Getting your first PM job

A detailed roadmap of how you can transition into a Product Management role from your current scenario

May 08, 2024

The most common question on any product management sub-reddit, comment section of a product manager’s post, or in a session about product management is this - “I don’t have any product experience, how can I get a PM job?”

This question is so common that I see it at least once on some platform daily. It means that the market for people trying to transition is pretty big. Hence, I decided to start sending out this newsletter again with this very important topic.

Before we move ahead, in case you are not subscribed to the newsletter, please subscribe right now. We will be sending weekly product management content towards your way.

Why do you want to become a PM?

Have you ever asked yourself why do you want to make this career choice? What’s the reason?

If you haven’t, you should. You will need to share and explain this to the recruiters and the interviewers.

You don’t need to come up with some fancy story, but talk about your experiences, interests and how they align with product management as a career. Also, don’t lie. Lies in this scenario are pretty easy to catch.

Another reason why this is important is so that you should know yourself why you really want to switch and why would you force yourself in this long journey of trying to shift to a PM role.

Different paths to a PM role

If you want to become a PM, depending on your current situation, there can be multiple paths that you can follow in order to get a product role. We will discuss all of them one by one. Hang on tight!

You are currently a student

Undergrad - If you are currently an engineering undergrad, you can do the following things to get into a PM role:
1. Get a product internship
  1. Try to get an internship in a product role in a startup or any company that you can get.
  2. Having a product management internship helps you get a PPO (Pre-placement offer) at these companies as APMs.
  3. Internships can also help you get APM positions just out of college in some other companies based on the internship experience.
2. Associate Product Manager (APM) Programs of large corporations
  1. Many companies (like Google) have these APM programs where they specifically hire people straight out of college as APMs and train them.
  2. This can be a great opportunity as most of the companies who run such programs are big brands, so it opens many future opportunities for you.
  3. But these programs are very competitive and that makes it very hard to get in. Hence, might not be the ideal path for everyone.
3. Get into a product team in a different role
  1. If, for some reason, you are not able to get a product internship right now, next best step for you is to get a product adjacent role.
  2. Product adjacent roles are the roles which are involved in the product development process, but not as a product manager.
  3. Examples of roles directly involves in the development process:
    1. Software Engineer
    2. Project Manager
    3. Business Analyst
    4. Product Analyst
    5. Product Operations
    6. Quality Assurance Engineer
    7. Product Owner
  4. Other roles that are indirectly involved in the product development process:
    1. Sales representative
    2. Customer Support
    3. Business Operations or Strategy
4. Build a product, become the Founder/ CEO
  1. Okay, this path is not for everyone. But if you can, you should build products. The learnings you get as a founder and builder of a real product are unparalleled and would definitely help you get a product job in case your product/ startup doesn’t work out.
MBA - If you are already doing an MBA, you have a slight advantage as many companies do prefer to hire PMs with an MBA degree. Still, as a fresher, you might have to take care of few things.
1. Get a product internship
  1. The advice stays the same here. Try to get a product internship and convert that into a full time job. It might be the easiest way to get your first job.
  2. Many business schools have a straight pipeline for product roles in companies like Google, Microsoft, Adobe, Razorpay etc.
2. Get a product adjacent role
  1. You can get a role like Product Marketing Manager, Growth Manager, Founder’s Office etc. in series A and above startup.
  2. Such startups give the flexibility of exploring different roles and also experience the product. You can then use this experience to shift to Product Management internally.
3. Build a product, become the Founder/ CEO
  1. The advice is pretty same here too.

