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[Tut] Product Manager — Income and Opportunity - xSicKxBot - 05-01-2022
Product Manager — Income and Opportunity
<div><p>Before we learn about the money, let’s get this question out of the way:</p>
<h2>What Does a Product Manager Do?</h2>
<p class="has-global-color-8-background-color has-background">A product manager (PM) identifies customer needs and communicates “success metrics” with the internal team building the product. By understanding the customer needs and what a successful product looks like, the product manager is an integral part of driving the project forward and turning a vision into reality. </p>
<p>In particular, PMs drive the physical or digital product strategy including requirements engineering and feature release management (see <a href="https://blog.finxter.com/agile-software-development-scrum/" data-type="post" data-id="246769" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">agile development</a>). </p>
<p>PMs orchestrate the product development with <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://blog.finxter.com/the-nature-of-software-development/" data-type="post" data-id="3361" target="_blank">software engineers</a>, <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://blog.finxter.com/freelance-data-science/" data-type="post" data-id="16658" target="_blank">data scientists</a>, and <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://blog.finxter.com/front-end-web-developer-income-and-opportunity/" data-type="post" data-id="316587" target="_blank">designers</a> — and take over the responsibility for the ultimate product outcome. </p>
<p>For organizational and individual success, ownership, accountability, and responsibility are crucial. That’s why great PMs are in demand and highly paid (see later).</p>
<p>You can watch this video as you scan over the post:</p>
<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio">
<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe loading="lazy" title="What do product managers do? - Agile Coach" width="780" height="439" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yUOC-Y0f5ZQ?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div>
</figure>
<p>This excellent graphic also shows the intersection of business, tech, and UX that is the world of a product manager:</p>
<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img loading="lazy" width="562" height="562" src="https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/image-251.png" alt="" class="wp-image-328799" srcset="https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/image-251.png 562w, https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/image-251-300x300.png 300w, https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/image-251-150x150.png 150w" sizes="(max-width: 562px) 100vw, 562px" /><figcaption><a href="https://www.atlassian.com/agile/product-management/product-manager" data-type="URL" data-id="https://www.atlassian.com/agile/product-management/product-manager" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">source</a></figcaption></figure>
</div>
<h2>Where Do Product Managers Work?</h2>
<p>Product managers traditionally resided in the marketing organizations of technology companies. But in recent years, the role has become much more in demand and PMs now work in a wide variety of companies and different departments in engineering, marketing, and software development. (<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_manager" data-type="URL" data-id="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_manager" target="_blank">source</a>)</p>
<p>Here are some companies where you can work as a PM:</p>
<ul>
<li>Amazon</li>
<li>Google</li>
<li>Magic Lab</li>
<li>HSBC</li>
<li>PayPal</li>
<li>Uber</li>
<li>Salesforce</li>
<li>Microsoft</li>
</ul>
<p>Basically, all major companies have lots of work for a PM one way or the other.</p>
<h2>What Are Responsibilities of Product Managers?</h2>
<p>As a product manager, you need to fulfill the following responsibilities:</p>
<ol>
<li>Understand customer or user needs </li>
<li>Communicate and represent these needs to the team and the company</li>
<li>Analyze the existing products in the market. </li>
<li>Perform a competitive analysis (traditional: marketing and product ideation)</li>
<li>Find possible features and prioritize them by using your excellent understanding of customer needs</li>
<li>Define, align, and articulate the vision of a product and/or product lines</li>
<li>Quantify priority of product features</li>
<li>Define the roadmap and strategy to implement the product</li>
<li>Manage the product creation phase orchestrating teams in engineering, sales, marketing, and legal departments.</li>
<li>Take on the role of a customer so that customers have an advocate in your organization and the product development cycle remains focused and on track to maximize customer value.</li>
<li>Empower decision making by making yourself superfluous — the ultimate goal of any leader.</li>
</ol>
<h2 id="annual-income">Annual Income</h2>
<p>How much does a Product Manager make per year?</p>
