Kent Shen is a 37-year-old product manager in Seattle. Business Insider has verified Shen’s income and employment history with documentation. The following as-told-to essay has been edited for length and clarity.
I came from a lower-income family in Canada, and after graduating from the University of Waterloo in 2012, I spent a few years trying to build a business that ultimately failed.
When I returned to the workforce, I felt two years behind many of the applicants I was competing against.
Now, I’m a product manager at Expedia making over $250,000 a year.
It took until last year for me to shake off imposter syndrome. After a decade of setbacks, I finally feel comfortable in my role and confident that I belong there. I am thriving now and feel capable of continuing to grow and earn more.
Here’s my salary journey.
Operations analyst, $40,000 CAD → $45,000 CAD
I was hired at TD Securities in 2014 on a six-month contract at $40,000 CAD annually. In 2015, I was hired full-time as an operations analyst at a base salary of $45,000 CAD.
Previously, I hadn’t thought I’d be a strong candidate for a top MBA program, due to my low undergraduate GPA. While working here, though, I met a coworker who helped me see that a top MBA program allows for career switching and pivoting.
Salary Journeys is Business Insider’s first-person series following real people and their real paychecks — how they built their income, what it means for their lives, and what they learned along the way. If you’re willing to share how your salary has changed over time, please fill out this Google Form.
Manager, $68,000 CAD
In 2017, I joined RBC Capital Markets as a manager, earning $68,000 CAD.
I took the GMAT multiple times before reaching a score I felt comfortable applying to business school with in 2018.
The University of Michigan’s Stephen M. Ross School of Business was my top choice, but I was in the bottom 10% of applicant profiles. The standard strategy is to apply for schools in multiple tiers: reach schools, target schools, and safety schools.
Michigan, along with MIT, was one of my reach schools, while UCLA was my target school. I picked my reach schools because of my sports writing experience; after graduating from undergrad, I’d written and edited for a fantasy basketball website. Michigan has a heavy sports culture, while MIT Sloan hosts the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference every year.
I used that experience, along with a strong recommendation from the site’s owner, to shape an application story aligned with the sports culture.
I was rejected by UCLA, but Michigan took a chance on me, giving me the opportunity to pursue my MBA.
Business school student, $0
I moved to the US for business school. It was a pretty big transition and the farthest from home I’d ever lived.
I took on debt to attend, but it was worth it for the opportunity to pivot into an industry I desired and to increase my earning opportunity. The salary increase I later got ended up more than paying off the debt.
Halfway through my first year at Michigan in 2019, the pandemic hit, making the transition to the US even more difficult than usual. The in-person recruiting and networking that had drawn me to the program suddenly moved to Zoom. COVID also limited the internship opportunities available, and I was rejected from consulting internships.
I accepted an internship at a small tech startup in corporate strategy, which gave me valuable business experience. I built relationships within the company and halfway through, I shifted from corporate strategy to product management.
Read more from our Salary Journeys series
Product Strategy Manager, $195,000, plus signing bonus
I struggled to find a job after graduating with an MBA in 2021. It was terrible; I had to take on a job I hated for a bit, and left that job within four months. At the time, it didn’t feel good, but I knew I just needed to wait out the bad COVID job market.
Pivoting into tech is extremely difficult for those not coming from tech and engineering backgrounds. There is zero chance I’d be where I am without doing an MBA at Michigan.
As the tech market began to heat up, I leveraged my startup internship and finance background to pivot into tech and secure a product strategy role at Expedia in January 2022, focused on insurance. I was paid a base salary of $165,000 and around $30,000 in restricted stock units, plus a $33,000 signing bonus.
Product Manager, $250,000
I got progressive raises over the years. Last year, I was given a broad strategic mandate and full ownership over the work. The products I launched performed strongly, and that experience significantly strengthened my confidence.
This came with a $14,000 salary bump, plus some RSUs, bringing my total compensation to over $250,000.
I’m gunning for promotion this year.
For a long time, I had an “I’m just happy to be here” mindset. In my 20s, while friends were buying homes, I was saving aggressively and investing in my future so I could afford business school. I spent years feeling like one setback could put me in financial trouble.
Over the past few years, that has changed. I’ve been able to focus less on simply staying afloat and more on career development, growth, and the value I can create.
I feel well compensated now, but I also believe the impact I can have in the future will be worth even more.
My wife and I have a long-term goal of building a net worth of around $3 million
Even in this higher income bracket, I’m still extremely frugal.
My wife, who works in education, is the same way. Even as our incomes have grown, we’ve kept our spending in check. We budget aggressively, invest carefully, and take calculated risks. I think I would remain frugal even if my salary tripled.
We are planning for the next 10 to 20 years. We save and invest roughly $100,000 to $250,000 annually while still making room for things we value, including budgeting for travel.
I don’t have a specific salary goal in mind; net worth in the long run is a function of salary, spending habits, and investment habits. As our salaries grow, we hope to save and invest even more.
Our long-term goal is to build an inflation-adjusted net worth of about $3 million, enough to give us real security if either of us were laid off and make us less dependent on the job market.
If you’re interested in sharing your salary journey, please fill out this Google Form.