You are already working in a product adjacent role

If you are already working in a product company in a role which is involved in the product development process, you have an edge. Now, there can be 2 paths you can take from here:

Shift to Product Management internally
1. This might be your best bet to shift from your current role to product role. Companies are often looking to hire for product roles and one thing they need is experience in the same field and understanding of the industry.
2. If you can prove that you have the right product skills, your company would be more than happy to let you shift to product role as you already have an understanding of the product, the market and the team you will be working with. It’s a win-win for both you and the company.
3. This shift might be easier in startups than it is in a large company though.
Switch jobs to Product Management role in a new company
1. This is the most common path that a lot of people take. Specially if you are in a role like Product Analyst, it is seen as a common career progression to move to product management after a while.
2. Although some role might have an edge over others when it comes to this switch. For example:
  1. Software Engineers can become Technical Product Managers (TPM)
  2. Product Analysts can become Data or Growth Product Managers
  3. Product Designers also often shift to Product Management
  4. Project Manager/ Product Owner also find it comparatively easy to make the switch by expanding their skill set
3. While some roles might have a harder time to make the switch. For example: Non tech roles like marketing, sales, customer support. But they do have the ability to empathise and understand the user, which is an essential skill as a PM. So, they need to up-skill in the required skills to make the switch.

You have no relevant experience

In case you are coming from a very different background that has no connection to tech, this scenario applies to you. For example, if you were a doctor and now want to become a Product Manager, or you worked as an accountant and now want to switch to product management.

To be honest, this route is hard. Not having a tech/ engineering background often becomes a problem, but this is not impossible. There are multiple examples of people who have done this, so you can do it too.

If you try hard enough, learn all the skills and prove your worth, you might be able to crack it. Although the pay might be less initially because you might have to start some place with more responsibilities and less organisation like an early stage startup.

Here are the options that you can explore

Become a Business Analyst or APM at a pre-seed startup
Become a data or product analyst at an early stage startup
Get other product adjacent roles in a startup or a large company
Build a product, become a Founder/ CEO
Go for an MBA
1. If you really want to make the switch, this can be useful for you. Although it is a costly investment.
2. If you are in the US, it might cost you upto $200K. In India, a good MBA costs you anything north of 25 Lakhs for 2 years.
3. If you are ready to invest the time and money, it can be a good way for you to switch to a product role.

Skills you will need to become a PM

Empathy
1. Nothing else comes close to this skill in terms of importance as a PM. (Maybe problem understanding)
2. Empathy means your ability to understand your users, relate with their pain points and trying everything to solve it. A PM is the biggest voice in the company for customer’s needs. If a PM won’t care about the user, nobody else would.
Problem Understanding
1. What I mean by problem understanding is often also referred to as product thinking.
2. It is the ability to go through all the noise, complaints, requirements and feedbacks to find the problems that really matter and are worth solving.
3. A PMs job is to become a bridge between customer needs and business goals to come up with those problems that can create value for both the parties, when solved.
4. Also, to break down problems into smaller parts and to reach the real core problem that needs to be solved is a very useful and necessary skill.
Communication
1. Product managers are responsible for communicating strategy and updates across the team. To be happy and effective in your PM role, you need to be able to communicate well and across many different formats
2. PMs are the common point of contact between many teams and team members, hence in order to ensure that everyone is on the same page, the communication from them need to be flawless.
Prioritisation
1. Another skill which is very important for a Product Manager is to be able to prioritise. Why? Because a PMs job is to prioritise.
2. We prioritise the problems we need to go after, which solutions we will implement, how to allocate resources and how to prioritise the tasks on the product roadmap.
Influence without Authority
1. In this context, influence refers to a PMs ability to achieve the end result they desire.
2. As a Product Manager, you’re a team player who guides product development along its chartered course, but you have to do that without being the literal captain of the ship.
3. You somehow have to bring together a bunch of tech professionals (data scientists, UX and UI designers, software engineers, etc) and make a valuable and functional product happen. While also not being their “boss.”
4. Hence, PMs need to develop the skill of having influence and making people do things they want without exactly throwing the authority card at them.

IMPORTANT: Show your transferrable skills from previous role

While you are transitioning from your current role to a Product Management role, it is important to show what you've done in your previous avatar and translate those skills into a language that matches the job description and solidifies your profile as a Product Manager.

For example: Worked with different teams/ departments = "Led cross-functional teams" or drove a project = "Ideated and executed major initiative, resulting in [X%] increase to [Metric]".

This might not work every time, but it will increase your chances of getting that interview which you really really want.

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