 Software engineer are known for getting paid very well. But what about a product manager? People frequently ask me this question, how much does a product manager make? And do they get paid very well? And what's the highest earning potential for product manager? Today, I'm going to answer these questions. Hey guys, this is Dr. Nancy Lee. I help engineers and international professionals to transition from worker B to a business leader and product manager. I hire senior product managers for my own team. And I also specialize in negotiations. I know lots of people's salary. But for specific, this video, I'm not going to use any private information to answer these questions. And for disclaimer, all the information I show you is public available information. This video is mainly based on the education purpose. If you want to know behind the scenes how to tailor it specific to your years experience or what you do and you can join my bootcamp and learn more. Product manager salary really has a big range. You can go as low as 80 grand, can also go as high as a half million dollars. So has several effect go into it. And first of all, it's based on the location. East and the West Coast company, they pay differently. So West Coast company themselves, in general, they pay at least 30% higher was because the cost of living is about 30% higher. It's one thing. And on the other hand, also depends on what type of company you join. If you join the fan company stands for Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google and those companies because they give you lots of stocks. So those stocks really grow up very quickly. So employers who receive stock options from those companies, they intend to get paid more. And also it depends on years experience level you are maybe entry level could be like direct level, could also be a startup. So the range really vary. So today I'm going to break it down based on the specific scenarios I mentioned above. First of all, let's break the salary based on their seniority and also location. For product manager roles, lots of time, let's say 95% of time, we need candidates to have some kind of work experience to become a product manager. So usually we do not hire people fresh out of school. For special cases for some companies such as Yahoo, they hire associate product managers. Those kids came right out of school and they can join those kind of programs. So for associate product manager, very, very, very entry level product managers they're probably getting paid for the range between like 80 gram up to maybe 120 gram as a total compensation to get you started. Now here comes the next question. What about the normal product managers who had some work experience and became a product manager? So for those kind of companies, if you were for the FAM company on the west coast, you're getting paid the base salary of 160 to 180 gram for FAM company. On top of that, you're getting paid lots of stock options and mentioned earlier and those stock options could go really big. If a really good year, you can go like more than 100 gram. But in general, on average, you'll get about like 100 gram stock options. So your total compensation, like on average is about 250 up to 300 per year as a product manager in FAM company. In this case, I use Google as an example. And in addition, among those FAM companies, there's also different kind of variations. And for example, Facebook product manager tend to get paid even higher than like Google product managers. And however, what I heard was people in Facebook works really hard and even harder than other companies. So therefore they get paid a little bit more. So I think it's all equivalent to the hours they're working. So I wouldn't tell the big differences between those two companies, but Facebook does get paid a little bit higher than Google. Now let's talk about the east coast company product managers. On average, you're getting paid between 130 and 180 grand in total compensation on the east coast company. Let me use a specific example and break down this total compensation for you. Let's say you work for HubSpot in Boston. Your base salary could be around 110 or 130 grand with base salary. On top of that, you're also getting paid bonus. In this case, let's say about 20 grand bonus. On top of that, you're also getting stock options. Here thing, the stock can go really high and also depends on when you buy it and when you sell it. Really change very differently. I've seen people getting buy-grant stock options also up to 76 grand stock options and it's very significant. Let's say, on average, people stock options as a product manager in HubSpot is about 30 grand. Then your total compensation will be 110 plus 20 plus 30 could get up to 160 grand. And some companies will also give you higher up to 180 grand, sometimes 200 grand. So that's roughly what's getting paid on the east coast company as a product manager. Now here comes the high level in terms of director of product management or VP of product management. In this case, you already manage a big team or product manager, you have really big impact to the company. And also the title really varies for lots of companies. For example, Google's director of product managers probably are the company's VP of product management. And for some companies, they give director title as individual contributor, you can still get director title. So those are still considered them as a senior product manager instead of a director of product management. So my definition is, if you reach director VP of product management, you already have managing people. Okay, so now let's talk about the salary of director of product management on the west coast. Let's use Google as an example. Their base salary according to Payside is about 250 to 300K per year. On top of that, you're getting lots of stock options. And here's the most important thing to know that for director or above level, lots of their income is based on the stock options, which means their stocks is really based on how well the company is doing, if your whole team or your company is doing well, you're getting a lot more stock than other employers in your team. So according to the public information, people in Google, in that level, a director of product management level, they have let's say about 150 grand of stock options and total they're getting paid around 400 grand living in San Francisco. Now let's talk about the east coast director of product. Let's say you work for hotspot on the east coast in Boston. As a director of product, your total compensation could range between 250 up to 300. And specifically as a director of product, the breakdown on compensation could be composed of the base salary. On average it's about 200 grand. Some companies give you even 180 something lower because it gives you way more stock options. And on average 200 grand as a cash to be higher could be lower. On top of that is a bonus plus stock options. Something specific about the director position is that your bonus and stock options will increase much faster compared with other product managers. Let me give you specific example. Usually for companies as a product manager or senior product manager, your bonus could be 20% of your base salary and your stock option could be a few RSUs but as a director product, your bonus could be up to like 40% instead of 20%. And your stock option also grow very significantly if the company perform very well. So majority of the money you make as a director product was tied up to the performance of the company. So therefore as a director product on the east coast company, your total compensation is a base salary plus stock option plus some bonus in total we can go between 250 up to 300 grand. Now here comes the startups. As a startup company, it's really very significantly. And if you hit the next school goal, your salary or income for startup can go infinity to be frank. And based on my research about startup company, in reality, what is look like if you join startup on the west coast, they can offer you as lowest 70 grand for base salary and the rest is all stock options. And sometimes they can go up 180 grand as a base salary and the rest is stock options or equity of the specific startups. So very significantly if some early employees, they get really high equity, the property that cash receives at even lower than 70 grand. Now here comes the east coast companies. East coast companies I have seen several like startups offer between 80 grand to 120 grand for their senior product manager role located in Boston. Of course, their equity is kinda low if they can get paid for that much money. So really very significantly. Now the question to you is, how much do you think a product manager should get paid and do you think this is high enough for you to choose a career path as a product manager? So leave me a comment down below as you can tell the range of product manager set really varies and based on the location, type of companies, years experience, your educations, everything add up together. So to make this simpler for you, I made a specific product management salary calculation table so it can help you to pick up the specific years experience and location so that I will give you a multiplier to have a better estimation on how much you need to get paid. And if you want specific tailor customized information for how much you are getting paid whether you're underpaid or not, you can join my book camp to learn more about this. I also send out personalized weekly newsletter to my subscribers. You can find the subscription link down below and learn more about product management and how to be a leader. All right, this is Dr. Nancy Lee. I will see you next time. If you like the video I make, please smash the like button so that I have the motivation to make more videos like this. Thank you so much. On top of that, if you want to get catered advice to yourself and figure out how can you become the top 1% candidate and get paid top dollars, feel free to check out my book camp and also join my Facebook group and WeChat group. I will be there to answer all the questions you have.