<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" width="1024" height="564" src="https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/image-252-1024x564.png" alt="" class="wp-image-328821" srcset="https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/image-252-1024x564.png 1024w, https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/image-252-300x165.png 300w, https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/image-252-768x423.png 768w, https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/image-252.png 1071w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption><strong>Figure</strong>: Average Income of a Product Manager in the US by Source. [1]</figcaption></figure>
</div>
<p class="has-global-color-8-background-color has-background">The average annual income of a <strong>Product Manager</strong> in the United States is between <strong>$100,827</strong> and <strong>$133,593</strong> with an average of <strong>$113,277</strong> and a median of <strong>$113,277</strong> per year. </p>
<p>This data is based on our meta-study of eight salary aggregators sources such as Glassdoor, ZipRecruiter, and PayScale.</p>
<figure class="wp-block-table is-style-stripes">
<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Source</th>
<th>Average Income</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><a href="https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/product-manager-salary-SRCH_KO0,15.htm" data-type="URL" data-id="https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/product-manager-salary-SRCH_KO0,15.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Glassdoor.com</a></td>
<td>$113,446</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="https://www.comparably.com/salaries/salaries-for-product-manager" data-type="URL" data-id="https://www.comparably.com/salaries/salaries-for-product-manager" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Comparably.com</a></td>
<td>$111,000</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="https://builtin.com/salaries/product/product-manager" data-type="URL" data-id="https://builtin.com/salaries/product/product-manager" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Builtin.com</a></td>
<td>$123,624</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="https://www.indeed.com/career/product-manager/salaries" data-type="URL" data-id="https://www.indeed.com/career/product-manager/salaries" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Indeed.com</a></td>
<td>$100,827</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="https://www.salary.com/research/salary/benchmark/product-management-manager-salary" data-type="URL" data-id="https://www.salary.com/research/salary/benchmark/product-management-manager-salary" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Salary.com</a></td>
<td>$133,593</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Product_Manager%2C_Software/Salary" data-type="URL" data-id="https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Product_Manager%2C_Software/Salary" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">PayScale.com</a></td>
<td>$100,446</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="https://www.aha.io/roadmapping/guide/product-management/what-is-a-typical-product-manager-salary" data-type="URL" data-id="https://www.aha.io/roadmapping/guide/product-management/what-is-a-typical-product-manager-salary" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Aha.io</a></td>
<td>$113,000</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="https://www.talent.com/salary?job=product+manager" data-type="URL" data-id="https://www.talent.com/salary?job=product+manager" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Talent.com</a></td>
<td>$110,281</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table><figcaption><strong>Table</strong>: Average Income of a Product Manager in the US by Source.</figcaption></figure>
<p>Let’s have a look at the hourly rate of Product Managers next!</p>
<h2 id="hourly-rate">Hourly Rate</h2>
<p>Product Managers are well-paid on freelancing platforms such as <a href="https://blog.finxter.com/upwork-vs-fiverr/" data-type="post" data-id="11152" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Upwork or Fiverr</a>.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Related Article</strong>: <a href="https://blog.finxter.com/best-python-freelancer-platforms/" data-type="post" data-id="3382" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">What’s the best freelancing platform?</a></li>
</ul>
<p class="has-global-color-8-background-color has-background">If you decide to go the route as a freelance Product Manager, you can expect to make between $60 and $300 per hour on Upwork (<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.upwork.com/ab/profiles/search/?nss=90&q=Product%20manager" data-type="URL" data-id="https://www.upwork.com/ab/profiles/search/?nss=90&q=Product%20manager" target="_blank">source</a>). Assuming an annual workload of 2000 hours, you can expect to make between $120,000 and $600,000 (!) per year.</p>
<p>Seriously!</p>
<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img loading="lazy" width="781" height="1004" src="https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/image-253.png" alt="" class="wp-image-328827" srcset="https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/image-253.png 781w, https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/image-253-233x300.png 233w, https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/image-253-768x987.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 781px) 100vw, 781px" /></figure>
</div>
