Hello Blind! I have a bit of an odd background so I’d like to get some opinions on it. I’m going back and forth about whether or not it would be worth it do a bootcamp like Product School or just straight up start practicing mock interviews and applying for jobs. I have a degree in Manufacturing Engineering from a well known California school and I am working on an MS via online (GTech OMSCS). Unfortunately, all of my engineering experience after graduating college since 2018 (3 YOE) has been at a dinosaur Aero/Defense contractor. Therefore, not really working on products for the general public. I did however do 1 year of internships at Tesla where I worked design/quality roles directly impacting the development of Model 3. However, my responsibilities have recently (4 months ago) shifted towards helping with the digital transformation of our manufacturing operations. Since then, I’ve delivered 2 apps that significantly improved the turn-around time of 2 of our most time-consuming mfg operations (99% time reduction). For these applications I suppose my customers/users are Mechanical/Manufacturing Engineers since they’re the ones that use my apps daily. Currently, I’m pretty much a solo developer for a full-stack application that’ll visualize key production metrics on multiple machines/robots. I’m building this app with decent tech: React.js, ASP.NET, and a MS SQL Server. Prior to these software development projects I mostly had regular ME-type roles so I feel like I kinda have a “Jack-of-all trades master of none” vibe on my resume. My questions/concerns are: Would you say that if I were to apply to PM roles I would get interviews? What companies should I shoot for? What companies would I have a higher chance at a getting an interview at? Am I competitive at all?
Come to Phenom
never heard of Phenom but i visited their site. what makes them different from Inded/AngelList/LinkedIn etc. ??
We are product driven and we do a lot of AI/ML. We are a fast growing startup, just recently hit 🦄 status, and we open to people without PM experience
You'll definitely get interest for entry/mid PM, especially if you learn more about the PM process. Do a GA course to get you started and You'll probably notice you do a lot it already. Your technical background will help as well, in addition to Tesla on your resume. Not sure your TC, but that will definitely suffer. PMs don't earn like Engineers.
Thanks for your positive response! Lol I am sure any entry-level PM role at a decent company can beat my miserable Aero TC ($95k)
Oh...well then, wherever you go will be better than that. Surprised aerospace pays such garbage, they certainly charge enough for those planes 😂
Hi Northrop. You're definitely competitive, and your plan of practicing with mock interviews is a great start. And while I'd say that getting a specialized Product Manager Certificate from a school like (cough) Product School can further help you stand out, as you can see from my company byline I'm obviously biased here! So, instead I'm just going to drop here a link to our Jobs Portal where new Product Manager jobs are posted daily. We curate the listings carefully so I think you will find some interesting options here: https://productschool.com/job-portal/ Hope this helps!
Thank you! Will check it out.
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1. Any interview? Then yes 2. Any company. Whatever gets your foot in the door. You’re competing with thousands of candidates with zero PM background. 3. Early stage startups that desperately need a PM to project manage for the founder who is sick and tired of doing it 4. Nope. Only thing that makes a big difference for zero-PM xp candidates is founder xp (it can be anything)
where can i find startup PM jobs? Angel List?
Networking, linkedin, angel list, many more…