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Available times (30 mins)
πAbout me
Coming out of school I started a company that ultimately didn't work out. Took a winding path through software development, product management, and ultimately Solutions Engineering. Found myself managing a team at a small startup that was required by Zoom before starting a company with former colleagues.
Software Engineering
Skilled in
Frontend
Machine Learning
βοΈWhy I mentor
The Merit community helped me succeed in multiple career transitions and mentoring has been my way of not only giving back, but continuing to grow. I have a passion for learning and growing personally and professionally. Seeing others succeed has become extremely rewarding too. I've enjoyed seeing the journey of self taught engineers growing their salary over 50% and bootcamp engineers land their first role in weeks instead of months because of mentorship.
Talk to me about
π Launching products and measuring success
π― Setting team goals and metrics
π Product vision and strategy
π Working in cross functional teams
π° Negotiating a promotion/offer
π¨βπ©βπ¦βπ¦ Having a family in tech
π« Managing up, down and around
π£ Becoming a people manager
πΊοΈ The technical or people track?
π¬ Giving and receiving feedback
β€οΈβπ₯ Building your first team
π©π½βπ» Launching side projects
π« Breaking into tech
π Mock interviewing
π Resume and portfolio review
π Preparing for the next level
Recommendations
Hereβs what Merit users have said about Ben
Ben shared his own PM journey and was very helpful and supportive! Glad we had the opportunity to meet.
Spiritualize
Product Lead
Ben was absolutely great to talk to. He was very insightful into the industry and is very knowledgeable about management among many other things. I plan to continue checking in with him in the future.
Rithm Coding Bootcamp & Software Engineer Internship - Numbers API
Software Engineer Internship
Ben is, without a doubt, one of the most down to Earth people I've ever met. He was very attentive in our session, gave very insightful feedback and displayed an unrivaled passion for helping me achieve success in my career. I'd highly recommend those who need help or guidance in their career to reach out to him.
Code The Dream
Volunteer 1 on 1 Software Engineering Mentor Β· 16-50 employees
βοΈ Recent Answers
I'm currently job hunting after getting laid off. How do you negotiate salary and compensation when you don't necessarily have competing offers?
Being laid off is such a mentally tough experience so my heart goes out to you!
Your salary should match the value that you bring to a company, but there are often other factors like how many other candidates are interested in the job and the budget the hiring manager has for the role.
First step is to understand where market rates are. There are alot of resources like levels.fyi or glassdoor.com that can help, but I've found that those websites are often under what the market is.
When you are in discussions with the recruiter or hiring manager about salary, giving a range is always an effective way to leave room to negotiate when an offer comes through. Almost every company will come in at the bottom of your range with the offer.
Once you get an offer, don't be afraid to ask for more. The way I've found to be effective is to use a question to essentially say no when I get the offer. Something like, "I'm sorry, that's at the bottom of my acceptable range. How can I give 100% of my effort in this role when I'm concerned with my compensation?" From there, you can see what they return with. At that point, asking for an additional amount will likely help close the deal.
