How do you get a job with no prior PM experience?

2014 Mar 19, by David Kim



Paradox of Experience

Perhaps the single most important driver of your qualification as a product manager is your experience working as a product manager. This presents a difficult catch-22. If you are seeking your first product management job, how can you demonstrate your qualifications without a PM experience?

Tactics

Someone posed that very question on Quora. The top responder, Amit Klein, cut to the chase and suggested that you “build your own app … do it to learn a new technology and ship something.” Other suggestions Amit shares are:

  • Test new products and give your feedback to the creators
  • Read voraciously (books, blogs, everything)
  • Start a blog and share your thoughts on the industry

We have seen an example of some of these ideas by Samuel Hulick who focuses on tear-downs of onboarding process of various products on a site called User Onboarding.

What PMs Say

From prior events, we have heard advice directly from PMs in our local community.

For example, Jackie Bavaro of Asana had suggested doing homework on the hiring priorities of different companies. For example, she mentioned companies such as Amazon may prefer MBAs (relative importance of pricing and segmentation to the business), while some might prefer software engineering experience.

In another session, Jason Shah, formerly of Yammer, outlined 5 things PMs do, and suggested ways to frame yourself as a solid PM. For example, one could cast oneself as:

  • entrepreneurial
  • rational but visionary
  • self-aware

and show good product sense through your studies and networking. You can find Jason's slides on slideshare.

One more note, Jason Shah subsequently designed a course with tips and interviews from various product managers as a course on Udemy. This is a discounted link for our community members: How to Get a Job in Product Management.

Start with an End in Mind

One of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, a best seller by Stephen Covey, is to start with an end in mind.

7 Habits

The advice Jackie and Jason share points to this wisdom. Start with a list of your ideal companies, and seek out information and contacts who can help you figure out what it takes to be a product manager with that particular team. This will help you make informed decisions about how to approach an interview opportunity:

  1. Identify the job and experienc requirements - if possible, talk to the hiring product manager
  2. Listen carefully to the language in the conversation
  3. Frame and prepare yourself appropriately based on the words you heard or read
  4. Where you lack PM experience, emphasize transferable skills
  5. Or demonstrate competence through your research or blog
  6. Emphasize other relevant strengths, but remember to focus on the team's needs and not your skills

All of these cues can help mitigate the risk of someone applying for a role without prior experience in the field.


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