Product Management Digest 10 - Career Edition

2014 Jun 09, by David Kim



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

Last week, a friend and I exchanged calls sharing where we are in our careers, exchanging some thoughts about jobs, entrepreneurial journey, and asking what we can do to help each other. Whatever your role, such collegial support is huge! For your career success as well as mental health. I certainly hope that you find a sense of community and mutual support with PM Fast Track.

Last week, we also held a cross-discipline reading of Hooked with SF UX Book Club, which was pretty awesome. (A recording of the discussion is available in under the resources link). This book analyzes how habit forming products are built, hence Hooked. Always learning. And in that spirit, I hope you will consider learning about enterprise development process from Tradeshift's VP of Product, Mihir Nanavati. Click to sign up for the Thursday event.

In that spirit, and in support of those recently graduated or seeking a new job, I wanted to share some readings with great career advice, the kind of stuff I wish someone told me to read when I was 20 years old (or younger). As with any advice, the point of the reading isn't to look for template-answers to your career questions. Instead, it is to hold up a mirror to yourself - as you read, raise questions to yourself about where you want to go, how to measure yourself, how to seek the right contexts and opportunities to help you grow, and so forth. The readings in this edition are heavily strategic. The tactics of how you position yourself for the oppotunities, we will have to revisit.

Interested in becoming a PM Fast Track organizer? Apply today: do something awesome!


7 Ways to Stay Positive While Finding a Job

Aaron Hurst

We all go through emotional ups and downs during a job search. You wake up full of possibilities. Then someone says no, and your heart drops. All those hours you invested! But, don't lose heart! Staying happy and positive is absolutely critical to your well being and career success. Hurst writes:

“Research has shown that we get purpose from relationships, doing something greater than ourselves and through personal growth. A job search that is designed around these three sources of purpose cannot only be rewarding but is also likely to land you a job where you thrive.” Read more.


Guide to Career Planning: Opportunity

Marc Andreessen

“Instead of planning your career, focus on developing skills and pursuing opportunities.”

And with that theme, Marc deciphers what it means to be at the right place at the right time. I think the concepts that Marc raises are great, and again, the point of the exercise is to get you to think. Retain a sense of skepticism, however. Marc Andreessen, after all, had the fortune to join in Jim Clark's success as a young engineer. A little Silicon Valley history: Jim Clark is the character who built Netscape. And before Netscape, Clark built Silicon Graphics.


2013 Silicon Valley Career Guide

Andy Rachleff

A PDF guide by the CEO of Wealthfront, with appendix that includes a list of high-growth companies.


How to Get a Job as a Product Manager

Jason Shah

Going beyond the strategic, these detailed slides by Jason gives a sense of preparing for a PM job and interview. Jason shares these through various channels, including in-person talks and via his more comprehensive Udemy course.


What are you reading? Please share it with the community.

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Bonus Material

PM Interview

source: thepminterview.com

And more under our resources page.


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