Jean Kang
- Jean Kang transitioned from Big Tech to solopreneurship after roles at Meta, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.
- She grew her income from $35,000 to over $300,000 through strategic job changes and negotiations.
- Kang emphasizes preparation, research, and assertiveness in salary negotiations to maximize earnings.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jean Kang, a 31-year-old former senior program manager from San Francisco who's held roles at Meta, Pinterest, Intuit, and LinkedIn. It's been edited for length and clarity.
I recently left a role in Big Tech as a senior program manager at Figma, and I've previously worked at Meta, Pinterest, Intuit, and LinkedIn. I'm now a solopreneur coach and content creator.
During my corporate career, my income increased five times from a $35,000 salary to over $300,000 in total compensation, and I'm only in my early 30s.
I got my first role as a sales development rep for Intuit right after graduating in 2014. I knew I wanted to break into tech and was fortunate to land an offer at a big logo from the university career fair since I had internship and work experience during college.
Unfortunately, I was fired within a year for not hitting my sales quota.
In 2016, I pivoted to an account manager role
I more than doubled my salary at a tech startup in San Francisco. It took six months to find this role, but I kept going and leveraged my transferrable skills to land a job I could thrive in that wasn't sales.
I enjoyed this role because I could be more consultative and data-driven and less transactional. In 2017, I found out my mom had stage 4 cancer, and I chose to leave my job so I could be her primary caretaker.
After five months of unemployment, a recruiting agency contacted me
I was approached about a customer success role at Meta (then Facebook). I leaped at the opportunity to work for my dream company and became a contractor despite not having full-time benefits. I didn't care because I wanted to work there.
I knew this would be a great stepping stone even though I had a lower salary bump of $10,000, which brought me to $80,000. The experience was amazing, and I became close with my colleagues.
At the end of 2017, as my Facebook contract was nearing its end, I was relentless in getting converted to staff, but I was rejected. However, I had a colleague who referred me to her friend at Pinterest for a role as a client solutions manager. I was hired in less than two weeks.
My salary jumped to $90,000
I landed a total compensation of over $200,000, including sizable equity, at Pinterest, where I stayed for two years.
Next, I was interested in pivoting to a full-time program manager role, so I applied cold, interviewed, and landed an offer at LinkedIn. I increased my income by 49%, including Microsoft stock.
After two years, I was ready for my next play and landed my most recent job at Figma as a senior program manager after applying cold on LinkedIn. With this move, I received a 20% bump in base salary and a total comp of $300,000, including equity and a sign-on bonus.
Here are the four strategies that were the most helpful to me in increasing my salary in Big Tech.
1. I always came prepared with my walkaway point and potential pushback
In every negotiation conversation, I remembered that I would regret not asking for more, and the worst answer I could get was "no," so I pressed on.
My walkaway point is my base salary — if it was lower than what I wanted and they wouldn't move, I would walk away from the offer. I negotiated a lower sign-on bonus for a higher base salary in one offer.
2. I did a lot of research to come up with my target salary
I've had rigorous interviews for each program manager role and prepared intensely by always doing my research on LinkedIn, Blind, and Glassdoor.
Knowing my worth helped me stay composed and focused during the negotiations. I left a few offers while interviewing for my last role because of the pay, including opportunities from Salesforce and Cloudflare.
3. I put myself in the driver's seat before the recruiter asked me what I was looking for
I would take control of the negotiation by asking, "What's the salary band for this role?" I would move forward with the candidacy if I knew the salary range was higher than my baseline.
Don't wait for the recruiter to ask first. It's important to have your baseline salary defined before entering the conversation.
4. I wasn't afraid to negotiate other aspects of the offers
At Figma, I secured a $10,000 sign-on bonus on top of the initial offer by convincing my employer of my worth and what I was leaving on the table at LinkedIn.
I've seen friends and colleagues negotiate vacation time, work-from-home Fridays, and equity.
Looking back, job-hopping was the biggest blessing in disguise for my career and salary progression. I landed dream jobs and compensation by knowing my worth and advocating for myself each time.
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