PMFT Digest 19 - Common PM Job Seeker Mistakes

2014 Aug 11, by David Kim



Your weekly product management reading. Not too much, not too little, just right.

This edition is for you job seekers! We know it's brutal out there.

We can't directly help youfind a job (unless you bribe us with a Korean bbq dinner), but we want to hold up a mirror, and share some guidance. Hang in there!

Last week, some friends and I attend a 500 Startup Conference, WMD (formerly known as weapons of mass distribution). In the afternoon audience was this dude. No one noticed him (circled).

But, he was a keynote speaker from the morning. He is worth a gazillion.

WMD

I just love people who love learning. To know you need to learn and improve is a sign of humility and maturity. It's your key to success.

Be sure to check out our resources page that includes links to blogs, past slides, and good product management books, including Lewis Lin's excellent Decode and Conquer: Answers to Product Management Interviews.

Common Mistakes

Without further ado, the following are some common mistakes that job seekers make. Make sure it's not you.

  1. Not knowing thyself - in business-speak, this is also called poor positioning. As a product manager, your job is going to be to position your product for success. So, you better start demonstrating that in your job approach. Are you a technical product manager? Is your strength in channel partnerships? Do you know much about SaaS?

  2. Not differentiating - Or acting like a commodity. We make this mistake, because in the comfort of our own homes, we forget that the job we apply to receives two dozen other strong applictions through personal referrals. (I appreciate LinkedIn's feature that actually shows the number of applicants for a job.) You can see that differentiation is closely tied to positioning. Again, know yourself.

  3. Not learning - partly this is a state of mind (as illustrated in the WMD story above). But, in this instance, it also means learning to tweak your process. You have to think of job search as a product you build. If the strategy of sending out 10 resumes a day hasn't worked for you for 10 weeks, should you continue? Measure and learn. Make an informed decision. That's what PMs are expected to do with their team.

  4. Not preparing - Get the basics down pat, like a good answer the question what is your favorite product? As matter of fact, just as marathon runners train before the race, one could argue, getting a job is all in the preparation. Preparation is networking. Preparation is honing product senses. Preparation is an effective search stratgy. This is one of the reasons we have done product teardown workshops in the past.

  5. Not setting and adjusting goals - do you have a specific goal? By what date is your planned job offer? Do you have a list of target companies? Strategies and notes for each? Wouldn't you do the same if you were running a product - to make a detailed list of goals and timeline and necessary resources to get you there?

  6. Not building on success - or doubling down on what's working and discarding what's not. We tend to do the same things, the things that make us feel good or comfortble. Don't! Success builds on success. You need to learn to identify successful strategies or leads and prioritize accordingly. Which leads us to this final point:

  7. Not understanding that life is a power distribution. What do we mean by this? It is 80/20 rule in pratice. We generally think linearly. Going back to #5, we think that we can play the numbers game and out of 10 interviews, we can expect a 10% conversion, which means 1 job offer. We think we can tweak that system and improve the conversion to 20% with improvements to our skills. Perhaps.

The truth is, life often works differently. This is a story I read about head of Uber operations - how he hustled his way from jobless to billionaire. You should google the shape of the power distribution. Point is, few big things (or single event) are responsible for pretty much all of your success, and the rest may turn out not to matter.

Or as NNT writes in his book Black Swan “if someone important calls you for lunch, cancel your plans and drop everything and make that meeting happen.” Please, don't, for the love of God, say you're busy if the President or Mark Zuckerberg emails you for a meeting tomorrow. Just jump on it.

Converse

And maximizing your exposure to the funky role of life's chance is one argument why you shouldn't go it alone, but rather join a community like our PM Fast Track. And help each other. That stuff comes back to you.

Avoiding these mistakes will improve your chances, but doesn't necessarily give you tactics for standing out and succeeding. We will have to share that in a future edition. In the meantime, you might enjoy reading a previous post - how to get a job with no prior PM experience.

Afterthought

We are by no means a startup. Our goal is not hypergrowth. Our goal is to empower you, the aspiring and current product managers, in learning and growing in your careers. We do this through learning events and by connecting people within our community.

We are increasingly hearing stories of people who have heard of our Product Management Fast Track, or those who have benefited from the opportunities we have organized.

Our ask to you as the beneficiary, please actively participate. Fill out our surveys, suggest readings, events, and tell others about our community.

If you happen to be a rich uncle or retired startup billionaire and want to support our cause, please get in touch.

What are you reading? Please: share the knowledge!

Love us? We'll happily accept donations.

Upcoming Events

We’d love a volunteer greeter at the door. Get in touch with us at productloverssf@gmail.com.

We added several FREE tickets for students - will add more in coming days as needed


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