technology. In parallel, explore product strategy, industry solutions, or technical strategy roles that work closely with product and engineering. But be careful about joining a technology company in any role to get your foot in the door. Getting into tech and getting into PM are two different things, and internal transfers are never guaranteed. I would also explore opportunities to own an AI or technology product within your current bank. That could be a faster route to establishing product credibility than taking a non-product role elsewhere. Pick five target PM positions and map your experience against their requirements. For each major initiative you've led, identify the customer problem, the decisions you personally made, the trade-offs you navigated, how you worked with technical teams, and the measurable business outcome. That's how you translate your experience into a credible PM story. Have you actually owned the development, delivery, or adoption of an AI or technology product, or has your experience been primarily strategy and advisory? This tells me if you're ready to pursue PM directly or need an intermediate step. And regarding VC, I'd focus first on building real product ownership and commercial judgment. That experience will serve you well if you pursue investing later. Vasu Rao ThinkingPartners.ai vasu.rao.pm@gmail.com

Congratulations on the offer! I’d keep both conversations moving while getting clear on the deadlines. First, ask the company that made the offer when they need your decision. If you need more time, request a specific extension and express your interest. They may have some flexibility. Then contact the recruiter for your preferred role. You could say: “I’m very interested in this opportunity and would like to continue the interview process. I’ve received another offer with a decision deadline of [date]. Is there any flexibility to accelerate the remaining interviews, or could you help me understand the likely timeline?” You don’t need to share the other company’s name or compensation. Just be honest about the offer and deadline. Since you’re only at the second interview, there’s still uncertainty. If the timelines cannot align, assess the offer you actually have: the work, manager, growth opportunities, compensation, and whether you’d be happy accepting it. If you would genuinely enjoy that job, accepting may be reasonable. If you’re considering declining it, make sure you’re comfortable with the possibility that the preferred opportunity won’t result in an offer either. I’d also avoid accepting purely as a placeholder while planning to withdraw. Accept with the intention of joining. A useful question is: “If the second company disappeared tomorrow, would I still want this offer?” That often makes the decision much clearer.

Hi, I spent 10 years at BCG, so the perspective I can bring is mainly the MBB one. 1) at 14 years of experience the MBA becomes secondary and what decides the hire is your track record 2) At that seniority MBBs rarely hire pure generalists, so I would build the whole application around your IT strategy, operating model and governance expertise and target the specific tech practices where it is relevant (e.g. BCG TDA or BCG Platinion). 3) Expert hiring is more ad hoc than the standard track, since roles open when a practice has a need, so talk to partners and recruiters in those practices before applying and work on getting a referral. 4) Two things to be ready for. At MBBs the rule is to adjust seniority downward when hiring from outside, so be prepared for a step back in responsibilities. I would apply to the Big 4 tech consulting practices in parallel, as they hire experienced profiles like yours more regularly. Just check that the role is really strategy, because some of those positions lean toward implementation and that profile is harder to shake later. If you want a pair of external eyes on your specific situation and more tailor made suggestions, feel free to contact me. Best, Franco

Be careful what you wish for. At many companies, especially FAANGs, the jump from Senior to Staff is huge. As other coaches have stated here, much more is expected than just technical mastery. Promotions up the career ladder work like a pyramid. Not everyone who deserves it gets promoted. And because the competition is fierce for such coveted roles, external hires applying for Staff-level roles need to be even more deserving. Be ready to walk on water twice, backward, if you are desiring a Staff role as an external candidate. Then there's the current tech job market. You don't need a coach to tell you how challenging this current lull is. Ample talent is sitting on the sidelines, willing to compromise on role and level to get employed again. Managers and Staff ICs are interviewing for tech lead roles, willing to step back to rejoin a team. Sr. Staff ICs are willing to accept a level-down to Staff. Even if you are a stellar Staff IC, your competition for those roles will be far fiercer. So ask yourself: is it better to step up to the plate and attempt to hit a grand slam (obtain a Staff-level offer), or would it be strategically better to put the ball in play, hit a single or double, get in the game as a Senior (Tech Lead), and then prove yourself to be Staff over time? How risk-averse are you? How confident are you that you will meet all expectations as a Staff Eng out of the gate? In this job market, does it make sense to lower expectations, take a Sr. role, and be promoted to Staff later? Even if you hit that grand slam, getting hired as Staff is just the first inning. Now you have to deliver daily. That's a tall order for someone external to the organization trying to assimilate into the culture, learn how to navigate the politics, draw the faction map to determine who has power and authority across the org, and then brilliantly listen, communicate, mentor, and influence across a wide swath of stakeholders. Welcome to the life of a Staff engineer.

Hi Venkat, I’ve worked as a TAM and coached candidates for AWS Sr. TAM interviews. The phone screen typically evaluates AWS technical depth, customer management, leadership, and real-world scenario handling. I’d suggest these topics: 1. AWS technical fundamentals — architecture, networking, security/IAM, reliability, databases, monitoring, cost optimization. 2. Customer-facing scenarios — escalations, difficult customers, competing priorities, executive communication. 3. Technical troubleshooting — how you approach outages, performance issues, and ambiguous problems. 4. Leadership & influence — influencing without authority, stakeholder management, driving adoption. 5. Cloud transformation — migration, modernization, operational excellence, Well-Architected thinking. I offer 1:1 coaching with role-specific preparation + mock interview and feedback. Happy to help you prepare specifically for your upcoming screen

Post a certain length of experience, the walls b/w pure technical and product roles become thin. Some directors at successful product org are those who have been engineering leads all through their career. Basically, while delivering a successful product as Tech-lead, you will gradually know how customer pain points are captured, converted to requirements - features, scoped, planned and delivered. I see this transition very natural for you. I think you should a) brush up on core PM deliverables viz. PRFAQs/Proposals, BRDs/PRDs, Vision and Scoping documentation, etc., b) deep-dive into instruments of customer research and feedback collation viz. surveys (primary and secondary), focus groups, POC data collection, etc., and c) focus on process to establish short/long term vision at product/portfolio level from a pure product management perspective. You will be tested on these skills for sure during PM interviews. I am not too concerned of your technical capabilities. However brush up on trade-offs PMs make on product features and choice of technology. Feel free to let me know if you have any follow-up questions.