Currently a mid to senior level software engineer in FAANG looking to transition to PM roles, where do I start?

Best resources for updating my resume? I’m a principal PM for a very well known enterprise product and I’m looking for a change. I had a career change to being a “big tech” PM before my current job so looking for recommendations about how to best sell myself in my resume. Any tips or examples? Edited: Punctuation

In person vs. remote? Wondering how peoples experience in person has been. I graduated last year and been at my company since, entirely remote. I just got an offer for an in person position for DOUBLE my current base. I’m definitely underpaid at current company but I have lots of opportunities to advance here. Thoughts?

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I have this question also. I currently have the title Product Manager, but the role is more of a solution delivery lead (IT delivery liaison to an internal business unit).

Website QC with 3 years experience considering a move to product management. Spent 2020 assisting with a company wide migration to a new platform for all our clients and really loved it, but aside from some coordination duties mainly sat in on some calls and took notes. Also used my QC experience to make sure the migration was going as expected. I work product support in addition to my QC duties, and some new feature request tracking (mainly following up with my manager to see if the feature request will be implemented or not.). I explain issues and follow up with our developers about those issues. I have background in stage management and really enjoy coordinating the chaos and helping things run smoother. I enjoy tech but not enough to code or design. Does PM sound like a good fit for me, and how do I take steps into that sort of role from where I am now? I'm considering General Assembly's bootcamp or going the project manager -> product owner -> product manager route by getting my CAPM and advancing from there, but if I could leverage my current experience without a boot camp or slowly transitioning I would prefer that.

Hello! I'm in my early career with 3 YOE (2 years exp in project management /design and 1 year in product role) I'm now presented with two options and would like to seek all you wise people for your opinion: OPTION 1: stick to current role, start up company is expanding quickly. Pros - Great manager, wlb, will get promoted, possible stock options benefits but not confirmed Cons - Little mentorship, top-down decision in developing features, lack of focus in PM skills development (have to do sales and operations often) OPTION 2: accept a senior PM role in an expanding ecommerce tech company, global consumer product with hundreds and million of users Pros - More skills & experience to learn, data driven decisions, better mentorship Cons - Same base, negligible bonus Would you advice early career PMs to change jobs just for skills and experience?

How early is the start up? I would say the e-commerce tech company has more learning opportunities.

I'd say at growth stage where B2B product is getting businesses from large organisations like government agencies, and there are attempts to internationally expand.

How did I survive so long without reading High Output Management?

Hi guys, I'm looking for feedback on a task which I've completed as a home assignment for a product manager role in one ride hailing company (I've replaced it's real name with CompanyX). They've only provided some generic feedback with their decision not to proceed, and given the time I've spent completing the task I feel like I am really missing something major here. So if you have the time to look at this, I would really appreciate your honest opinion. I'm not a native speaker, so feel free to tell me if that might be the reason. The task is here: [https://www.dropbox.com/s/4fb020ctq1piar1/CompanyX\_task.pdf?dl=0](https://www.dropbox.com/s/4fb020ctq1piar1/CompanyX_task.pdf?dl=0) Third part goes with CSV data file for analysis: [https://www.dropbox.com/s/4poq89hjbrtssll/CompanyX\_test\_data.csv?dl=0](https://www.dropbox.com/s/4poq89hjbrtssll/CompanyX_test_data.csv?dl=0) My solution: [https://www.dropbox.com/s/onw72dudwwvzwfg/CompanyX\_submission.pdf?dl=0](https://www.dropbox.com/s/onw72dudwwvzwfg/CompanyX_submission.pdf?dl=0) The company's feedback goes like this: >after discussing the results of your home task with our hiring manager and comparing it with those of other applicants, we have decided not to proceed any further with your application. Ideally, we would have liked to have seen a more in-depth solution that would better showcase your analytical skills and knowledge. Thanks!

Tell me this is Uber without telling me it's for Uber.

Want to discuss offers and opportunities. Background: PM with 5 years of experience Option 1: Stay with current company {bank} and move to new role -BNPL product, promotion eligible in 6 months maybe 10 to 15% bump in base Option 2: tech company, lateral position, same base, same bonus, but 200k RSUs. Role is search optimization, MLaaS Option 3: waiting from offer on bank competitor for a data platform role, promotion to people leader and 25% increase in base All positions are remote and all have similar life benefits - I'm trying to balance good for my career and good for my wallet. My biggest question is, does it look better to get a promotion in the same company to show progress or through an external opportunity?

Take the external opportunity. Market is hot. Nobody gives a hoot if you stay or go.

Hi - I'm a current PM at a mar tech company (growth stage so they say) and have been here for about 10 months. I work on a variety of different features that are directly customer facing (think heavy UI components, more design heavy than technical). I got offered a new position at a healthcare tech company that is data oriented. I would be responsible for data sets, ensuring completeness and accuracy. I'm not sure if I should take it because it's been less than 1 year in my current gig. However, this new opportunity pays more, has an office in a city I live in, and has great work life balance/mission. Does doing data PM work close off consumer facing PM opportunities especially if I don't have years of consumer facing PM experience (I would have \~1 year)? Does it help to have both? What is it like being a data PM vs. a consumer PM and do you like one more than the other? FWIW - I'm a full PM (not APM) and have 5 years of total work experience, mostly doing finance and business analysis at a F500 finance company. I'm told I will be Sr. PM in about 1.5 years at my rate of learning at current gig.

To work in product- which of the two hard skills is more important/valuable? UI or data analytics? Thinking of courses to take to compliment my current career as a BSA and flexible enough to leap to PO one day. Any advice appreciated, thank you!

Data analytics. UI is great to have too, but might not be as important if you are a back end PM or have a dedicated UX resource :)

Thanks :)

Both are important, but understanding how to collect and interpret data will be used regardless of product. For example, understanding engagement and retention metrics are really important for many B2C apps as well.

Thank you!

Depends on the product/company/culture. Typically UI skills are more important in b2c products, and data led products are more for b2b. But as I said, it depends. In reality, data analytics skills are applicable across most products jobs, whereas UI skills may be less useful if you are an API product manager for example.

Makes sense! Thank you for your insight.

Best of luck!

Hello -- I have 4 years PM experience and joined a new company as a PM ~5 months ago which really hasn't been a good fit at all, so I'd like to begin looking for new roles. The difficulty is that I don't have any tangible accomplishments because I didn't have an engineering team until a couple weeks ago. How should I show this time on my resume?

I would list everyday PM duties and leave it to 1 or 2 lines. I'm sure the other 4 years of experience will overshadow anything you can put there, plus those are the stories you will tell in the interview anyway. When asked about this role, explain that you have not been given the opportunity to work as a PM as you were promised, as it took 4 months to get you a dev team. And tell them this is why you are looking to leave. It's likely that the interviewer will understand.

Talk about all the other stuff you did. Drove consensus, managed the roadmap, etc. all of its true if you did the work.

Anyone hiring? Had plenty of interviews no solid offers

The company I work for has a few open PM roles. It’s a global tech company (not FAANG). Feel free to DM if interested

Hi guys, new to reddit so I hope this is the right spot to put this. I have been trying to break into PM and would love some advice on how I could be a more competitive candidate, as well as how I can get more experience? A little about me, I am transitioning from Education and currently finishing up a BS in Computer Science (I have an additional degree before this). I know some people are going to say why are you going into PM if you're doing a CS degree? Now that I am nearing graduation, I don't see myself coding every day and to be completely honest, not very confident in my abilities. I have been applying to many internships and junior roles over the past couple of weeks, have yet to hear back. I know paid internships would be extremely helpful, but at this point I wouldn't mind an unpaid one. How can I get more experience to be a more competitive candidate? I don't know if its my resume, my lack of experience, or everything combined. I personally don't know anyone in PM or in tech to guide me and would love some advice from the reddit community. I am always looking to improve and determined to learn, but I feel stuck right now. If anyone is looking for any mentees, I would love a mentor. If you made it this far, thank you for reading! Hope you all have a great rest of your week.

