 product manager getting paid the second highest in the tech industry is only 10% lower than the software developer salary and the best part is you don't need to code and sitting computers all day long but making strategic decisions as a product manager getting paid extremely high salary so this best career ever for everybody but people frequently ask how much does a product manager make was a product manager salary from entry level all the way to direct level so it's actually between $100,000 per year up to millions of dollars per year so of course take you a really long time to reach million dollars per year as a director or VP of product in this video I'm going to give you the detail breakdown and how much I'm getting paid as a product manager and my salary progression from 2009 all the way to 2017 and with no filter and I also know hundreds of people salary because I negotiate salary for my students so in this video I'm going to give you so many real-life examples of product manager salary in all levels stay until the end of this video where I share with you the secret to the fast growth of your income and personal happiness hey guys this is dr. Nancy Lee a direct product featured in Forbes that help 100 people land their dream p.m job offer in fan companies a unicorn startup and continue getting promoted as a product leader in this channel we talk about tech trends and the free product management training like and subscribe and check out our new video every Tuesday first of all I totally regret that I didn't start product management journey until my late 20s if I have started way earlier I could already make so much money in a younger age just like many of people who join tech companies at the p.m the first job ever out of college they're already making so much more money compared with other people however it's too late to regret so let me share with you my salary growth from 2009 all the way right now I moved to the US in 2009 as a PhD student and was only $800 in my pocket then as a PhD student I was getting paid at $1,400 per month in 2009 I was so happy at the time was oh looks like I don't need to pay taxes but in reality was because I was significantly underpaid so as a PhD student we're getting PhD stipends to do research that equals to $17,000 per year as annual income because the salary so low I don't need to pay taxes that's not a good thing actually having very low income beginning of my career and give me really good money spending habits for example I was very frugal I never went to a restaurant and one of was a PhD student and I live in a smallest apartment in every fine in Boston and I only pay $600 in rent so that I have a few hundred dollars left to reinvest in myself then few years later I became one of the youngest engineering PhD that was in 2013 I graduated from Boston University and all of a sudden I started to make real money and I became a systems engineer at Shell Oil in 2017 and at the time people still recovering from recession and I was just trying to get any job I can ever get who can sponsor my HMB so that job actually paid me $90,000 per year as a base salary and also 10% bonuses that equals to $99,000 per year in terms of total compensation and because I didn't know how to negotiate I didn't ask for any sign on bonuses so that's a tip for everybody you must negotiate your salary regardless the economical situation I actually have a video about salary negotiations check out right here but one year into my new job I discovered that I was underpaid and my male coworkers they were getting paid at least $100,000 per year at the base salary but at the time because I need HMB sponsorship I'm no confidence so I didn't know how to really stand up for myself so I just ducked my head continue getting underpaid that was the worst thing I've ever done that's so stupid but later on after I start to learn product management knowledge and build my confidence and then I let my first product manager job with no PM experience that was so exciting and all of a sudden I was getting paid at $130,000 per year as a base salary and 20% bonuses and plus 5k sign-on bonus so that equals to $160,000 per year for the first year total compensation that was with Verizon in the Boston office in 2016 and at times so happy well my salary literally went up by 60% for total compensation I was like just blew my mind I strongly encourage everybody to switch into product management you can immediately get a salary bump right away and there is something important I want to point out for my compensation during that time that was every full big tier 2 company on the east coast if in 2016 you land the same type of job on the west coast in Silicon Valley you suddenly go up by 30% naturally because this is like national standard people on the west coast getting paid higher than people on the east coast 30% higher so which means that in 2016 if I had land the same type of job offer in large tier 2 companies on the west coast I would be getting paid around $200,000 per year in terms of total compensation now if you're also asking how much you should be getting paid right now with the same kind of years of experience like me and you should also add another 10% inflation because 2016 to right now the inflation is already at least 10% so let's make a conservative number so 10% inflation and in Silicon Valley you are getting paid at least $220,000 per year for total compensation just for tier 2 companies well for entry-level PM position as well of course not everybody getting paid as much for the very first PM job you must learn how to negotiate your salary and package your past experience to make people appreciate your background much more I made so many more videos about how to make the transition you can watch videos about nine steps to become PM right here now let's talk about fan companies if you land a job offer in the bay area in fan companies you're getting paid at least $300,000 per year with the same amount of years experience that I had in 2016 in reality in order to hit $300,000 per year salary you don't need to only work for fan companies you can join some sexy startups and other tier 1 companies as well for example many students join tiktok right now and they're getting over $300,000 per year and