[ghaff]

When I worked for a computer systems company, pretty much all the PMs had technical degrees of one sort or another, many had worked as engineers, and a fair number had MBAs as well.

But generally, salaries at tech companies weren't as high then. My salary in the late 80s as a PM with engineering work experience and a couple of masters degrees was the equivalent of about $120K today in a major tech hub.

[tristor]

> When I worked for a computer systems company, pretty much all the PMs had technical degrees of one sort or another, many had worked as engineers, and a fair number had MBAs as well.

This is pretty much the same now. I am on a ~40 person Product team and only a small number of people do not have a technical background. The vast majority of IC PMs at higher seniority have a technical background. Most MBAs you meet in tech companies are people who were technical and went back to school, although there are a few PMs that are more focused on business analysis and marketing side (sometimes categorized as PMMs or Outbound PMs in some companies) and these folks tend to be less technical, but also doing less technical work, so that's perfectly okay.