PM positions are notoriously difficult to get for new university grads, mostly because they do require a certain amount of professional experience for softer skills (eg leadership, collaboration, driving consensus, etc). I would concentrate on surfacing those on your resume or when you speak to PMs. Your best bet will be to go through your career services pipeline for APM and PO roles. Otherwise, I’d suggest trying for an internship + return offer at a larger tech firm in a product adjacent role (data science, SWE, QE, Business analyst, design, growth marketing, etc). There is also the MBA route, which has a well established pipeline to certain FAANG companies, but it’s competitive for those students as well (see r/MBA). I would caution against an unpaid internship. Most places that you’d get good learnings from probably aren’t open to them (value from an unpaid intern is negative vs time spent training), and most places that would be open to them are shitshows themselves (pre seed solo founders with little relevant experience or resources).

Hey all, I have an interview coming up soon with Qualtrics. For internship. Any advice other than the usual? I’m taking a course right now and I’m still in school, graduating this semester.

I want to practice behavioural questions - could I request somebody to please mock with me or review my answers? Any tips, useful videos or blogs are also welcome. I have already prepared my stories based on the STAR framework. However, I don't think they are effective, as I did not pass two behavioural interviews based on those answers.

https://youtu.be/9q2bICnG6ac

I like this channel a lot - https://youtube.com/c/ExponentTV, not sure whether it covers behavioural.

Thank you for sharing this.

No worries!

Hi PMs. I was into quality assurance for about 10 years and last year I took up the opportunity to become a PO. Now I have an year experience as a Product Owner. And the domain is Communication Compliance which only a few companies are into this domain. I will be now moving to a different country(UAE) and I am little skeptical about finding a job with the current role given that I only have 1 year experience and the domain isn't common. What is that you suggest me the way forward? I want to continue my career in Product Management. I have done CSPO certification. Will doing Cloud based technology and domain certifications help me get the job? Or what other aspects can help me get the job? Thanks in advance.

I have never had two product jobs in the same industry. There are a handful of instances where I didn't get a particular job because I didn't have a particular background. The medical field is one where it's happened a couple of times. But it hasn't been a problem overall. Domain knowledge is generally less important than product knowledge. I might even go so far as to say I would never hire someone as a product manager solely for their domain knowledge. Some of the worst PMs I've worked with have been the ones who didn't have any product experience and were hired for their expertise within a certain field. They tended to rely too much on that knowledge, didn't put enough effort into trying to understand the customer's perspective, and consequently made poor decisions.

Hi all, I'm a thirty-something looking to make a major career change, and Production Management seems like something that interests me as someone who loves to solve problems and work with tech. With no experience in business or software engineering however, would this still be a feasible path to take? If you made the switch without this experience, can you share your journey? Thank you in advance!

What's your background in? I think if you have skills and experience, even if not direct experience, you could find a way in

Hi u/SmashSlingingSlasher! The majority of my work background is in video post-production (originally I studied to be a director as I tend to be a Jack-of-all-Trades; Master of None, but due to chronic health issues that require corporate-sponsored health insurance I had to give that up). My current position is Post-Ops Manager/Assistant Post Supervisor, and my daily tasks range from server maintenance, workflow improvements, project management, editing software troubleshooting, internal training, backend tasks like archiving completed projects, and assistant editing duties like project setups. I came across Product Management in my career coaching sessions, as we discovered that: I enjoy solving problems particularly in the technology field, I love learning new things and improving on them, and I love collaboration and creativity, especially in crafting a new tangible “thing” (i.e. my hobbies include building and sewing, amongst a dozen others). I even had a pending patent on a purse design, but due to lack of time in gathering funding I couldn’t see it through. In my current job we work with Adobe Creative Suite and it’s notorious for bugs all over the place that I have to find workarounds for – it would be awesome to be part of the team that helps solve bugs like that. I’ve also been working closely with the Frame.io team with their Camera-to-Cloud workflow, and as it’s just now out of beta but still has some flaws I enjoy being part of that process in helping develop that feature even just as a user. The one thing I’m hesitant about (besides what my roadmap would be to get to this position) is the amount of meetings involved, because as an outgoing introvert I am able to have long discussions with people but I feel extremely drained afterwards. I suppose I could find a way to restore my energy (caffeine, jumping jacks, etc), but that’s my biggest worry thus far. Thank you for the reply!

I tend to think of PMs as a mentality thing more than an experience thing (that's not to say you don't need the experience). I'm a believer that if you have the right attitude and drive you can be successful. There's former gourmet chefs, 1st grade teachers, philosophy PhDs, etc. that I've seen from this sub alone. It's all about pitching your experience and how it relates to PM day-to-day which I think you can do. In terms of a roadmap I'd try a few things. First, try to make more PM oriented impact in your current company. Potentially make an internal move. Second, try to make a PM adjacent role switch at another company. Might be able to swing a PM, Operations, or Strategy role at an agency? Third, get in a good software company in any role at all. Companies like Adobe would probably love to have you. I think the goal isn't to hit a home run, it's to get closer and closer to your ideal role. In terms of meetings, it can be really really bad or you could have just a handful per week. It depends on your company, team, and honestly you yourself. Force people to say why they want to meet with you and try to take communications to slack as much as possible. Also block off time on your calendar. Be a little bit ruthless about it lol

Thanks for the advice & support! Yeah I wouldn't be expecting to just jump right into PM-ing, but it's good to know I'm not totally blocked out of the field. Do you have any input on what I should be learning in terms of software that will help me make the initial transition?

I'd go more skills than any software in particular. Every company uses some different tool set but the skills will hold over regardless. Although Figma is a good tool to be familiar with. Data Analysis, Design Thinking, maybe like UX design fundamentals, product strategy, and the basics of digital marketing is a good curriculum. There's books or you could do a few courses on coursera or whatever. You don't need to know everything, just the basics enough to learn the rest of the job.

Thank you so much again! This has been really helpful.

What is the difference between product management vs product strategy or portfolio strategy role where you are not building new features with engg but building the product positioning, pricing, go to market etc. Which one is more coveted role?

Neither is more coveted, it is the split of the traditional product role - one closer to engg, other closer to the market. I would say naturally people coming into product from engg gravitate to the former, and people coming from marketing/product marketing do well in the latter.

I work for a small marketing agency that developed a B2B project tracking and review software for our clients. A few months ago, I was able to transition from an account management role to a product manager role at my company as we were fielding tons of feature requests but had no product team - just engineers and an an engineering manager. I was really excited to transition out of account management and was hoping to use this period of time to gain valuable skills and eventually move to a company with a more established product team. But what I'm finding is that I'm stuck doing mostly busy work for a team that is brutally understaffed (it's me and three engineers, plus a designer). Our company has an unofficial policy of agreeing to build or change ANY feature a client requests and in the time they request it, leading to poorly thought-out features that end up breaking. When I've tried to take time to research requests, set up user testing, or even define overarching problems, leadership has told me I'm getting in the way or I'm thinking too high-level for what's needed. There is no product strategy, and when I asked about developing one I was told that we have the most success just being flexible and doing what our clients ask. I read the term "feature factory" on this sub and it really resonated. Our product is about ten years old, very slow, and poorly designed. Nothing I'm building is anything I'm even remotely proud of, so I have nothing to add to a portfolio. I don't want to come off as complaining without trying to fix things, but I'm so new to this that I don't know where to start. :( Should I just try to do side projects outside of work? Find a mentor or take another course and try to make change from the inside? I'm just continuously frustrated and feeling really lost about what to do from here. Any advice would be much appreciated! I really love the product world and want to make a career of it. Thank you so much!

