I am considering doing an MBA for getting into product management. I wanted to understand if there are specific courses in b school that helps with the jobs and cracking pm interviews? I have tried interviewing for PM roles and not been able to crack it. some of my swe friends who wanted to move to product did an MBA started to crack pm interviews post their MBA.
MBA Is good, but do an internship too. Also, having a technical background as a PM today is almost a given for many positions.
Innovation/entrepreneurship, consumer research if considering b2c, marketing strategy/research.
Can you tell me specific courses that can help?
Which schools are you applying to or have admit from? Course names vary from school to school.
What’s your current role at yelp ? I don’t think you need an MBA to be in product management.
I am a swe. I interviewed with some companies like FB and google but failed at their interviews. Pm interviews seem extremely subjective and it’s hard to understand what the right answer is.
A lot of product management interview questions are subjective and there isn’t always one right answer. They want to see how you think and what things you’re considering when thinking about a problem.
Yes. Many of the top programs that feed into tech (hbs, GSB, Haas, etc) offer classes on product management.
I have struggled way more with pm interviews and I feel like an MBA from a top 3 school can really help.
Cw has good advice. Many PMs went from their current role to PM without an MBA. Get a good mentor and learn things outside an MBA program. You’ll save a ton of money.
There are much more cost effective ways of becoming a PM, such as reading books, practicing and talking to people...
Focusing on an MBA in order to specifically be able to pass PM interviews is like saying that you want to get a PhD in Machine Learning because you want to pass Python interviews. An MBA is a much more in-depth and holistic degree that will teach you a bunch of things that you have no idea about as a SWE. That's why it's so lengthy (2 years for full-time) and costly (around $150k all-in for tuition + cost of living, in addition to 2 years of lost salaries). There are a bunch of other solutions that have an immensely better cost/value ratio. Have you read decode and conquer or cracking the pm interview? Have you done any mock interviews with other PMs? Have you watched any videos or read any blogs posts where people analyze the PM interview questions? If you do want to get an MBA, then by all means go for it. After the program you will have knowledge on a huge number of topics that you don't even touch as a SWE, eg marketing, operations, finance, statistics, presentation skills, etc. You will have amazing opportunities to participate in business case competitions, consult nonprofits, work in corporate boards, etc. Just have in mind that the goal of an MBA is much wider than passing a PM interview. This would be like using a 787 airplane to hit a nail.
^ This!
Most engineers don’t have a business degree and most business degree holders don’t have an engineering degree. Each company’s PMs have a different balance of business and engineering. If you aren’t passing interviews, you need more business skills. An MBA won’t have a “class” that will make you ready for PM. Business school is finance, accounting, marketing, and strategy, all things most engineers don’t have experience with. You need to think about your career goals. PM has a lot of hype and popularity, but might not get you where you want to go.
I agree, learn from a pm at yelp. Take small side projects from him/her if it is kosher. You should also make sure your current sw work is on a user facing product vs. infra or IT or whatever because you’ll learn a ton from the pm who runs that product - just show curiosity!
You can check productschool in Santa Clara.
Product school is crap. They make a lot of false claims for example folks who are product analyst will be named as product managers. The instructor is also shit and has no solid pm experience