From 100-Hour Weeks to Director Role + 40% Raise | Lynne Levy Coaching Review

So you had, let's, you had an amazing endpoint. So tell, tell everybody where you are today.

Yes, I am so excited to say that I am officially a director of product. I'm at another fintech. Um, the culture is amazing. I can already tell through onboarding that it's everything I hoped it would be. So I'm, I'm delighted. I also got about a 40% raise.

I mean, how crazy is that? How crazy is that? Megan, so good to see you.

It's great to see you too, Lynne.

Congratulations on the amazing new job.

Thank you. I'm so excited. I just started onboarding this week, but it's been amazing already. Woohoo!

All right, so thank you for doing the recommendation. Let's dive in.

Of course, yes.

So tell everybody where, where were you when you first decided to schedule the call with me?

Sure. Yeah. So I was at, um, a fintech company in Boston that I'd been with for about 5 years. Started as a really small company, but as it grew over time, um, the volume of work kept getting larger and larger, but the level of staff stayed around the same and the product team. What that meant for me was on one hand, cool projects, but on the other, I was working some very, very long days. I typically worked with the India team in their time zone all the way through to the end of Pacific Coast day. So yeah, 12, 14 hours a day, typically.

That's a lot. And were you, you were working 7 days a week, weren't you? Some weeks?

Often. Yes. Sometimes Sundays off, but often working on Saturdays.

What made you decide to take the leap and join the program?

It's a little interesting. So specifically what happened was I had considered a new opportunity. I had interviewed and been offered a job and I approached my boss and she reacted in a way I didn't expect. She was very upset that I was going to leave. So I caved and I stayed. Um, but I immediately signed up for the program because I wanted a better career for myself. And I could tell I wasn't going about that the right way.

Awesome. What were your key takeaways in both areas as you went through the program?

I thought learning about how to communicate at different levels, um, between managing up and also what kind of communication strategies I should employ as a people manager. Um, I found all of that very useful and interesting too. It was really nice. To hear the perspectives of other people at a similar stage in their career too, across different industries even.

So that's an interesting point. So that— so a lot of people say, Lynne, this program is a one-on-one, is a group, and the reality is it's a blend. So tell me, what did you think of those group sessions we had?

I thought they were awesome. So, um, it was funny, I almost felt like I had new professional friends after a couple weeks in the program, I recognized a couple of people as like really standout product leaders, and I feel very lucky to have them in my network now going forward. Aside from that, one thing that's really cool in the group is that we do question and answer sessions, and people will ask questions that you wouldn't have thought to ask, and then you get to learn from them.

Excellent. So you had— let's— you had an amazing endpoint.

So tell, tell everybody where you are Yes, I am so excited to say that I am officially a director of product. Woohoo! I'm at another fintech. The culture is amazing. I can already tell through onboarding that it's everything I hoped it would be. So I'm, I'm delighted. I also got about a 40% raise.

I mean, how crazy is that? How crazy is that? And you're not going to work 100 hours a week, right?

Nope, no need. They don't even want me to, which is great. We mutually agree that I will not work like that.

Excellent. So if you were to bump into somebody in downtown Boston and they were to say, what the heck is this program? What questions should they ask themselves?

So they should ask if, if they're feeling ready to move forward with their career, but they're not really sure where to start, or maybe they've encountered some obstacles, like maybe they're struggling through the interviews. Um, and that could be for so many reasons. It could be emotional. It could just be not knowing what questions to expect and how to prep. Anything like that, I think would be a really good reason to join, or they just want to build their network with more product leaders. There we go. There we go.

How do you think your leadership changed because of the program?

I think I gained confidence that I already was a leader. Um, In, in my organization before, we had a lot of traditional bosses. Um, and I, my personality is really different than that. And sometimes I wondered if I was forceful enough or powerful enough to be a leader, but the relationship building and cultural leading is powerful and it will serve me well in my career.

You are such a rockstar. Anything else you want to, you want to tell the folks listening?

So one other thing that I think will be very useful to me going forward is that there's a job opportunities channel in your Slack. So now that I'm stepping into my new director role and I'll have some roles to fill, I have a bank of very motivated, very skilled product folks looking to move up in their roles. Right. I'm sure I can find senior product managers there.

Absolutely. Oh, I'm so excited to watch your journey, Megan. Thank you so very much. You are such a rock star.