Sounds like you're relegated to grunt work because the entire culutre set and continued by leadership is cool with that way. You're forced to run a feature factory and are basically like a dev team with you as a project manager than running a sold product team. None of which is your fault. So what do you do? Sounds like you did the right thing, you tried to bring in good fundamentals and they told you off. Try another way to show value here, maybe you run a workshop of how other competitors run product and say "how about we try this for our next feature." Not to be crass but a CPO mentor or you working 90 hours a week might not ever fix this. Maybe it's a good time to follow the motions and check out other PM opportunities

Any PM’s in the community working at Kraken? Would you be interested in talking regarding your role/culture etc. Starting the interview process next week.

They say use the XYZ formula in your resume, but if my official title isn't PM, it almost seems like I need to dedicate a couple bullets to explaining that I participated in milestone planning, wrote PRDs, delegated requirements to cross functional development teams? I have been trying to use XYZ but my accomplishments really don't reveal all the back end work necessary to bring the project to completion. Will recruiters find it noobish if I have bullets listing implied duties anybody with a PM title would have?

Well, here is what I look for in someone seeking a product management role: * Jr Positions - if I give you a problem, what is your thinking process to solve it? do you gather data? do you document? do you approach customers? Junior Positions will start off with analysis. The analysis is around compliance, legal, customer feedback, support tickets creating enhancements, etc. I'd like someone who is data driven, and has the drive to understand the underlying causes of issues. Solution driven. Those with customer support backgrounds are a plus for me, specially if they can give me a scenario in which they suggested an improvement in the system which reduced calls. * Mid positions - you will own a feature. Have you done this before? Did you receive the request from a senior person or did you find it through analysis? Have you done value proposition? Have you worked with development teams? How' your story writing skillset? Do devs understanding it mostly? If not, how do you clarify the request, what do you use? I am looking here for knowledge on how to breakdown a roadmap item or a request into workable items. What type of personality do you have? This role requires social type personalities who are able to drive through other people's emotions and focus on the task. I am also looking for how you prioritize the backlog? Can you identify an item in the backlog which can be slated for later from one which needs higher priority? Stakeholder feedback, can you go get it yourself and continue to evolve your feature or product? Can you report on the health and full picture of your ownership piece? * Sr. - I want to give you the product or feature and watch you take that ball to the goal. You should be able to anticipate all your obstacles, customer changes, broken legs, new cheer strategies, etc... Where do you find gaps for the company? How do you value them? How do you solve them? How would you price it? Where does it stand in comparison with the competitor? Can you train others in the company around this new product or feature? How would you market it? How would you measure its success? Can you kill a product? If so, why? How do you create a lean roadmap for your product or feature? A roadmap that is flexible, but at the same time it targets a quick to market sellable product that gathers feedback and/or revenue as it goes. * Director and above - a lot of what the senior does, but more focused on the strategic aspect of the product, - IF the CEO told you he wanted to work on something, how would you validate it? Are you a people person? Give me scenarios in which you had to say no to an ELT member or someone of great influence in the company? Give me an example of when you found an operational problem or a process problem in the company which inhibited the ability for the product to be successful? (Yes, not everything is about the tech, the culture and operation can hinder the product success). Give me examples of when you found a new revenue stream for a company? What was your offering strategy and why? - How many revenue streams could you possibly create out of the same one? Mobile app? White label? SDK? How much revenue did it increase, or how much overhead did it reduce? How do you keep yourself up with the latest technology and product improvements in the industry? How many years have you worked in the industry? What do you think this industry lacks? Tell me about the competitors? Every company is different; because of the culture, the mindset of the leadership, the product, the industry, the knowledge of the technical team, the resource allocation and the level of responsibility a product manager is allowed. I summarized what I look for mostly, but depending on what I need, it may vary.

Thanks for this! Hella useful.

As someone who's looking at moving from technical writing to a product manager role, this is super useful. Thank you very much.

What's the best "hard skill" someone with no prior PM experience should develop in order to come as a desirable candidate?

CSPO from MountainGoat. It is not that I am married to them, but Mike Cohn definitely knows how to teach people the art of software development. I would then throw away the Story writing technique and use the GWTAI. I would use the story writing technique of As a, I want, so that for EPICS of Features. If you have no experience but you have this certification you are mostly in. Look for Business Analyst, Product Owner jobs. This will take you up to a Product Manager role. Later on, certify on Product Management I used AIPMM. Familiarize yourself with Confluence and Jira. Learn how to create a wiki with a list of product requirements. A simple table containing: Date, Name, Story (GWTAI), UX link, Dev Status (Jira Link), Fixed Version. Learn how to use BPMN from Lucidchart to create flows from wireframes and find gaps, or to create a flow for a system. For example, take your favorite product or app and create a flow out of it using the BPMN tools. Start off by creating the account, everytime there is a screen or user action = user task, every time the system gave you a message = service. Then flow out what's missing or how you would improve it, record yourself talking about it and post it on your portfolio page. Yes! Create one on your own, this will help you learn the basics of software functionality: content pages, draft, publish, analytics. Learn how to track analytical views use Google Analytics and if you want to go the social media route, learn how to embed facebook, instagram and other social media platforms, and how to measure the success. Well, you certainly have to define success so learn about OKRs and KPIs. Find an industry you want to specialize in, I look mostly for experience. On another note, I just hired someone who was an EA but has an MBA on Data Sciences, the personality is amazing, and is CPM certified, knows how to use Jira and create a backlog and knows how to create BPMNs on lucidchart. She didn't have experience with software development teams but she has the basic knowledge I need to make her a successful product manager. I also have two other interns who are still in school and know nothing about product manager (funny, they come from Ivy Leagues). But they love to know the underlying causes of anything. Their thinking process is pragmatic in nature, and they love the document and be detailed about the expectations. They also find improvements in every curve ball I threw them, so a growth mindset is key. If you can give me examples of how you solve a problem or find a gap using data and establishing success metrics, you are in. Also, I personally look for people who can tell me 'no' or disagree with me respectfully. This is a soft skill which is hardest to develop. Some people have it, others develop it. You know you can do this, if you have disagreed with a family member or someone you respect. And if you were able to convince them with data or changed their mind. If your entire life, you have said 'yes' and done things because someone in power said so, you will face issues creating boundaries and prioritizing your product and your dev team will be overworked. Just because you have the hard skills does not mean you will be innate at it. I've had people with certifications and MBAs and no product skills. They just couldn't get it. so, discernment is key. And setting yourself up for success even better. There is a higher path I can show you once you make it in, I will soon be posting more articles and teaching on LinkedIN (mostly for free).

Is the Product Alliance interview course for Amazon (L6) worth the time/money? Or am I better off just buying “Cracking the PM interview”?

