I’ve spent the last three years in investment banking and I’m starting to seriously consider a move into product management. The thing is, I keep hearing conflicting feedback. Some people tell me my analytical skills and deal experience are gold, others imply that finance is almost a liability because “tech people think differently.”
I’m trying to build a narrative around what I’ve actually learned that’s relevant to PM, but I want to be real about it instead of just forcing connections. In banking, I’ve built financial models, led due diligence projects, managed stakeholder relationships across teams, and made trade-off decisions with incomplete information. I’ve also seen how business metrics actually drive strategy at the board level.
But I’m also aware that I haven’t shipped a product, I haven’t worked with engineers day-to-day, and I haven’t made user-facing decisions. When I’m talking to PMs or crafting my APM applications, how do I frame what I bring without sounding like I’m overselling the banking experience? What skills from finance actually matter for PM, and what should I just let go of?
Your banking background is genuinely valuable if framed correctly, but you must reframe it through a product lens. Analytical rigor and financial modeling translate directly to understanding unit economics, LTV/CAC dynamics, and how to prioritize features based on business impact. Your stakeholder management experience demonstrates communication across functions, which is core to PM. However, emphasize your ability to make decisions with incomplete information and adapt when circumstances change—this mirrors product iteration. What you should deprioritize: the transactional nature of deals. Instead, shift focus to how you’ve influenced strategy and driven outcomes. Your APM applications should highlight specific instances where you identified a problem, proposed a solution, and measured the impact. This is indistinguishable from product thinking.
banking actually gives you one advantage thats underrated: youve seen p&l pressure firsthand. tech pms often lack that, they just ship features. your edge is understanding how decisions impact the bottom line. dont oversell it tho. apms will want to see that youre hungry to learn product, not that youre bringing banking wisdom to fix them. frame it as context, not credentials.
Research indicates that finance backgrounds represent roughly 15-20% of APM cohorts at major tech companies, with comparable success rates to tech backgrounds when properly positioned. Your transferable skills measurably include: financial acumen (quantifying business trade-offs), cross-functional collaboration (managing stakeholders across functions), and analytical problem-solving. However, emphasize behavioral skills over domain knowledge. Your interviews should demonstrate: curiosity about user behavior (not just financial metrics), product iteration mindset (not analysis paralysis), and technical fluency (you don’t need coding skills but must understand engineering constraints). Position banking as context that enriches your perspective on business impact, not as your primary qualification for PM.
I came from consulting, similar boat, and honestly the thing that actually got me traction was when I stopped trying to connect every banking thing to PM and just showed genuine curiosity about how products worked. I started actually using products critically, breaking them down, and in my interviews I’d talk about what I noticed as a user first, then connect it to business metrics. That felt way more authentic than trying to convince them my DCF models mattered to product thinking.
Your finance background isn’t a weakness—it’s perspective! Keep the analytical strength and add user empathy, and you’ll stand out. You’ve totally got the foundation!