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Product Managers: Should You Quit Your Job?

As a Product Manager, your job satisfaction is influenced by the same combination of variables as any other job. The company culture, the quality of the people you are working with, and your own level of commitment to the job all have a large impact on your experience. If you find yourself in a situation where you feel really dissatisfied at your product management role, should you quit your job? It can be easy to believe that the industry itself is to blame, and that your experience would be the same anywhere.

Is It Product Management?

If you — like most of the PMs that successfully pass through our program — transitioned to product management from another career, you may even start to wonder if product management is the right career for you. If your product management job is leaving you miserable and dissatisfied, then maybe being a PM is just not for you, right? So you start to wonder…. should you quit your job? Not so fast!

Before you give up, consider the variables in your equation. This is not a situation where we are talking about whether product management is great, or whether product management is for you. It is not so much the industry, the company, or even the role that you fill in your company. Product management, just like any job, really comes down to the team that you are a part of and the leadership of that team.

Should You Quit Your Job? Consider Your Team

If you are working for and with awesome people, then chances are it is going to be an awesome job. If you are working for and with bad people, then chances are good that it is not going to be a good time. Poor leadership or a lack of balance in the workload and responsibilities on a team are a problem with the company, not your ability to do your job well.

The people you work with will make or break your day-to-day in any job, and being a Product Manager is no exception. If you are stuck in a toxic or stifling work environment that takes more than it gives back, it is time to get out and try to find a PM job somewhere with a healthier company culture.

Find the Right Job For You

Getting into that right job for you is not necessarily a matter of having the right background either. Since every team and therefore every Product Manager job is different, the bulk of your learning will be done after you have already started at a company and gotten a feel for the ins-and-outs of your unique position.

Feeling like you have to stick within your comfort zone and have limited options can push you to take on a job that might not be the best fit for you. For example, just because you come from a banking or financial background does not mean that a Product Manager job in those fields will be a great fit.

Should You Quit Your Job?

In summary, if you’re wondering whether you should quit your job as a Product Manager, take a moment to remember that you have better options and resources available. If the environment is toxic and doesn’t serve to challenge you or help you grow, it might be time to leave.

If you go to our testimonial page, you’ll see first hand accounts from the hundreds of Product Managers that we have helped transition into their ideal PM job from a wide variety of backgrounds. If you are struggling with finding your next steps in your career and you want to increase the number of interviews you are getting, schedule a free career coaching session with one of our in-house experts today and find more about our program.