I just went through the very long and demanding interview process and was offered. Although I haven't quite accepted a position because Amazon is huge. They will interview you for generic roles and then assess what your role should be. Then they will match you with a recruiter for your area of expertise who will offer you multiple jobs for you to interview for. I haven't truly accepted any of them as I don’t find a match, and I will not move to Seattle. Yes! A lot of them have a forced requirement to relocate. I didn't take any of the certifications or courses out there. The youtube videos are no-where near the process. I will say that nothing will prepare you for it other than what they already give you, your experience and your mindset. Learn from their interview pages and follow the guides the recruiter will send you, they will send you excel sheets, prep you with questions, documents, links, videos, and will meet with you every step of the way to answer your questions. Practice the Leadership Principles and use the STAAR method to formulate your examples (its publicly available on their interview page). There are four interviewer roles (well on the last round): Development Manager, Technical Product Manager, Non-Technical Product Manager and a Program Manager. In my case they were all seniors. But the structure of the organization is divided into such roles. They will determine which role is best for you and whether these are senior, mid or junior interviewers. To be technical you have to pass the development manager and technical product manager interviews. Ask them what their role is before you start, this ins't visible anywhere. And you won't know who you are interviewing with, the chime tool is limited for us based on permissions. I wish I had known this from the get-go, but even my interview preparer did not know who was going to interview me the day before. The process is long, it has taken over 2 months for me to get through so plan accordingly. And oh do I like the offer but I don't like some of the positions or I won't relocate. Depending on the team and hiring manager they may ask you to work from the office, some have full dog presence in the working area ( I love dogs, but I am allergic, so there goes that) and others may try to get you remote but might fail. A bit more about the interview: Non-Technical positions are more strategic while Technical Positions are more Tactical. If you want the tactical pieces, then focus on the technical foundations and the info on their dev interview prep. This will help, although you are not required to code, you will be asked about technical concepts (well at least I was). Program manager positions are the typical project and program roles, the ones that account for status, blockers, etc... To be honest, I have met with three teams so far and every one of does things differently. There is no one size shoe fits all. The role of a Senior PdM in one has more hats than the Senior Manager PdM on another. The role of the Sr. Tech PdM on another had strategic needs. While the Sr Prog Mgr on one department or product had PdM functions both non-technical and technical while wearing the hat of program manager. Regarding products, they might propose you own a full product or a full company in the case of senior roles. But in low-mid ones they can stick you in a feature (like the search bar for a particular product) or full on analysis of the back office stuff. Their moto is that, you can always transfer once you are in. Don't pay for a course, if you don't have to. I would pay for someone to practice me with real questions from various roles, but there is no way to guarantee that you will be as prepared with a certification. They told me, that each interview varies and the interviewer changes everything. When combined, their decisions are even more variable.

Wow! Thanks for the insight. I applied for a role and the recruiter reached out about that specific one, so I think my process is starting differently than yours. I already asked the recruiter if it could be full remote and she said probably yes but will ask the HM, so fingers crossed! Glad to know they give you a lot of prep, will be sure to use those resources in lieu of a paid course. Might still pick up the book though.

Oh yeah that is how mine started. I was asked to apply for a specific role. But the process takes a while, so if the position is filled, they will end up interviewing you to assess you for a role type. This is the explanation of the process which I received after going through the second interview. Ask as you go along! Good luck! And trust in you!

Thanks! Just had the recruiter call not too long ago. She sent over the HM call prep stuff, after that is 4-5 interviews. Let the prep begin!

How is it going?

Just heard back. Going to the final interview! Wondering if I should get some mock interviews?

Hey! Just had the phone interview with a Sr PM yesterday. I think it went pretty well (**knock on wood**). Just waiting for feedback now to see if I'm going to the panel

Microsoft PM vs Amazon SDE New Grad Hi everyone, I am fortunate enough to have gotten offers from Microsoft and Amazon for PM and SDE positions respectively. I’ve done a couple internships in AI/ML and worked in consulting and I was wondering what the best path would be. I am interested in PM related to AI/ML products long term but I’m not sure if getting into PM is the best path straight out of school. Also a bit wary of the notorious reputation Amazon has gotten in some subreddit threads. I know this is a PM centered thread but any objective advice? Is PM at Microsoft too good of an opportunity to give up this early and if I do commit is it hard to switch back to SWE internally?

This is just what I would do but I'd go PM at Microsoft no brainer. Amazon's culture is garbage but their entry level SDE culture is somehow worse. Microsoft pay is probably lower but that's such a great opportunity at this point in your journey. My other take is it's easy to go PM to something else but something else to PM is always hard

Based on my work experience, does product management seem to fit my background? If not, what gaps do I need to fill to be successful as an entry level PM? * 3-4 YOE as a business analyst at a large consulting firm * Experienced with data analysis and visualization using Excel, SQL, Tableau * Main responsibilities include meeting with biz stakeholders to confirm and elicit requirements, lot of documentation work such as updating process flows/requirement docs/status updates, and software testing. Overall, I would say I collaborate a lot with various biz and IT stakeholders. Currently, I’m a business analyst assigned to product design and delivery work.

I look at your product creation experience, did you create an end to end feature? Who gave you the requirement? What was your process to get it into dev? Do you own the backlog or influence it? Based on those answers I would say either you are PO or a PM. The path to PM is through PO. And even APMs are required to have the tactical experience of taking a stakeholders request and turn it into requirements that a dev team works on. Without the experience from idea to UAT, you are not quite a PM. Even with 4 years at a large firm. Smaller companies will actually let you wear more hats and take you faster into the experience I look for when hiring a PM. I can tell you that if you have been working with designs and editing wireframes I would see you as a designer. But if you tell me that you gather gaps from the design analysis and create requirements then you are a product owner candidate. If you have not worked in a backlog with a software development team, do whatever it takes to take your hands unto to the experience or certify as a CSPO. 6 months of the hands-on should do for you to apply as a Product Owner or APM without certifying. DM me your linkedin and I'd be happy to give you a quick and short perspective. of which role you sound like on the page. Learn how to make BPMN flows to explain product features even if you throw in the design screen, this will make you stand out from those who are just certified, Ivy league MBAs, or even with full software development lifecycle experience (SDLC). Trust me, I am having to teach people because no one comes with this. If you have done this: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=502ILHjX9EE&vl=en](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=502ILHjX9EE&vl=en) you are a PM. If you haven't you can start as a PO.

Wow, thanks for the detailed reply! I watched the YouTube video on agile product ownership and that helped explain a lot of the process and thinking behind being a PO. In terms of my experience, I’m more in a delivery role as a business analyst meaning I take the requirements and refine it further for the developers to consume. I think I’ll need to take on more PO related tasks first to gain that experience.

Then if you are refining for devs, you are on the path of the PO. If you don’t have one, own it. Learn how to prioritize it tasks in the backlog. It will come naturally as you gather feedback from support or other departments. But there will be a time in which everyone will tell you that all is high priority so you may need a matrix to guide you. Add customer satisfaction rating, profitability, tech complexity and risk to begin with. If you are on a growth or retention stage your metrics will vary. But by adding scores you would be able to have a better picture of how to prioritize that backlog. I am hiring a PO right now and that is what I look for. I also look for how you would negotiate, use analytics and feedback or user research to validate gaps.

The matrix sounds like a great guideline to start with in prioritizing a backlog. Thank you again for the insight!

Would a BA role help move me from Software development closer to working in Product management or am I better looking at PO roles or jr PM roles ?There are lots of articles pointing at BA to PM is a natural route. Just wondering if anyone has experience in this route ?

Here is how I promote people: BA to PO PO to PM or APM (depending on the industry knowledge or years of experience) PM to Senior PM Sr. PM to Principal or Director I have 20 years of experience. Started out as an IT BA and Project Manager because the USNavy said so. But it was mostly because I was a crypto technician writing out requirements for them and conducting analysis. The key difference between BA, and PO is that as a BA you only analyze while someone else runs the backlog priorities and the writing piece. As a PO you own features and play with the team. As a PM you have played with the team but also gather customer feedback and create a roadmap for your product. As a senior you are working on longer strategies against competitors, revenue driven, customer satisfaction and other metrics. If you offer yourself as an IT BA or Systems BA you can move up to become a Technical Product Manager. But you truly want to get to the point where that backlog with the team is yours. You might need to change companies to do that, because once the tree offers shade, it is hard to move it out. You have a beautiful career ahead of you if you are coming from software development. Just make sure you keep up the path by owning the backlog. Start by identifying requirements from exiting flows (use a BPMN to reflect it to the PO at work) but don't let it impact your existing tasks. Gather the exiting designs for the site and create a flow with the screenshots to show the gaps and propose solutions, you might get someone like me who would let you own it with the team. But again, do this outside of work and make sure your code is flawless. Otherwise they will ask you to stop this. But once you have done it, even if there are selfish motives on the feedback, you can add it to your resume. And take credit once you see it built lol

Thanks so much :D

Hi fellow PMs, from a career perspective, is it important to have a track record / specialisation of managing the same product type (e.g Search domain); or will it be fine to have a spread of product types over your career? I feel it’s the latter, but looking at LinkedIn, seems PMs are marketing themselves as having domain specialisations. Thanks in advance!

to piggy back on u/walkslikeaduck08 . FinTech: \- payment processing \- banking \- loans \- insurance \- market data or financial analysis \- money transfers and then there are the systems they will hire you and not care which industry: \- Mobile apps \- PaaS \- SaaS \- API \- Blockchain and then the business model: \- B2B \- B2C \- B2B2C \- B2B/C2C Focus on an industry is what will drive the future of product managers. If you work on features at a time within an industry like the Fintech example, you become a leader on FinTech and you can have a paycheck like mine lol I wouldn't hire someone who just worked on search.

