Two years into MBB post MBA, I realize my passion lies in technology. Although to progress in tech, you need to be a product manager. I have no prior product experience so will have to start from scratch. Have I wasted my two years at MBB when I could have recruited for product roles in business school?

Would have could have should have will kill you. Use your mbbs network to talk to folks. All the way up to very senior people were willing to chat with me as I exited.

Why do you think you need to be a PM to progress in tech?

“Need” to be a PM to progress in tech? Only a sith deals in absolutes

I get where you’re coming from OP, as I was at Deloitte and then moved into Google Marketing.

For everyone else’s context, in most big tech companies, Product Managers (PMs) own the P&L and are basically CEO of a business unit - they guide how the product is built and hold the purse strings / give sign off on Marketing investments. Being in a business function within a tech company (whether it’s Finance, Marketing, S&O, etc.) is fine, but you’ll never be on the path to becoming Sundar, Tim Cook, etc.

And yes, usually PMs have technical chops too since they need to guide Engineers.

5 years in tech implementation post masters I definitely need to be in strat consulting. Grass is always greener on the other side.

If you work in MBB post MBA. I’m gauging that you are a sharp guy, and went to a great mba program. Leverage your strong networks, but similar to other folks, I’d recommend getting into strategy & ops roles in tech. You’d love those, and they can lead to more prominent roles in tech more so than PM roles. All PM and SWE roles have ceilings. I think strategy & ops and PM are the main roles in tech which organically tend to produce prominent exec leaders. You can still get a product manager role outside FAANG companies with relative ease with your profile. However, getting into a pure product management role that isn’t a fluff business product manager role, will be tough in FAANG even with your profile. I went to a top ranked engineering school, then did consulting, and interviewed for Product Manager roles at Google, FB and Yahoo, but it’s not easy, and I know product management very well. Eventually landed a strategy & ops roles in FAANG, and am very happy. Additionally, S&O roles are linchpins roles touching each department, so it’s easy to pivot into more PM or even SWE roles if you have an interest and the skill set. Internal transfers are common and much easier than external hiring within FAANG.

Product is definitely not the only way into tech

Agree with OP. If the goal is to land at say Google, MBB experience post-MBA adds nothing but YOE. Essentially you start from scratch in a non-technical role and gradually pivot towards technical roles with PM being the end goal

L4 Google is possible - I’m trying to make a similar transition at the moment. If you can brush up on the technicals (algos, system design, understanding servers, APIs, databases), the rest of the skill set for PM will come easy to you (product design, product strategy, user preferences).

I’ll also say google pm is the most technical - Microsoft is less technical, and fb is not technical at all. Amazon is also your easiest shot into PM among FAAMG but they have the worst rep due to wlb and lack of interfacing with engineers

How do you know you are truly passionate for tech? Were you technical / CS prior to consulting?

Also - no you haven’t wasted two years. Many skillsets you have developed will serve you in tech/pm and beyond

If you're in a tech practice at an MBB you definitely did not waste your time there.