How To Land Your First Product Management Job
I’ve talked to dozens of aspiring product managers who ask me how to get into product management. They want to be at the intersection of customer, business, and technology. They want to deliver products people love. They want to grow a business. But, how does one get started?
First, let’s clarify a couple of things:
- There’s no one educational path to product management. I know great product managers (PMs) who have technical degrees, history degrees, and no degrees. While it may be common for product managers at software companies to have computer science degrees, a technical degree is not required to be a product manager.
- There’s no one career path to product management. Some come from engineering backgrounds, others from business backgrounds, and still others from user research and design. You can exercise and grow the skills needed to be a product manager in many different roles. Becoming a product manager means applying those things full-time.
Here are some approaches to getting your first product management job.
Internships
If you’re early in your career, one of the best ways to get into product management is to complete an internship. Product management is an applied trade; there’s no better way to learn than to own real product decisions at a real company with great mentors to help you grow. Internships also let you vet a company to see if you want to work there long-term.
If you’re at a college or university with career fairs, talk to companies hiring product managers at those fairs and find a role that matches your interests and experience. Also, seek out companies you admire online, and contact them to see if they’re hiring PM interns.
School projects
If you’re in college, sign up for as much project-based work as possible. And, make sure you do the work that answers questions that product managers focus on: Who is the customer? What do they want? What problem does the product solve? What is the look and feel of the product? How will you get feedback on the product? How will you measure success?
Sign up for product work
Are you working at a company with product managers? Find a way to stretch into the work they are doing. Talk to a product manager who you work closely with, and see if you can take a task or project from him. Start small: a little customer research, a design wireframe, or a beta test plan is a good first step. Make it clear that you’re there to both do the work and to learn from it, so you’re given something of appropriate scope.
After you do the work, get feedback from the product manager on what went well and what could have gone better. Then, ask for more! Ideally, you get to the point where you are a product manager in all but name, and it’s an easy sell to the right manager to have you formally join the team.
Get a mentor
Have coffee once a month with a product person in your company or at a company in which you have a connection. Find someone that has not just lots of experience, but the kind of experience you’re interested in (consumer products, business products, developer products, and so on). Learn from her what the job entails from her perspective. Ask her to walk you through how she makes product decisions. Get feedback on skills she thinks you need to grow and be successful as a product manager.
Side projects
Have an idea for something great? Come up with the plan, write it down, and socialize it. If you do this for something your company currently focuses on (or should), then pitch the idea to a decision maker. If not, write it down and socialize it with product managers for feedback.
Also, consider a personal project. This can be especially good for those with a technical background who can not only plan and design their product but also build it.
What about classes and books?
I have nothing against product management training. Free, online courses from Coursera may be good if you are brand new to the role and are looking to understand some of the basics. However, I don’t think coursework alone can land you a product management job. A lot of courses out there focus on the mechanics of product management, which is more akin to project management, and are very light on topics like strategy, design, tradeoffs, and experimentation/beta testing.
If you’re considering a paid course, make sure it’s well rounded. And, ask the following: how many graduates have gone on to land product management roles within a few months of completion? If the provider can’t or won’t answer that, I’d be wary of using their program as the primary way to land a product job.
As for books, I’d honestly spend time scouring sites like Medium for posts from product managers talking about their products, instead of reading books about product management.
Hang in there!
Remember, product management is an applied trade. Regardless of how inexperienced you feel, find a way to start doing the job, and get feedback along the way. Sooner or later, you’ll land the role you want.
Oh, and by the way: I’m hiring.
This article was originally published on perantatos.com