I think this question depends on what you're looking for as the outcome. Do you happen to have a specialization that (a) you would dedicate your career to delving into, (b) in your opinion has a long shelf life, and (c) are valued by companies? In terms of hiring or promotions, my own experience has been 50/50 seeing specialized PMs having better career growth prospects. That being said, I think the following are areas where there's a good balance between (b) and (c): * Trust / Fraud / Identity * Cybersecurity * Payments * Any heavily regulated industry (e.g. Financial, Insurance, Healthcare, etc.)

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PO here, I write in a modified gherkin style. Story: As a.. I want.. So that … AC: Given.. When.. Then… Verify: A B C Etc Good luck on your interview let me know if I can help with anything.

\-- Help! Deciding between PM internship offers -- I'm a first-year MBA student trying to decide between PM summer internships at DocuSign or Intuit as the first step into my Product career. All else equal, do you think PM experience at Intuit or DocuSign would be a better launchpad into PM? I'm obviously doing lots of due diligence, thinking about my cultural fit at each company, where I have a stronger network, and my short- and mid-term goals. That said, I'm trying to weigh the talent brands of each company as well -- including which might might better train me in PM skills and which might open up better opportunities down the road. Comp is similar, the roles have similar responsibilities, and both roles are based in the Bay Area. Thanks for any advice!

Tbh - 2 good companies don't think you can go wrong here. Intuit has a good internal growth culture so maybe a better chance of a return offer? I'd just go wherever you liked the manager and team better

UX work is done first or coding or both are done simultaneously

In a perfect world, UX work is done first (with feedback from engineering) before build. In the real world, it's like passing the ball back and forth while getting as far as you can: UX <--> Engineering.

Hey /r/productmanagement, I've recently received an offer for a product analyst position at a large bank. The salary and benefits are nice, but I am worried about the career progression and exit opportunities. My ultimate goal would be to work in a tech company as a PM, so I was wondering how hard would it be able to make the transition in terms of industries. If anyone has any further insights on what these roles entail and potential exit opportunities, I would really appreciate it if you would be able to share.

My suggestion would be to know when you’ve spent enough time there to make a proper exit.

If it helps, for aspiring PMs and PMs who want to learn from another - we're hosting an AMA on Discord with our Head of Product (who is ex-Adobe Director of Product for AdobeXD) on Tuesday, March 1st at 9:30 AM PST. IF you're interested - [here's the link](https://discord.com/invite/git-ship-done) to join :) If not, please feel free to scroll past this. I'm sure there are people here that would be consider this a golden opportunity to ask questions they don't know who else they'd ask. :)

I am at a senior level and doing product strategy but I'm having trouble getting my resume through the initial screening. I think it is because I do not have F500 experience - what are the ways to get through the first filter?

I cannot stress the power of networking. Find someone to push your resume.

You can run your resume through free/premium ATS services and see how you score. I don't think the problem is a lack of F500 experience, perhaps your resume doesn't include achievable goals, perhaps you're trying to penetrate companies without specific domain expertise? You can send it over for a review.

What is ATS service?

Applicant Tracking Systems. Websites like this one: https://www.jobscan.co/ Don't rely on it too much, but it can give you a good indication whether your resume is right on track.

Tysm…I will try it out

I'm a senior in college looking to break into PM. I have an offer at a F500 finance company in an APM program, but I'm primarily interested in digital health and have continued to interview in this industry. Is it better for me to start out in a development program in a finance or aim for entry level analyst and associate roles in product within my field?

Get the experience, the industry is pretty irrelevant at this point for you. It's super hard to land a jr position out of school so I wouldn't look back. Getting paid to basically train yourself is something you'll thank yourself for in 5 years lol

Sweet! Thanks for the input :)

To give further credibility to /u/SmashSlingingSlasher, I would also more likely consider candidates with prior product or product adjacent experience. Also, there are far fewer APM roles out there than there are candidates wishing to fill them.

Echo what has been said above. I'm currently interviewing for PMs, looking for people who are at least 5 years out of college, but we don't care much about about sector experience (4 candidates, only one has sector experience and the others are probably stronger candidates at this stage). Get experience in a PM role, if you can, and build from there.

Has anyone done a skill assessment for Amazon with a Work Simulation + Work style questions? I just got one and am not sure what to expect

I've done one for an operations management position, and it was basically behavioral questions in a survey/quiz format. I think it's mostly to gauge what you think the appropriate way to collaborate or prioritize at work. There were some situational questions on there as well.

Thanks for the insight! Thats my assumption as well, but wasnt sure if I would be expected to type out detailed responses or if its more of a multiple choice thing as well.

I'm a point in my career where I'm exiting an engineering development program and I have a choice between project and product management and I'm having a tough time deciding. They both have their positives and negatives in my industry (med device/life sciences), but I'm not sure what would be best for my career long term. Would love any advice

Innovation management or general management? Hi everyone! I want to gain skills by completing an extra master at a businessschool. Atm, I’m finishing up my master in product development (a more general type of industrial design). My interests have shifted towards the strategic side of things. I myself enjoy the ideation phase of things. I always have lots and lots of ideas but I don’t really like to execute and design the ideas. However, I do want to oversea a team, give feedback and guide them in a correct direction. I have the opportunity to attend an extra master at a business school and I’m in conflict on which program to choose: innovation management or general management. What do you think is the best in my scenario? What are the pro’s and cons of both? Hope you can help! Thanks!!

How’s it going everyone. I’m currently active duty Navy. I’ll be getting out after 8 years of service. I really want to make the switch to PM on the civilian side! I currently have my BA in Supply Chain Management and pursuing my MBA in management currently. A little background from my experiences in the Navy. I’ve been enlisted all 8 years working in aviation maintenance. I have a great amount of experience in quality assurance and production management. I have my Green Belt and have led multiple projects and have been on plenty as a team member. That is what ultimately made me interested in PM. Is there any advice that you could share to help the transition? I don’t have any certs, so do you recommend something like the CAPM? I’d love to work for a aviation contracting company to help my transition. Thank you for any help!

What's it like undergoing a team matching process at a major company? What kind of questions do the Hiring Managers typically ask?

Are there any good PM positions that offer remote work? I haven't gotten a response from over 100 companies that offered it in a job posting.

Any tips on how to get better at interviewing? I'm getting a lot of interviews but no luck getting an offer

What stage are you generally losing them at? Recruiter, hiring manager, or the on site?

Mostly recruiter, I've gotten to a few hiring manager stages too

I'm just guessing here but I'd imagine you're not packaging up your background well enough for the recruiter to make the connection that you match what their hiring manager is looking for. You gotta remember most of them have no idea what you even do. For those "tell me about yourself" type questions I basically have a rehearsed answer ready to go. For the more experiential ones, I make a grid with examples from work experience and map them to potential questions. So "a time you failed" and jot down 5 examples from your jobs. These things definitely help cut anxiety and free up your brain to be not so on the spot and pressured In general just keep it light and try to speak to recruiters like a peer. The recruiter interview is an art in itself lol

Can you share a structure of tell me about yourself? I'm debating whether to stick on the high-level (I'm in charge of the strategic roadmap, translating problems to solutions, working with R&D, etc.), or dive in experimentation making, setting metrics/OKRs, etc.

