118: The Chicken and Egg Problem – Getting A Product Management Job With No PM Experience

Getting A Product Management Job With No PM Experience

This is a hard problem – getting that first product management job without product management experience is one of the harder challenges of the product management career.

In this episode, some ideas on how to navigate this challenge:

• Often a lateral move is the best route
• You need to show a set of characteristics and skills to be considered
• Being able to show and communicate about your characteristics and skills is one of the characteristics and skills!
• You can build the “hard skills” of product management with a side project or other ways
• If you’re a product “wannabe” then you probably have “product management” stories you don’t know you have. I love helping people find those stories.

People to follow

• Andrew Bowker – Andrew has a great weekly newsletter with tips for product management job seekers, and lots of advice on side projects to pursue.
• Shyvee Shi – Shyvee is a great resource for learning about product management and getting that next PM job.
• Ioana Buzoianu – Much of Ioana’s content focuses on helping folks get through the PM interview process.

Links

• Some of my posts about showing your product management characteristics and stories:
  • Do you want to move into product management, but you “don’t have product experience?”
  • Product Sense: What is it?
  • Asking questions in job interviews.
  • Good product manager candidates have *built* something.
• The Perfect Product Manager Resume podcast episode.
• Go To Market For Yourself podcast episode.
• Tell Your Own Story cheatsheet (download)

 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:17 — 31.7MB)

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