others remind this year also joined Coinbase competitor as a crypto trading company and she's getting paid over $400,000 per year so therefore if you really want to maximize your salary open up your vision beyond fan companies but look into those sexy tier 1 companies as well by the way the buff salary I shared with you is not senior PM title in those sexy companies those are just product manager title in those tier 1 companies or sexy unicorn startups as well so if you are senior PM you're getting paid even more if you find this video very insightful so far make sure to give it a like and continue to all the salary inside in next step now let's continue to talk about group of manager in 2018 I became a group of manager in Verizon was in the same company so my salary only went up by a little bit because it's an internal promotion so my new salary is $164,000 per year as a base and plus 20 commission that run up to be $200,000 per year in terms of total compensation again if you are holding the same type of position with the same year's experiences I had and became a group of manager you are able to receive $250,000 per year to $300,000 per year for tier 2 companies on the west coast if you join tier 1 companies or fan company become a group of manager it's very likely you're going to hit half million dollars per year for sure if you join google as a group of manager it's going to be even higher like $800,000 per year for sure and I have a cheat sheet that break down years of experience and based on the location and tiers of companies you can go to the link in the description to download the cheat sheet and use it to evaluate your own compensation as well now let's talk about the director salary in 2020 I finally became a director by jumping to a new company once I became a director my compensation increased significantly it's a director position on the east coast again so the base salary is $205,000 per year plus 45 annual bonuses and on top of that I'm also getting $27,000 in terms of sign-on bonus that add up to be $327,000 per year for the first year total compensation and I didn't include the long-term incentives so long-term incentive means these east coast companies also give directors a certain amount of cash every year if you stay in the company for longer period of time it's like it's very similar to startup there's a vesting period but you have to stay there for long enough and all the sudden they start to give you a lot more money for long-term incentives as well the total compensation I just gave you didn't include the long-term incentives because I didn't stay in the company like for that long to qualify for the long-term incentives but if I stayed it will be another $50,000 per year for long-term incentives that will bring up to $377,000 per year for east coast company and if you hold the same type of position for the same set of companies on the west coast I guarantee you as a director you're getting paid at least half million dollars per year for non-fan companies of course if you join fan companies as a director your salary will be above $1 million for sure for example how do I know this I have a student who joined meta and he's not even a director he's a meta l7 and he said it is $800,000 per year as an individual contributor but he already have years experience so he's qualified for $800,000 per year but as a director at least $1 million is usually between $1 million $2 million and depends on the performance of the fan company stock people might ask me this question Nancy why you gave up your $300,000 per year director job that sounds so stupid to be frank that's the bonus I want to share with you guys because I personally believe that the life happiness has nothing to do with how much money you make and actually I made a video right here talking about why I quit my director job in short summary is mainly because life choice because I didn't know what its cost to perform as a director that pays you over $300,000 per year on the east coast because I frequently working really long hours sometimes responding to emails in in the midnight and I also found out I was a pregnant and at the same time also running my coaching business per manager accelerator on the side the three things going on in my life it was really challenging and until I was about to have my son and I made a decision which is I have to choose among two out of three things and I decided to become a full-time coach to run for the manager accelerator full-time and also become a full-time mom so that I can spend more time with my son and I have never been happier before because this year I also started my non-profit called PMA kids which means every students who are inside of our PM accelerator program will give away one free education for teenagers from underserved communities so personally speaking and I believe you should define your own career satisfaction your own impact because no matter how much money you make if you only hold the money to yourself without making a greater impact I don't think that the truth will fail life at least that's to me so therefore I encourage everybody to really define your true career satisfaction and your true personal happiness maybe the optimized solution for you is not getting paid one million dollars per year eight hundred thousand dollars per year or three hundred thousand dollars per year maybe it's a balance of multiple things in your life so tell me what's your definition of life and career happiness and comment down below after you know all these different kind of crazy salary information behind scenes stories you'll probably be asking so where can get started was a career pass from entry level all the way to direct level to this million dollars job and make sure to watch this video where I describe the specific career paths for product managers of all levels and how fast you should get promoted on what you should expect in fan companies and non-fan company as you grow up your entire career as a product manager make sure to download the latest product manager salary information chi chi in the description of this video and find out if you are on the page or not this is dr. Nancy Lee from p.m. accelerator dial like and subscribe i'm going to see you in my next video right here