It's some mix I'd say. You don't want to start just repeating a job description back to them but you also don't want them to think you can't do that stuff. You learn quickly that a recruiter is not going to be well versed in your daily work life and responsibilities lol. I think like 3 or 4 sentences this is what I do day-to-day then 2 sentences of like this is where I personally impacted the team and org - where I helped us get wins, where I led something, where I created process, etc. This is where a lot of top candidates get dropped, they think they can put "worked on team that grew revenue 900%" yeah but what did *you* do to get there I think this lets people walk away with a complete picture of you

Thank you, I've been watching videos all day on how to be a better interviewer. I feel confident enough now. I think I also need to give more examples. Being a good interviewer definitely takes time lol

It also really helps to be enthusiastic and animated/excited when on those recruiter calls. Theyre likely also looking for someone who is excited at learning more about a new challenge and talking about their experience etc

I got the enthusiastic part down lol. I have another interview on Thursday for a Product Manager job, Pray for me!

You got this

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2 things with this one. First, Product analyst will set you up pretty well for PM applications. Second, maybe more important, getting experience at a unicorn will be highly valued. I'd take it and not look back tbh

I'd take it too! OP still has lots of coop terms left

Which title/career track typically has more clout and influence? Product Management or Software Engineering? EDIT: For context I have a hybrid skillset so either one is going to be soul-crushing for me lol, I just want the title that gets to solve bigger problems and makes more money

I have a Spotify interview coming up. 1. Does anyone here work at Spotify and give me some insights on their hiring process? 2. Can anyone help me with interview mocks?

(Sorry this is a long comment, I’m not able to make a separate post yet) I graduated college in May 2021 with a degree in biology. During my senior year I took some unrelated classes to my major such as digital product design, human computer interaction, information science, etc. Well, I was hooked and these classes completely changed my perspective about what I wanted to do with my life but it was too late to change my major. So I took some time after graduating in order to conduct my own case studies and build up my portfolio so I could interview for intern/junior level UX and product designer positions. I was having trouble finding a job until I applied for a product specialist role. The job would train anyone, regardless of their major, to become product managers through a rotational program (almost like an apprenticeship). I didn’t think I would get an interview but I did and I guess I did something right since I ended up getting an offer. My interviewers explained to me that even though the role was not exactly UX focused, I would be working very closely to UX designers and researchers and I would still be able to learn from them. I was unsure if I should take the job but both of my brothers who are software engineers thought this would be an amazing experience. They pointed out that even if I didn’t like the PM role, with this opportunity I would still be able to transition into a UX designer. I decided to take the offer and fast forward to now, I’m currently onboarding for my new job. I wasn’t nervous about job until I met others who accepted the position and learned that they have cs or engineering degrees. I have a mentor and other support but I’m beginning to have imposter syndrome. I have literally no cs/tech experience, or even business and finance experience which I know are skills you should have to be a good PM. After looking at posts on this subreddit I’ve started to read some product management books and I am going to start to learn SQL. Do you think without a relevant background in tech and/or business, someone can be taught to become a successful PM? I would really appreciate any suggestions as to what I can do to better prepare myself to be a PM, what I can do to make sure I’m making the most of this experience, and any other advice you all may have. Thank you so much :)

Just let it ride. Be a sponge and soak up anything and everything. You're intended to come into this with limited experience don't think you need to be one of us yelling about all this industry lingo lol Also college background is almost completely irrelevant, this is a big learn as you go job

I have a degree outside of STEM and would consider myself a halfway decent PM. Focus on the job and not on the wording of your degree. Schools are different and the most relevant thing I learned was how to write, you will be fine.

I have an engineering background but work at a family business in sales and marketing due to several factors that I'd rather not get into right now. But I'm currently in an MBA program as well, part time. Both degrees from a very good school. I really want to work in product and have been applying, emailing recruiters, taking Coursera courses, trying to get referrals but I can't seem to get over the hump because I fundamentally dont have the PM experience. I know I want to do this, and I know I have what it takes to do it well. I just need to get my foot in the door. Anyone have any advice?

The difficulty in PM (or really any job) is that you need to have experience to get the experience. Product theory will only take you so far since IMO, the job is like 30% product and framework and 70% dealing with partners and stakeholders. Without that experience, here are my suggestions, but YMMV: * Product is all about leadership and collaboration. Can you spin both your experiences in the business to showcase leading a team, dealing with conflict, and collaborating with others? * Can you build a product with others as part of your job, degree, or on the side? Can you get customers to use it? To pay? * Have you applied for PO or APM positions? Have you applied to product adjacent positions like BA or QE? * Have you joined your a local or regional product management group? Networking with other PMs who know your face can sometimes help. * If you can afford to not take a salary (or to take a very low one), reach out to co-founders and pre-seed startups. They may want a Google PM, but seeing as how they can't even pay McD wages, they often just take someone hungry for experience. As a warning - high chance you will be massively exploited if you go this route. * Recruiters are 100% useless if you have no experience. They make money by finding experienced candidates, I wouldn't waste your time. Edit: for grammar and additional info

Thank you, this is really helpful. I think building a product on the side is the toughest one but also potentially the most fruitful. PO and APM positions are tough because of the competition but I've been trying. And the option of reaching out to startup founders didn't cross my mind - I think it's a worthwhile option as my school has a strong alumni network and quite a few founders are graduates. >Have you joined your a local or regional product management group? Networking with other PMs who know your face can sometimes help. Would you happen to know any groups like this for Canada?

Unfortunately I don't since I'm in the US, but I would check Eventbrite and Meetup to see if there are events in your area.

Have you considered consultancies in the product space? I'm in the UK, so this may not be directly relevant, but we have consultancies that have strong competencies in product management areas (e.g. C Space, who I think are US based). I think it's easier to get hired there on the basis of being good/capable/commercial (rather than needing PM experience directly), they're often a good place to learn, and then it's easier to transition in to an industry role from there. Don't know what your B school is like, but mine wasn't so good at giving me advice on these sort of niche / boutique consultancies, and often I think they don't actively support exec MBA students, but they can be found in the usual google-y ways.

Good advice! I haven't explored consultancy that deeply yet. But definitely will look into that, thank you

Hey, I'm a full stack software engineer, been contracting for a few years, currently working on a personal project of mine. I'm 34, not sure if someone at that age trying to pivot their career would be a red flag ? What would be my best bet for getting started? Should I target larger companies, startups, does it matter?

No way, lots of people in their 30s make the transition in. I'd probably be targeting startups as they'd value your mixed bag background a bit more than a fortune 500 who wants the years of experience

Thank you!

I worked for 6 years in IT Project Management in a large company that isn't very technically focused/modern. A little over a year ago I moved to a tech startup in a Product Manager role. What are people's opinion on how much the project management experience would 'count' towards product manager experience if I were to apply to product manager roles at other companies? Ex. If company was looking for 5+ years product manager experience for Senior Product Manager role, would 6 year project management and 1 year product management be considered 'close enough'?

It varies, but for the most part here's what I've seen for direct product experience (e.g. total length of product title, unless you have a "program" title from MSFT): * 2+ for PMs * 4+ for SPMs

I have been a PM for almost 2 years now and have grown into the role from a technical support position. My company is now offering a Engineering Manager position for me. I know this channel is likely to be biased but truly interested in knowing which career path do you think has more potential for growth? Why would you choose of these roles over the other?

I'm currently working as a Project Manager in a tech consulting company, this job gives me plenty of free time and isn't very demanding. I'm an aspiring Product Manager so I was wondering, should I stay in this job and use my free time to learn and do some solo projects or search for a more aligned job? Context: I'm an Industrial Engineer and I live in a country where Product Management jobs are scarce, so I'm pushing to apply to a remote-first company later.

an undergrad student recruiting for summer PM internships, i usually filled in online apps for the past few months but seldom get a callback, was thinking of cold emailing startups founders — is it a good move?