<p class="has-global-color-8-background-color has-background"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/26a1.png" alt="⚡" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" /> <strong>Note</strong>: Do you want to create your own thriving coding business online? Feel free to check out our <a href="https://blog.finxter.com/become-python-freelancer-course/" data-type="page" data-id="2072" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">freelance developer course</a> — the world’s #1 best-selling freelance developer course that specifically shows you how to succeed on Upwork and Fiverr!</p>
<div class="wp-container-1 wp-block-buttons">
<div class="wp-block-button has-custom-width wp-block-button__width-50 is-style-fill"><a class="wp-block-button__link has-accent-background-color has-background" href="https://blog.finxter.com/become-python-freelancer-course/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Join Freelancer Course</a></div>
</div>
<h2 id="industry-demand">Industry Demand</h2>
<p>But is there enough demand? Let’s have a look at Google trends to find out how interest evolves over time (<a href="https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=Product%20Manager" data-type="URL" data-id="https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=Product%20Manager" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">source</a>):</p>
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" width="1024" height="496" src="https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/image-254-1024x496.png" alt="" class="wp-image-328829" srcset="https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/image-254-1024x496.png 1024w, https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/image-254-300x145.png 300w, https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/image-254-768x372.png 768w, https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/image-254-1536x744.png 1536w, https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/image-254.png 1727w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>
<p>Interestingly, the demand for “hire product manager” grows even faster in recent years (<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=Hire%20Product%20Manager" data-type="URL" data-id="https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=Hire%20Product%20Manager" target="_blank">source</a>):</p>
<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" width="1024" height="491" src="https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/image-255-1024x491.png" alt="" class="wp-image-328830" srcset="https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/image-255-1024x491.png 1024w, https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/image-255-300x144.png 300w, https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/image-255-768x368.png 768w, https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/image-255-1536x736.png 1536w, https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/image-255.png 1745w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>
</div>
<p>So, becoming a PM may be one of the best career choices for ambitious product people that want to maximize their earnings and value creation potential.</p>
<h2 id="learning-path-skills-and-education-requirements">Learning Path, Skills, and Education Requirements</h2>
<p>Do you want to become a Product Manager? Here’s a step-by-step learning path I’d propose to get started:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Step 1</strong>: Finish 2-3 <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://pll.harvard.edu/course/cs50-introduction-computer-science?delta=0" data-type="URL" data-id="https://pll.harvard.edu/course/cs50-introduction-computer-science?delta=0" target="_blank">Product Management Courses</a> (~50 hours)</li>
<li><strong>Step 2</strong>: Finish 2-3 <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=product+manager+book" data-type="URL" data-id="https://www.google.com/search?q=product+manager+book" target="_blank">Product Management Books</a> (~50 hours)</li>
<li><strong>Step 3</strong>: Start working as a product manager or a role close to it as a freelancer or employee</li>
</ul>
<p>… and never stop learning!</p>
<p>These are some interesting books on PM:</p>
<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" width="1024" height="201" src="https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/image-256-1024x201.png" alt="" class="wp-image-328838" srcset="https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/image-256-1024x201.png 1024w, https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/image-256-300x59.png 300w, https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/image-256-768x151.png 768w, https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/image-256-1536x302.png 1536w, https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/image-256.png 1572w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>
</div>
<p>It doesn’t harm to get some computer science and coding skills — because this is how products get made in today’s world!</p>
<p>You can find many additional computer science courses on the <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://academy.finxter.com/" data-type="URL" data-id="https://academy.finxter.com/" target="_blank">Finxter Computer Science Academy</a> (flatrate model).</p>
<p>But don’t wait too long to acquire practical experience! </p>
<p>Even if you have few skills, it’s best to get started as a <strong>freelance developer</strong> and learn as you work on real projects for clients — <strong>earning income as you learn</strong> and gaining motivation through real-world feedback.</p>
