Product Marketing competitive?
Is product marketing now one of the more competitive non-eng roles, and how do you break into it? I have a relevant marketing strategy background with a master's and can't seem to even get phone screens. A few recruiters have said that they like my background but hiring managers want direct product marketing exp. A friend also mentioned companies hire internally for PMM..?
PMM is competitive and also one of the highest paid non-technical roles. The role has lots of research involved. If it helps, I know PMM at Google who was previously an associate from equity research at a big investment bank and had some marketing background too. He says more of his colleagues are ex-consultants (mainly MBB). Hope that helps. I might be wrong in my perception but that's all I know. Good luck!
Thanks, yeah did notice a lot of ex-consultants and associates in PMM roles at my target companies. Seems like they're not really hiring from other strategy backgrounds, which isn't looking too good for me
Well if it helps, I was able to get 2 interviews in before I withdrew myself from PMM role (for personal reasons). I am also in consulting but not MBB but still a big one. I am at KPMG (obviously).
Facebook made me an offer for a PMM role earlier this month. This is what I learnt from TC research. TC is approximately 20-30% lower than that for PM at same level. In general, FAANG TCs for level n Engineer ~= level (n+1) PM ~= level (n+2) PMM So while PMM is becoming a competitive role, it sits under Marketing & Sales and is viewed as a support function not a core value building function like Engineering or Product. As a result, equity grants in PMM are an order of magnitude lower than those in Eng or Product.
Congrats! I can't even get an interview there, do you have tips?
Thank you. I decided to not take it though and interview for a PM position in the future. I’m happy to share my experience. DM me?
Correct. Highest paid non-tech role is things like Strategy (under product), BizOps (especially at google) and CorpDev (under finance)
Do you know what would be a good entry point into tech companies to eventually transfer to strategy/product?
PMM is certainly lower due to the lower demand and higher supply, and tbh pmms that I see are under worked.
Hmm what do you suggest as a better marketing/strategy career?
If you are in the 20s mid 30s then I suggest, join a successful/ risky start up, it’ll be hard to find that but if you do, you will learn a lot grow much faster and be able to get higher levels into established companies sooner
PMM is great. More sales than engineering. And like sales, if you can't show you're growing demand by X% every year, you will find yourself looking for another gig quickly. But it's a lot of fun and the work is more creative than PM and engineering roles IMHO. To get into it, what I did was build a tech career as an engineer. Went to biz school. Started after b school by marketing similar products to what I developed (took a pay cut to do it). Then kept at it. Switched jobs every 2 years and now am director level and looking at startup. I make less than engineers at my same level.
What kinds of PMM roles - I’m assuming B2C since you’ve tagged Apple, Uber and Lyft? Very different than B2B product marketing so wondering if that’s part of the issue (if you’re at SFDC).
Targeting both because I worked in B2C for 4yrs vs B2B for 2. No luck with either..