Career Pivot
Services and product companies run on different clocks
Many engineers and analysts start in services or consulting because that is where the hiring was, and later want to work on a product that lasts. This session explains how the work differs, what product teams tend to look for, and which routes people use, without pretending the move is easy or always better.
Explore this page6 sections
People often assume product is better. It is different, and the difference matters.
In a services or consulting company, you build or run something for a client, to a specification and a deadline, and the project ends. In a product company, you work on something the company itself owns, for users it may never meet individually, and the work continues for years.
The two models reward different strengths, and each has advantages. Services work exposes people to many clients, stacks and domains quickly. Product work offers depth in one system and closer contact with users and decisions, but with a narrower range and its own pressures.
Because the labels cover very different companies, the session talks about patterns rather than rules, and it asks participants to check any generalisation against the specific employer.
Making sense of the move
34 topics across 7 areas. Seven areas, from how the work differs to how people get in.
How the Work DiffersA day in each.5
- Who decides what gets built: a client, or the company's own roadmap
- How long you stay with one piece of software
- How success is measured: delivery, billing, or user and business outcomes
- How much contact you have with end users
- How releases, support and failures are handled
These are tendencies. A services team can work like a product team, and some product teams behave like contractors.
What Each Model OffersNeither is the default winner.5
- Services: breadth, many clients and technologies, structured training at some companies
- Product: depth, ownership, nearness to users and to the business
- Different career ladders and different ways of being noticed
- Different risks: client dependence on one side, company fortunes on the other
- What you want to learn in the next three years
What Product Teams Tend to Look ForAs described by people who hire.5
Interview processes vary a great deal between companies. This session describes what hiring managers say they value; it does not give a script, and nobody can promise what a particular company will ask.
- Strong fundamentals in the relevant field
- Ownership: finishing things and following them into production
- Judgement about trade-offs, not only execution of a specification
- Interest in the product and its users
- Clear written and spoken communication
Gaps Services Work Can LeaveAnd how people close them.5
- Little exposure to system design at scale, in some roles
- Limited ownership of what happens after delivery
- Few chances to work with product or design colleagues
- Thin knowledge of how the business behind the product works
- Ways to build these: open-source work, a personal project, internal moves, volunteer or side work
Routes InSeveral, each with a cost.5
Check any non-solicitation or non-compete clause in your contract before approaching a client, and read your notice and bond terms. These differ by employer, so ask for the written terms, and take advice if they are unclear.
- Applying directly, with a resume that shows ownership
- Referrals from people at product companies
- A client you worked with, if the relationship allows it and the contract does not forbid it
- Moving first to a smaller company or startup for ownership, then on
- An internal move to a product team inside a services company
Pay, Level and StabilityCompare like with like.5
- Total pay, including variable pay and any stock
- Whether the new level matches your experience
- How stable the product company's finances are
- What happens in a downturn at each type of employer
- Your own fixed commitments and risk limit
The session does not quote pay figures. Participants learn how to compare offers and where to look for current information.
Deciding Whether to MoveA reason beyond prestige.4
- What you hope product work will give you that services does not
- Whether you could get it by moving teams where you are
- How you would feel in the first year of a smaller or different role
- A trial before the move: a side project, a conversation, an internal rotation
Common misunderstandings
- That every product company is better paid or better run
- That services work counts for nothing in product interviews
- That a different title means a different kind of work
- That a course alone makes the move
- That the move cannot be undone
- That the label tells you what a team is like
What participants leave with
- A comparison written against their own priorities
- A list of gaps to work on first
- A set of possible routes in
- Questions to ask a prospective employer
- A view on whether to move now, later or not at all
How the session runs
Two or three people who have worked in both models, in services before and product after or the other way round, describe how the work differed and how they made the move, including what they found harder than expected. A hiring manager from a product team joins where possible. Participants then work through their own gaps and routes in small groups. Evening or weekend sessions, in person or online. Nobody is recruiting and nobody is selling a course.
What your students leave with
- A clear picture of how a day differs between services and product work
- An honest view of what each model offers and costs
- Knowing what product teams usually evaluate in interviews
- A list of the gaps services experience tends to leave, and how to close them
- A set of routes in, including internal ones, with their trade-offs
- A way to decide whether you actually want the move
Scheduled sessions
Nothing scheduled yet
Sessions are arranged with a college once a date is agreed. Ask us and we will find the right person for it.
A student rather than a college? See what is coming up, or ask your placement team to host this.
Know what you want from product work before you spend a year moving towards it.
Tell us who your students are and what stage they are at. Sessions are free for participants.