<p class="has-global-color-8-background-color has-background"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f680.png" alt="?" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" /> <strong>Tip</strong>: An excellent start to turbo-charge your freelancing career (earning more in less time) is our <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://blog.finxter.com/become-python-freelancer-course/" data-type="page" data-id="2072" target="_blank">Finxter Freelancer Course</a>. The goal of the course is to pay for itself! </p>
<h2>21 Best Tips for Product Managers</h2>
<ol>
<li>Study the platform and architecture.</li>
<li>Call a few meetings with the team and figure out who your stakeholders are.</li>
<li>Build relationships with the developers and designers. Take them to lunch. Buy them a few beers.</li>
<li>Dig through the data. Start looking at what analytics are in place.</li>
<li>Talk to your best customers and ask them about what they like about the product.</li>
<li>Trust your soft skills and intuition.</li>
<li>Manage your own career and never stop learning.</li>
<li>Embrace visual roadmaps.</li>
<li>Don’t settle for a stale prioritization framework.</li>
<li>Be interesting and address things your customers care about.</li>
<li>Be a story teller.</li>
<li>Create meaning and move the business towards quantifiable goals. </li>
<li>Aim to provide real value to customers and your shareholders alike. Prioritize customers if you need to decide.</li>
<li>People create the product and people consume the product. Be mindful about social factors such as emotions and leave nobody behind!</li>
<li>Find actionable steps that really can be implemented adhering to budgets, timelines, and resource limits.</li>
<li>Be clear in what you want to achieve. Ask yourself whether a child can understand your strategy and product roadmap.</li>
<li>Never forget to test — spend lots of effort designing tests to catch all flaws before shipping the product.</li>
<li>Understand how your customers measure value — and use it to guide your product design. Because if the customer perceives success after using your product, your company will get the credit and reach success too!</li>
<li>Focus on customer delight, not customer satisfaction.</li>
<li>Meet with your team regularly and repeat the vision and your goals. Repeat. <strong>Repeat</strong>. <strong>REPEAT!</strong></li>
<li>Be collaborative. The most important tip of all!</li>
</ol>
<p>I compiled these tips from my own experience creating products in a role similar to that of a PM, and mixed my own tips with those published by various experts in the field. Feel free to study those excellent resources as well!</p>
<p><strong>Further Reading and Resources:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.atlassian.com/agile/product-management/tips-for-new-product-manager" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://www.atlassian.com/agile/product-management/tips-for-new-product-manager</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.productplan.com/blog/product-management-tips/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://www.productplan.com/blog/product-management-tips/</a></li>
<li><a href="https://innovationmanagement.se/2020/03/05/what-makes-you-a-great-product-manager-4-tips-and-one-extra/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://innovationmanagement.se/2020/03/05/what-makes-you-a-great-product-manager-4-tips-and-one-extra/</a></li>
</ul>
<h2 id="related-video">Related Video</h2>
<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio">
<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Find ♾ Infinite Opportunity in the Metaverse as a Freelance Coder ... to Tom" width="780" height="439" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZS_pM7Yp_Xk?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div>
</figure>
<p>You can find more job descriptions for coders, programmers, and computer scientists in our detailed overview guide:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://blog.finxter.com/get-your-job-in-it-overview/" data-type="post" data-id="186255" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Get Your Job in IT [Overview]</a></li>
</ul>
<h2 id="related-income-of-professional-developers">Related Income of Professional Developers</h2>
<p>The following statistic shows the self-reported income from 9,649 US-based professional developers (<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2021#salary-comp-total-usa" data-type="URL" data-id="https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2021#salary-comp-total-usa" target="_blank">source</a>).</p>
<p class="has-global-color-8-background-color has-background"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4a1.png" alt="?" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" /> The average annual income of professional developers in the US is between <strong>$70,000</strong> and <strong>$177,500</strong> for various programming languages.</p>
<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" width="641" height="1024" src="https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/image-48-641x1024.png" alt="" class="wp-image-163242" srcset="https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/image-48-641x1024.png 641w, https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/image-48-188x300.png 188w, https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/image-48-768x1227.png 768w, https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/image-48.png 876w" sizes="(max-width: 641px) 100vw, 641px" /></figure>
