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October 1 - November 19, 2019
The answers to these questions should for...
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Your responsibilities should generally be clear from your specific accomplishments and from your job title. However, if you feel you must explain your general responsibilities, a good place is immediately under the job title and in...
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Rule #5: Don’t Skip the Best Stuff In theory, this is obvious. Of course you shouldn’t leave the best stuff off your resume!
In practice though, many candidates ignore
Implementing This Rule Ask yourself: what did you not include? Are there projects you’ve done (on your own, for school, for a friend’s company, for a hackathon, etc.) that you haven’t listed? Any relevant hobbies? Or interests which have some interesting accomplishment (e.g., completing a triathlon)?
If it makes you a more interesting or more attractive candidate, include it.
For many PM positions, it will be important to demonstrate these skills: Passion for Technology: If you have technical skills or have worked at a tech company, this will probably show enough passion for technology. If you
don’t have these things, find some other way to get involved with technology. You could start learning to code through online courses, build your own website, or even outsource development of a project.
Initiative: You could show initiative through a club at your university, a new employee training program at your startup, or even a monthly dinner ...
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these experiences on yo...
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Leadership: If you’ve managed people in some capacity, show this. This experience could include mentoring / managing an intern or being the president of a club or organization. Impact: Show that you’ve had a positive impact in your prior roles. Be clear about what you’ve personally driven, since your team’s accomplishments are much less relevant than your own. Explicitly state what you’ve built, created, led, or implemented. Avoid weak phrases such as “worked with” and “helped with.” Technical Skills: If you have programming skills, list these programming languages in a “technical skil...
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Go through your resume and look for signs of each of these attributes. If you’re missing some of these attributes or skills, find ways to acquire them and then add them to your
What to Include
Objectives: No
Summary: Rarely With few exceptions, a summary is rarely useful. If your resume is sufficiently concise, it already is a summary.
Skills: As Needed You might want to include a skills section on your resume, particularly if you have programming skills or experience with design software. Skip obvious skills, such as Microsoft Word.
Awards: Yes—And Make Them Meaningful You should list awards you’ve received. Even ones that don’t seem directly applicable to the skillset are often relevant in showing success, hard work, or creativity.
Projects: Yes Projects are incredibly important. In fact, projects are probably the second most important thing, after work experience. If you have any side projects, list them on your resume.
Responsible for managing all parts of the product lifecycle, from ideation to launch. Wrote concept docs and PRDs, created initial mock-ups, and gathered metrics before and after product launch.
Short: Keep your cover letters to around 200 - 250 words. Lengthy cover letters are less likely to be read and likely contain a lot of unnecessary detail. Additionally, being too verbose will reflect poorly on you. Shows Passion: An ideal PM is passionate about technology and about the industry. This passion should be reflected in the cover letter. Tell the reader why
this job excites you. Demonstrates Skills: Look through the desired skillset of a PM – in general and for this position – and reflect on how your background does or doesn’t match it. Pay particular attention to any skills you possess but which might not easily be shown in your resume; use your cover letter to demonstrate these. Matches the Company Culture: Does the company prize “business people,”
or does it like to show a bit more flair? Reflect this in your cover letter. A fun, quirky company could merit a fun, quirky cover letter – particularly if your resume otherwise reads like a boring business person’s. Well Written: Your cover letter is a writing sample and it should be handled as such. This means, of course, ...
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Opening Paragraph In the first paragraph, briefly introduce who you are and what position you’re seeking. There’s no need to state your name; that will
be in your signature. If you have a personal connection with the company or an interesting way you heard about the position, this is a good place to mention it.
Second Paragraph Here you discuss how your background makes you a good fit for the position. This should not be a summary of your roles; that’s what your resume is for. Rather, what this paragraph does is connect your skills and accomplishments with what the company is seeking.
This paragraph should highlight your soft skills and back them up with accomplishments.
Third Paragraph Next, you explain why you’re excited about this role. You don’t want to make this paragraph
too long, as the prior paragraph is more important. You just want to show you care about this position and it’s not just another company you’re applying to.
Fourth Paragraph The final paragraph is very short and just concludes the letter with a “thank you.”
