Undergrad business senior trying to become PM or PMM - advice please! 😁
I'm a senior graduating in May 2019 with Marketing and Business Data Analytics degrees. I fell in love with Product Management back in March when I interviewed for a Product Management internship at Facebook. I got rejected after the final round but the learnings from that process were incredible and I'm determined to try again. Tbh I've been passionate about product management for forever but never knew the name for it. I'm doing everything I can to prepare for a PM role but feel as if I'm at a disadvantage because of my non-technical business/marketing background. I think I have a ton of potential to be a great PM, but it's just getting that chance to interview in the first place that's difficult. Any advice on how to get my foot in the door as soon as I can would be super helpful! So far I've been going through a product management course on udemy, learning python basics, just bought swipe to unlock, decode and conquer, and rise above the noise. I listen to a ton of Product School talks and regularly check their slack channel. I'm even doing my Honors Thesis on Product Management and creating a guide for future business students at my school - since my school kind of failed me on this one. I want to break into PM or PMM right out of college but am starting to get worried because interviewing season has already begun and I still have so much I need to/want to learn! What else should I do?
PM and PMM are two different roles in two different functions. It sounds like PM is what you want, so probably best to drop the PMM for now
PM is what I ultimately want, but most of my experience and knowledge is in marketing so I thought it would be a good start
Eng -> PM is a more natural progression than PMM -> PM. Like Textmenow said, PMM is different. Eng and PM are more directly involved with building the product than PMM.
Talk to your school recruiters. Make sure you are there in all of the company networking events, briefings, meetings. Get your name out there to them to show interest. You already got interviewed by FB so trust that you’re doing something right already! And remember, there are numerous other jobs out there as well to start off on. You can join a small start up and really own the end to end journey of something. Build up your resume and then go for the top if that is still a desire down the road.
Thanks for the advice! Yeah I think I will focus on PMM right now and simultaneously build up my PM knowledge 😊
Tons of open positions for associate product manager programs (Google, Twitter, LinkedIn etc.) and Facebook’s Rotational Product Manager Program hire new grads. RPM program doesn’t need a technical degree, so that may be your best shot
I've applied to all but the Facebook one since I missed their deadline. Thanks! It can just be tough sometimes for your resume to get noticed when it's one amongst thousands 😅 also sucks when my school has no recruiting connections to these companies
I feel you, but don’t fret. There’s still opportunities to message recruiters and people at the company on LinkedIn. I had a bunch of the APM style interviews in Aug, so happy to help if I can
Get any product management role at a decent company and apply again via referrals a year down the line.
Do you know examples of companies that will hire a recent college grad for PM? I have PM and PMM experience but as internships
Not really but you should take a look at bigger companies that would have such a training program.