</div>
<p><strong>Question</strong>: <em>What is your current total compensation (salary, bonuses, and perks, before taxes and deductions)? Please enter a whole number in the box below, without any punctuation. If you are paid hourly, please estimate an equivalent weekly, monthly, or yearly salary.</em> (<a href="https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2021#most-loved-dreaded-and-wanted-language-love-dread" data-type="URL" data-id="https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2021#most-loved-dreaded-and-wanted-language-love-dread" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">source</a>)</p>
<p>The following statistic compares the self-reported income from 46,693 professional programmers as conducted by StackOverflow.</p>
<p class="has-global-color-8-background-color has-background"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f4a1.png" alt="?" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" /> The average annual income of professional developers worldwide (US and non-US) is between <strong>$33,000</strong> and <strong>$95,000</strong> for various programming languages. </p>
<p>Here’s a screenshot of a more detailed overview of each programming language considered in the report:</p>
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" width="350" height="1024" src="https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/image-41-350x1024.png" alt="" class="wp-image-163206" srcset="https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/image-41-350x1024.png 350w, https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/image-41-103x300.png 103w, https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/image-41-525x1536.png 525w, https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/image-41-701x2048.png 701w, https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/image-41.png 745w" sizes="(max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px" /></figure>
<p>Here’s what different database professionals earn:</p>
<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img loading="lazy" width="893" height="878" src="https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/image-42.png" alt="" class="wp-image-163220" srcset="https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/image-42.png 893w, https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/image-42-300x295.png 300w, https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/image-42-768x755.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 893px) 100vw, 893px" /></figure>
</div>
<p>Here’s an overview of different cloud solutions experts:</p>
<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img loading="lazy" width="848" height="433" src="https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/image-43.png" alt="" class="wp-image-163225" srcset="https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/image-43.png 848w, https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/image-43-300x153.png 300w, https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/image-43-768x392.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 848px) 100vw, 848px" /></figure>
</div>
<p>Here’s what professionals in web frameworks earn:</p>
<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" width="740" height="1024" src="https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/image-44-740x1024.png" alt="" class="wp-image-163226" srcset="https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/image-44-740x1024.png 740w, https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/image-44-217x300.png 217w, https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/image-44.png 755w" sizes="(max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /></figure>
</div>
<p>There are many other interesting frameworks—that pay well!</p>
<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img loading="lazy" width="816" height="757" src="https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/image-45.png" alt="" class="wp-image-163229" srcset="https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/image-45.png 816w, https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/image-45-300x278.png 300w, https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/image-45-768x712.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 816px) 100vw, 816px" /></figure>
</div>
<p>Look at those tools:</p>
<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" width="793" height="825" src="https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/image-46.png" alt="" class="wp-image-163230" srcset="https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/image-46.png 793w, https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/image-46-288x300.png 288w, https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/image-46-768x799.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 793px) 100vw, 793px" /></figure>
<p>Okay, but what do you need to do to get there? What are the skill requirements and qualifications to make you become a professional developer in the area you desire?</p>
<p>Let’s find out next!</p>
<h2 id="general-qualifications-of-professionals">General Qualifications of Professionals</h2>
<p>StackOverflow performs an annual survey asking professionals, coders, developers, researchers, and engineers various questions about their background and job satisfaction on their website.</p>