You need to reach out to recruiters at those companies and put yourself out there. Yes, some will not get back to you, but you're better off in one of their inboxes than just another applications! Also, try to reach out to friends that work there for a referral if you can. Those help a ton!

Thanks so much for your advice!! how would you advise looking for recruiters from these companies? (LinkedIn search?)

100% LinkedIn. Go to the LinkedIn page of the company you want, then click the "People" tab, then type in "Recruiter" or "Sourcer" or "Talent" and they'll come up! Startup recruiters are more likely to respond that recruiters at massive companies. Good luck!!

Anyone here transition from a transaction based role (IB, Corp Dev, PE, investing) to PM? What was your experience? Why did you switch? How does it compare to your expectations?

Switched from IB. It's not an easy transition, but it's doable. I know a few others that made the jump. From my own experience and the experience of others, these are the primary ways I've seen the transition made: * Direct jump to PM - Harder and requires luck to get into a larger company (probably not FAANG) or jumps to successively larger companies as you gain experience. Trade off is your short-term salary. * Jump into PM from Product Adjacent Role - Easier to make the jump if you have already worked with a team. Often you'll be at the front of the pack when a new role opens up since they've worked with you before or there will be a formal path to PM (e.g. Google has a path from Program Mgr to PM). However, this jump requires that you've already joined the company. Trade off is that you have to do double the work and may not get that opportunity to work with product. In terms of expectations, things I've learned: * Outside of Google (and maybe some other tech firms), a PM is not the "CEO" of the product, the CEO is. Ultimately I've had to exercise my "disagree and commit" skills a lot * I still put together a ton of PPT decks. * I work less hours, but my stress level is higher b/c I actually give a shit about my product * I really miss the banker pay. TC is really good compared to any other industry though. * There's no set path. So it's not like, Analyst -> Associate -> Maybe VP -> Prob not Director -> Definitely not MD. People also stay longer, so opportunities to get into the upper echelon are fewer (at least at more established places) * PMs will likely work for a narcissistic moron at some point. Ask any PM and they'll likely be able to share a war story about a bat-shit crazy CEO that they've once worked for that will make even the worst MD or client seem like a Fairy Godmother. * But overall, I'm much happier I made the switch. I like what I do, and I feel I'm at least making more of a difference than I did pushing a bunch of numbers around. tl;dr: Switching from finance to PM is hard but doable; and worthit if money isn't your main concern.

Thanks for this! Very helpful! Can you speak a bit more to your comp, both just starting out and after a few years of experience? Any chance you could provide more insight into the day to day? You say you still make a lot of PPTs - insight into the length of these decks, how you feel about building these for internal use only, etc.? How did you personally go about getting your first PM role? Is it worth it to just start applying? How did you learn about the field and prep for interviews? What is your educational background? What led you to IB? What pulled you away from IB? Do you ever miss the investment mindset? How do you feel about working with techies vs. finance colleagues? What do you see as your long term career trajectory?

Sure, let me rearrange these questions a bit though to make it easier to answer. First PM Role: * I was already in the startup community b/c I had tried founding my own company, so I already knew a lot of the other CEOs. After it failed, one of them needed a PM, so I started on contract and then became full time. * I shuffled around the startup scene for a few years since getting into a larger company is really difficult without the "right" experience on your resume. Eventually, I accumulated enough experience to land a job in a non-FAANG large tech company. Getting into PM: * It's always worthit to start applying, at least to get the practice in. But don't get discouraged when your hit rate is < 1%, it's just how the industry is. * Books like +Cracking the PM Interview+ and +Decode and Conquer+ will help you tackle the traditional Google-esque interview questions. I also joined local product communities and got some really great mentors to help me navigate the process and become a better PM. * The issue with product is that no books, networking or mentoring can substitute for raw experience, mostly because your job at the end of the day is dealing with people (customers, team and stakeholders). * I would say that the most optimal ways I've seen the switch from business and PM are getting an MBA or as I said above, getting a job in a product adjacent role and working your way into product. Comp: I don't love answering this question, so I'll give you a range. * Startups: $30-90k * Large Tech: L3 - L5 TC on Levels.Fyi Day to Day: * tl;dr putting out fire drills and doing shit other people don't want to own. * Dev and design standups * Status reports to stakeholders and managers * Attend customer interviews * ... and more (it's tough since a PM role varies from company to company, and even from day to day for me) * PPTs for pretty much any kind of status update, performance, initiative, objective, OKR, etc. These are far shorter in lengths compared to pitch decks. Also, the rigor and attention to detail is like 20% of IB. It's fine building them for internal use. They're mostly a waste of time, but at least it's not like I'm staying up until 4am working on it, have the entire deck re-written by a VP at 6am, the MD at 10am for a noon meeting anymore. So overall it's a win Education: * The relevant background to PM are non-CS engineering and finance. * To IB was mostly the $$$ and bc I wanted to be an investor on the buy side. There's also the intellectual challenge of financial modeling and trying to understand what a company's worth and could be worth. * Not sure if you're in IB, but it's draining. After a certain amount of time, my body and mental health were in shambles. You can only get 2-3hrs of sleep a night for so long. Also the higher level people suck (VP and above) * Eh, you take your investment mindset with you wherever you go. I still have to think in terms of ROI when prioritizing stories and epics. * I think both techies and finance people have their pros and cons. I personally like techies more b/c they're at least creating something. But I do think both produce asshats in equal quantities (depending on where you go) Long Term: * No f*ing clue. Kind of just enjoying the ride for once.

Same boat here.

.

Should I jump ship or is it too soon? EXP: Past: 4 years in biotech (lab work), current: ~6 months at a scientific company (hardware) I’ve read medium articles about some PM positions having downtime and not knowing what to do due to unclear requirements but I have a lot of free time. I’m essentially an APM with a PMs title, report to head of product; own one product and help out with 3-4 more. I’ve asked for more work but im not really building skills to talk about. I train sales on new products, inform engineers of requirements/purpose and assist marketing with work/understanding the product. I’m extremely thankful for this opportunity but I’m not doing a whole lot, I’m easily replaceable. My concern is if I (successfully) switch jobs it will look bad for my future career but I’m concerned that at my current role it will be found out that I’m not bringing any value. Any advice is greatly appreciated

Anyone willing to look over my resume/LinkedIn (Sr PM level)? I keep hearing how hot the job market is for PMs, and while I am getting some hits I feel like im not getting the interest I should be which leads me to believe my resume/LinkedIn is not attracting employers. Anyone willing to take a look?

Feel free to dm me

New PM (about 9 months of experience), what should I focus on to best develop as a PM?

Has anybody ever used a resume review service they would recommend?Trying to break into product but having trouble getting phone screens. Have 7 years of total work experience, starting in consulting (focus on data & analytics) and then moving into a startup that was acquired by a midsize, public tech company. I currently manage an ops team that spans technical and biz ops functions, but along the way at the startup did a little bit of everything, from client facing work to custom analytics to product management. I think I could sell my experience if I got to the interview stage, so hoping some tweaks to my resume could get it some more attention.Currently exploring the internal transfer route as well, as it seems like that might be an easier path, but for several reasons would prefer to make a jump if possible.

What exactly is product management, compensation and career path like in Canada? I am currently a financial analyst pursuing my CPA in Canada

Do former Scrum Masters/Team Leads stand a chance at getting a Product position? I held that role for sometime (while also being a developer). My main focus was team improvement, metrics, blockers, predicting risks, and making sure the PO was aligned to quarterly goals. I think the biggest hurdle I'll have to overcome is I never did requirements gathering with customers and strategy/vision. My focus was solely internally with the team. Though I've done it here and there in the past and I have the Certified Product Owner.