On the skills side, this candidate has shown: Initiative (by learning to code). Passion for technology (by learning to code and by competing in hackathons). A willingness to take risks (by competing in hackathons, despite being vastly under-qualified). Intelligence (by winning hackathons). Leadership (by repositioning the current
product). A love for entrepreneurship (by being at a startup and by “wearing many hats”). Successfulness (by successfully repositioning the product). This is the way you should dissect your cover letter. Think carefully about the role each sentence plays. What skills and attributes are demonstrated in your cover letter? Remember that your cover letter does not
need to be a comprehensive list of all your experience; your resu...
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Company Research Chapter 10 Knowing the ins and outs of a company can impress your interviewer. You’ll be able to ask more interesting questions, give more insightful a...
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The Product You should understand what the company is doing at a deep level. A cursory “it makes home automation tools” level of understanding is not sufficient. Knowing the following information will help you stand out: Products: What is the array of products or features that the company creates? How do the products fit with each other? Competitors: Who are the competitors? How does the company differentiate itself from them? Customers/Market: What is the target market for the company? Are there any secondary markets right now or that you would suggest the company enter? Revenue: How does the
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doesn’t make money, what revenue strategies would you want to explore? Love and Hate: How do customers feel about the product? What do they love or hate? What are the most common complaints and issues? Metrics: If possible, try to learn about the company’s key metrics. Finding exact numbers might be difficult, but you can at least get an understanding of which metrics they’re doing well on
and which ones they’re struggling with. How many users does it have? What is its conversion rate? What is its growth rate? News and Rumors: Have there been any interesting news reports about the company? What is the company rumored ...
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You should also use the product yourself, and you should use it extensively across multiple user types. If it’s a product with free and paying users, try to use it in both scenarios (if possible). Think about what parts you enjoyed and what you didn’t. Pay particularly close attention to anything that would have turned you away if you weren’t “forced” to check it out.
Sometimes candidates are so focused on landing the job that they forget to make sure the job is really right for them.
The Role Finally, you should know how you fit into the company. This entails the following: The Role: You should understand the role of a product manager at this company. How technical is the role? How do decisions get made? Idea Generation: Where do ideas come from? Some companies are “bottom up,”
with ideas coming from developers and product managers who then convince the executives of their vision. Other companies are “top down,” with executives supplying long-term vision for the company and PMs being tasked with implementing that vision. Practical vs. Crazy: While all companies have some appreciation for the practical realities and some for the crazy off-the-wall ideas, each firm strikes its own
balance between the two. Understanding if the company loves bold ideas or prefers more incremental improvements will help you understand what sorts of ideas you could pitch. Things to Change: Walk in with some ideas for what you’d want to change or implement at the company. An understanding of major user co...
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able to speak passionately about why you are excited about the company and why are you excited about product management. Why You Would Be a Good Fit: Similarly, you should be able to make a compelling pitch for how the role matches your skillset and background. The job description is a good place to ...
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suited are you to tackle them? An interview is a good place to get a deeper understanding of some of these aspects, but you shouldn’t rely on this. You’ll want to walk...
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and asking a question such as, “Where do you see the company going in five years?” shows the drive to understand the company.
What’s a typical day like for you? How much of your day do you spend writing specs versus working with designers versus doing other activities? How has the role of a PM changed? How do you see it changing?
What is the balance between PMs, developers, and designers? How does decision making work? What’s your favorite part about working here? What would make someone the ideal PM candidate for you? What do you think makes this company’s culture unique? What do you find most challenging about being a PM here?
Who do you work with on your core team versus extended team? Don’t underestimate the importance of questions for your interviewer. Many candidates find their interviewer leaves a ton of time for questions, and the...
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This is not a time to just read off your resume or blab about your personal life. Rather, pick out a few of the key things you’d like your interviewer to know about you. This is an opportunity to connect your experience with the job you’re interviewing for.
“Why do you want to work here?” When I interviewed candidates at Google, I would ask them why they were interested in the position. Many answers would be something along the lines of: Because I’ve heard Google has a great culture. Because Google has changed the world.
Because so many people use Google products, and I want to work on something my family and friends have used. These answers are okay, but they’re just okay. You won’t win any points delivering an answer like that. Why? Because you haven’t given me anything that makes me want to hire you more. An ideal answer will sell yourself in some