<p>Interestingly, when aggregating the data of the developers’ educational background, a good three quarters have an academic background.</p>
<p>Here’s the question asked by StackOverflow (<a href="https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2021#education-ed-level-prof" data-type="URL" data-id="https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2021#education-ed-level-prof" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">source</a>): </p>
<p><strong>Which of the following best describes the highest level of formal education that you’ve completed?</strong></p>
<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" width="1024" height="589" src="https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/image-37-1024x589.png" alt="" class="wp-image-163017" srcset="https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/image-37-1024x589.png 1024w, https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/image-37-300x173.png 300w, https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/image-37-768x442.png 768w, https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/image-37.png 1057w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>
</div>
<p>However, if you don’t have a formal degree, don’t fear! Many of the respondents with degrees don’t have a degree in their field—so it may not be of much value for their coding careers anyways. </p>
<p>Also, about one out of four don’t have a formal degree and still succeeds in their field! You certainly don’t need a degree if you’re committed to your own success!</p>
<h2 id="freelancing-vs-employment-status">Freelancing vs Employment Status</h2>
<p>The percentage of <a href="https://blog.finxter.com/freelance-developer/" data-type="post" data-id="5912" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">freelance developers</a> increases steadily. The fraction of freelance developers has already reached 11.21%! </p>
<p>This indicates that more and more work will be done in a more flexible work environment—and fewer and fewer companies and clients want to hire inflexible talent. </p>
<p>Here are the stats from the StackOverflow developer survey (<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2021#employment-employment-prof" data-type="URL" data-id="https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2021#employment-employment-prof" target="_blank">source</a>):</p>
<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img loading="lazy" width="780" height="538" src="https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/image-47.png" alt="" class="wp-image-163234" srcset="https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/image-47.png 780w, https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/image-47-300x207.png 300w, https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/image-47-768x530.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px" /></figure>
</div>
<p>Do you want to become a professional freelance developer and earn some money on the side or as your primary source of income?</p>
<p class="has-global-color-8-background-color has-background"><strong>Resource</strong>: Check out our <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://blog.finxter.com/become-python-freelancer-course/" data-type="URL" data-id="https://blog.finxter.com/become-python-freelancer-course/" target="_blank">freelance developer course</a>—it’s the best freelance developer course in the world with the highest student success rate in the industry!</p>
<div class="wp-container-2 wp-block-buttons">
<div class="wp-block-button aligncenter has-custom-width wp-block-button__width-100"><a class="wp-block-button__link" href="https://blog.finxter.com/become-python-freelancer-course/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Become Freelance Developer (Course)</a></div>
</div>
<h2 id="other-programming-languages-used-by-professional-developers">Other Programming Languages Used by Professional Developers</h2>
<p>The StackOverflow developer survey collected 58000 responses about the following question (<a href="https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2021#most-popular-technologies-language-prof" data-type="URL" data-id="https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2021#most-popular-technologies-language-prof" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">source</a>):</p>
<p><em><strong>Which programming, scripting, and markup languages have you done extensive development work in over the past year, and which do you want to work in over the next year?</strong></em></p>
<p>These are the languages you want to focus on when starting out as a coder:</p>
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" width="372" height="1024" src="https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/image-38-372x1024.png" alt="" class="wp-image-163026" srcset="https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/image-38-372x1024.png 372w, https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/image-38-109x300.png 109w, https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/image-38-768x2114.png 768w, https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/image-38-558x1536.png 558w, https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/image-38-744x2048.png 744w, https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/image-38.png 780w" sizes="(max-width: 372px) 100vw, 372px" /></figure>