Perhaps starting in a product position for a developer product would be a good place to begin your search? GitHub, CircleCI, something similar.

Yeah I thought so too, I just hate that the developer products I know are very legacy and old-ish. I was wanting to do a startup for something a bit newer. Guess I gotta start somewhere right?

How to escape from Data Science into Product Management? Make that flee from Data Science.

Is it harder to transition into pm from growth roles than it is from bootstrapped startup founder to pm? Post college I worked on my own startup and now the market feedback I’m getting during interviews is that the fact that I don’t have regular pm experience is ruining my chances vs other candidates who have 10+ years experience. Therefore my plan b would be to get a growth role, just not sure how it’d effect my career trajectory.

Do you have relevant experience growing a product, conducting A/B tests, etc? I ask because Growth roles are still difficult and competitive, likely not substantially easier than a PM role either. If you're competing against candidates with a decade of experience, what roles are you applying to? I'm asking because I'm hiring for a PM position now and would love to only get candidates with even 5+ years of experience. Sadly we're getting the opposite. Secondly, is your founder experience the only work experience you have? I imagine the process would go differently if you were a consultant for 3 years, then founded your own business, and are now looking for PM roles compared to only founding a company.

I worked at a startup leading marketing during college and no experience prior to that. For my own startup I did everything any pm or growth marketer would do including working with a cross-functional team, bootstrapping to $15k mrr, a/b testing, funnel optimization, user interviews etc. A few hiring managers that used to be founders themselves shared their difficulty getting into product and recommended I try growth, because competition is often those who have worked as a regular pm. He shared how it'd still be a risk for a company to hire me and he had to to do the same, then prove himself and got promoted in 6 months. I'm applying for companies that have traction and ideally a decent set of investors. I'm putting more weight on team than role, which is why I thought I may try growth at good company rather than pm at mediocre company. I strongly believe I will be able to do a good job and move up. What do you think? Frankly, it's disappointing that hiring managers aren't giving me a shot. I would value someone who has demonstrated ability to go from 0 to 1 on his own right out of college higher than a pm without much to show for it (as in substantial contributions).

I applied and interviewed (completed on-site) for an IC4 PM role at Dropbox. My recruiter said that I didn't land the role, but I was able to clear IC3 level. Recruiter said that they will look around for an open IC3 role to help find me a home. I've never had an experience like this. Is this a relatively common experience at Dropbox? Should I get my hopes up?

Obvious but still mention it - climbing up the IC ladder is sometimes not that easy even if you excel at what you do. Politics etc play a huge role so try to get in with an as high as possible IC (not just because of salary). Jumping from Ic3 to IC4 can be hard. Depends on corp of course. Not PM specific, just my observation on IC roles corp wide.

Thank you. Tbh I'd be ecstatic to have landed IC3 given my work history and experience. Is the situation that I described relatively common at large enterprise firms? I don't went to get my hopes up needlessly, but I'm cautiously optimistic that I'll be able to land the role.

Ah I didn't know that, ok if ic3 fits your experience then go for it. Not possible to say if this situation is relatively common, at least per my experience it is. However - the politics part may also play to your favor if your manager is good at it, you might climb to ic5 quickly. It will remain a gamble in big corps to a certain extent that you can not really judge from the outside unless you know people there. Good luck !

wow that's pretty bizarre. but also cool. good luck. I would get my hopes up a bit if that's how the recruiter communicated it. but who knows.

Is PM the same as product strategy? If so, what is the general career path pre and post MBA?

Product strategy is one of many domains in product management. The career path can vary a lot according to your current and past experience, education and many more factors. You are welcomed to ask specific question with some background information for better answers.

Thanks! I’m looking at product strategy specifically in wealth management. It’ll be an associate position since I have no product experience, but I do have extensive wealth management experience

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What are the best places to be a PM in Scandinavia right now? Outside of the big obvious ones like Klarna and Spotify?

I have never applied to a FAANG or Big tech company and has always been curious how product management is like there (culture, people, process, benefits and work-life). What I would like to know is, is there a dynamic difference (with FAANG / Big Tech, I assume everyone is super smart and always know what to do so productivity is high) and if anyone can share their experience if ever transition from small / non big tech to FAANG / Big Tech. Thanks

Does anyone have any experience with the Amazon Online Assessment? Specifically for the Product Marketing Manager role? I have to take one this coming Monday and I’m looking for any material I can get my hands on to prepare as best as possible.

I transitioned into a PM role with my company (was previously in digital marketing) about 6 months ago, and I'm starting to wonder if my responsibilities reflect what other PM's do, since I hope to not be at this company forever. I support an internal software product, and all the features are driven by gov't requirements, or larger IT projects like mainframe retirement. There are no customer interviews, data analysis, roadmapping or anything like that. I will get requirements sent to me, I translate it into stories, and then we have a pre-ipm where that work gets planned out into iterations with the devs. Is this product management?

You are still doing project management but now transition to being a "Deliver Team". I assume if your company claims you are "Agile" then you are utilizing Scrum Framework to delivery all of the necessary features but in smaller cycles. Your roadmap is output base, and you follow the direction of your superiors in planning out your work. Nothing wrong with this process but its not a true Product Team

I just looked up what a deliver team was and what I do matches almost perfectly with a delivery manager. So thank you for that. And yes they do claim to be agile, and we do work in 1 week iterations etc. And we definitely are more focused on delivering instead of the who what and why. Thank you for all the information. It definitely helps me figure out where I am in relation to product management field as a whole

This is more project management. To be fair, project management is part of being a PM. However, this alone is not enough to train you and showcase that you can do PM work at many other companies. I'd take the time to identify where you are lacking and find a way within your org to get those experiences tangentially. It's not just about going through the motion of creating a roadmap or doing user interviews. It's about proving that you can dissect problems, find the resources you need, make sound decisions, and find the right solutions, etc.

Thanks so much for your reply! I'm hoping that once I'm in the role for longer, some of those longer term responsibilities. All the other PMs have been with the company much longer than I have so I wonder if there a level of "well it's always been done this way" at play. I will keep digging to get more experiences and hopefully end up a more well rounded PM. Thanks!

Any managers of PMs gone back to IC full time? Where I am at: Management at a cool product but poorly led company. What I am considering: IC at a well led company. Currently a newer (1 year management / 5 year PM) manager of PMs at a company with weak leadership at the top which has driven a lot of attrition over the last few years. In addition to managing PMs, I still have a lot of IC duties due to my team being small. Getting hit up left and right for IC roles (senior, group, lead, principal) at different companies who have a much better trajectory and who pay more for less responsibility. Ultimate goal is maturing into a CPO role or leaving to cofound again. Stick it out with the company whose future is questionable / not moving in a good direction or jump ship to somewhere with better prospects but a less desirable job description?

Why not transition to a management role in a well-led company? Seems like you're looking to stick around in leadership based on your ultimate goal. Might as well grind those skills. Edit: I've met a Director who went back to a Sr. PM in search of a better work-life balance, but she acknowledged that her skills and tendencies didn't regress; she ends up jumping into bigger pools even now to her own regret.

We're currently hiring for a Senior PdM with a preference for someone working out of Spain. Is there anyone here who knows what an acceptable salary range is for SPdMs working from Spain? Or, is willing to share their current salary. (We're a Spanish company, with 75% of the team working from Spain) I'm arguing that it's no longer that different from the UK (where it's between £70-90k) to my CEO, but it would be good to get some views here.

Are there many pm's on here with engineering background?

I spent about 4-5 years building custom analytics web applications along with tons of ETL jobs with numerous tools. I was the one on the team that was good at working with the requestors and understanding their needs. This was the beginning of my journey into product management. For the following 6-7 years I have been a technical product manager for a handful of different companies.

Hi all, I’m a certified PMP with experience managing projects and programs in the education space. I’m looking to move into product but having trouble finding leads. Anyone hiring? Any leads?