How easy is it to get another high paying job?

[cavey76]

CheesecakeRunner said:

cavey76 said:

To be clear PMs are worth every penny - I wouldnt do that job for love nor money!

You mean good PMs are worth every penny. Bad ones are worth less than their MS Project license.

Granted but i presume if you are on significant $/day then you have what amounts to a body of work that can be pointed at to justify said large daily rate.

We are going off topic but for people who have those high paying jobs i would suggest finding another is probably easier than getting there in the first place. I would say now once a month either an old mate or LinkedIn contact will reach out to ask what i am up to or am i happy in my current place. That didn't happen to me in my 20s and early 30s.

Probably stolen from some internet meme but i had a sales leader about a decade ago who would regale with the maxim of "There being two types of people in the world. Those who make sh*t and those who sell sh*t". The latter cant exist without the former and the former will lose their jobs if the latter don't perform so there is symbiosis between the two groups despite us often being at odds or criticising each others worlds.

I like keeping my relationships with the guys who "make the stuff" in my world and sometimes i am taken aback by their commercial naivety. It wasn't long ago i had a friend ask why they needed people like me as the thing they make is so good it should just sell itself.

[Chozza]

cavey76 said:

intense pressure to deliver on what sales sold, manage the budget which sales/mgmt want to complete too - often unrealistic, motivate/manage the kind of rapscallions who inhabit this forum and think they are hard done by. Me? Hated it so got the flock out of dodge and went to sales, same pressure, better pay and deal with less twunts!
!

:-) wonder what your PMs think of you now

[Percy Cushion]

cavey76 said:

I PM'd for 3-4 years making good money but you are often under intense pressure to deliver on what sales sold, manage the budget which sales/mgmt want to complete too - often unrealistic, motivate/manage the kind of rapscallions who inhabit this forum and think they are hard done by. Me? Hated it so got the flock out of dodge and went to sales, same pressure, better pay and deal with less twunts!

To be clear PMs are worth every penny - I wouldnt do that job for love nor money!

So now that you’ve moved from PM into sales, do you take a realistic approach to what can be achieved in the timescales or do you just focus on making the sale and leave it to the PM to sort out!

[cavey76]

Chozza said:

cavey76 said:

intense pressure to deliver on what sales sold, manage the budget which sales/mgmt want to complete too - often unrealistic, motivate/manage the kind of rapscallions who inhabit this forum and think they are hard done by. Me? Hated it so got the flock out of dodge and went to sales, same pressure, better pay and deal with less twunts!
!

:-) wonder what your PMs think of you now

said from the perspective of when I was the PM and watching others sell or listen to others complain. The company i worked for when i first jumped from PM to sales had PMs kept as a seperate entity from the rest of services. Effectively everyone hated the PMs...they weren't quite sales, they weren't quite Services.

It helped create some tension, a positive tension, where the PM was the budget owner accountable to bottom line and the view of the customer. This created an environment where the PM had to cajole more for less from Services. In an imperfect environment that meant for lots of development of your soft skills which was probably how i got to sales.

[cavey76]

Percy Cushion said:

So now that you’ve moved from PM into sales, do you take a realistic approach to what can be achieved in the timescales or do you just focus on making the sale and leave it to the PM to sort out!

Moved companies during the pandemic, adjacent technology but not identical and high levels of complexity, (deployment of contact centre SW). I am entirely at the mercy of my PMs as i simply have no experience of how long it takes to deploy a "Workforce Management System". So, Yes, I am. Utterly at PMs mercy.

In my previous place where i had climbed the ladder from being the techy/eng to being the PM to sales, i knew when someone was trying to take the p*ss as i had worked from the ground up and would flinch test scope and timeline. I could usually save 10-20% out of the budget making me wildly popular with our customers. Thats the benefit of spending time within a single org, 12 years in that case, the last 7 in sales.

I have utmost respect for PMs, its an unglamorous role, which isn't typically rewarded for over performance but shares a similar stress level to front line sales who do enjoy those rewards. If a PM has got to a place he/she is making £100K+ yr my thinking is good on them as they have probably got to a point in life where they can deal with the stress levels.

Used to manage/sell into a certain UK mobile carrier and they were impressive for their ability to churn through Project Officers/Managers/Program Managers/Portfolio Managers....not sure if i ever met the same one twice.

I am sure that cant be good for achieving success....but we are way off topic now. I shall shush.

Edited by cavey76 on Friday 1st July 20:19