<p>And don’t worry—if you feel stuck or struggle with a nasty bug. We all go through it. Here’s what SO survey respondents and professional developers do when they’re stuck:</p>
<p><strong>What do you do when you get stuck on a problem? Select all that apply. </strong>(<a href="https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2021#most-loved-dreaded-and-wanted-language-love-dread" data-type="URL" data-id="https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2021#most-loved-dreaded-and-wanted-language-love-dread" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">source</a>)</p>
<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" width="846" height="684" src="https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/image-39.png" alt="" class="wp-image-163044" srcset="https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/image-39.png 846w, https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/image-39-300x243.png 300w, https://blog.finxter.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/image-39-768x621.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 846px) 100vw, 846px" /></figure>
<h2 id="related-tutorials">Related Tutorials</h2>
<p>To get started with some of the fundamentals and industry concepts, feel free to check out these articles:</p>
<ul>
<li><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://blog.finxter.com/freelance-developer/" data-type="URL" data-id="https://blog.finxter.com/freelance-developer/" target="_blank">Freelance Developer – How to Code From Home and Earn Six Figures [Industry Report]</a></li>
<li><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://blog.finxter.com/how-to-earn-1000-on-the-side-as-a-python-freelancer-a-step-by-step-tutorial/" data-type="URL" data-id="https://blog.finxter.com/how-to-earn-1000-on-the-side-as-a-python-freelancer-a-step-by-step-tutorial/" target="_blank">How to Become a Python Freelancer—and Earn $1,000 on the Side? [A Step-by-Step Tutorial]</a></li>
<li><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://blog.finxter.com/how-adam-earns-5000-per-month-as-a-python-freelancer-on-upwork-month-4/" data-type="URL" data-id="https://blog.finxter.com/how-adam-earns-5000-per-month-as-a-python-freelancer-on-upwork-month-4/" target="_blank">How Adam Earns $5000 per Month as a Python Freelancer on Upwork [Month 4]</a></li>
<li><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_manager" data-type="URL" data-id="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_manager" target="_blank">Product Manager Wikipedia</a></li>
</ul>
<h2>Where to Go From Here?</h2>
<p>Enough theory. Let’s get some practice!</p>
<p>Coders get paid six figures and more because they can solve problems more effectively using machine intelligence and automation. </p>
<p>To become more successful in coding, solve more real problems for real people. That’s how you polish the skills you really need in practice. After all, what’s the use of learning theory that nobody ever needs?</p>
<p><strong>You build high-value coding skills by working on practical coding projects!</strong></p>
<p>Do you want to stop learning with toy projects and focus on practical code projects that earn you money and solve real problems for people?</p>
<p class="has-global-color-8-background-color has-background"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f680.png" alt="?" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" /> If your answer is <strong><em>YES!</em></strong>, consider becoming a <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://blog.finxter.com/become-python-freelancer-course/" data-type="page" data-id="2072" target="_blank">Python freelance developer</a>! It’s the best way of approaching the task of improving your Python skills—even if you are a complete beginner.</p>
<p>If you just want to learn about the freelancing opportunity, feel free to watch my free webinar <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://blog.finxter.com/webinar-freelancer/" target="_blank">“How to Build Your High-Income Skill Python”</a> and learn how I grew my coding business online and how you can, too—from the comfort of your own home.</p>
<p><a href="https://blog.finxter.com/webinar-freelancer/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Join the free webinar now!</a></p>
<h2>Appendix</h2>
<p>[1] The following code was used to create the figure.</p>
<pre class="EnlighterJSRAW" data-enlighter-language="python" data-enlighter-theme="" data-enlighter-highlight="" data-enlighter-linenumbers="" data-enlighter-lineoffset="" data-enlighter-title="" data-enlighter-group="">import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
import math data = [113446, 111000, 123624, 100827, 133593, 100446, 113000, 110281] labels = ['Glassdoor.com', 'Comparably.com', 'Builtin.com', 'Indeed.com', 'Salary.com', 'PayScale.com', 'Aha.io', 'Talent.com'] median = np.median(data)
average = np.average(data)
print(median, average)
n = len(data) plt.plot(range(n), [median] * n, color='black', label='Median: $' + str(int(median)))
plt.plot(range(n), [average] * n, '--', color='red', label='Average: $' + str(int(average)))
plt.bar(range(len(data)), data)
plt.xticks(range(len(data)), labels, rotation='vertical', position = (0,0.45), color='white', weight='bold')
plt.ylabel('Average Income ($)')
plt.title('Product Manager Annual Income - by Finxter')
plt.legend()
plt.show()
</pre>
</div>
https://www.sickgaming.net/blog/2022/04/27/product-manager-income-and-opportunity/