Hey Blind Community, I want to share that finally I am happy and relieved that I landed a decent product management job after searching/interviewing for around 1.5 years and giving more that 200 interviews. Finally my persistence paid off and I am able to get out of my previous company which did not have any work life balance, no culture, no career growth, low salary and no RSUs (No, its not Amazon). To those who are interviewing for PM role or breaking into PM: I know its difficult. Dont loose hope. Keep Going! I got so many rejections. Morning, nights, in office meetings, I keep getting emails and whenever I open it with some hope and crossed-fingers, I can only see one word there i.e. "Un -F@cking- fortunately". You dont even need to read the entire email. Now I know its place, it would be either 2nd or 3rd line first word. There were many times, I got depressed and asked myself if I am cut out for this role or not. Whenever I got depressed, I gave myself couple of days break before going back again and start applying. Atleast from last 6 month, I was able to get to the final rounds of all interviews and keep on getting rejected on the final round. Its really dissapointing to see a rejection in the final round for a company for which you were interviewing for 2 months and gave your couple of entire weekends to solve their shitty take home assignments. And then you have to start again from the strach for another company! Anyways. Keep Trying, Keep Applying, Keep Interviewing. It will not be Lewis Lin books or tryexponent, stellarpeers or other courses that will get you a job (ofcourse they will help), But it will be your Patience and persistence. I promise you my friend, there will be a hiring manager who will think you as a perfect candidate for the job. Keep Going! My interview experiences: I have interviewed with so many companies (atleast 50+) in last 1.5 years. Meta, Google, Amazon, Walmart, Adobe, Dell, Oracle, Tesla, Carvana, Qualtrics, CVS, Wayfair, Workday, ADP, Uber, Humana, Intuit, Paypal, Honey, Momentive and so on. Google interviewer was in a hurry and did not give me enough time to think, He asked me product design, execution and strategy all in one question with no time. Meta product sense interviewer was good but meta product execution interviewer keeps on yawning in the interview and did not pay any attention to my answers. Dell guys keep on asking me math questions which made me remember my BTech entrance exams. Dont get me started on Walmart, they have dissapointed me a lot. Oracle and Carvana gave my only 1 break for 5 hour final round interview. There are lot of stories to share but I cannot write all of them here. Keep in mind that these interviews depends on the team or interviewers or company. I am not trying to criticize anything, I am only sharing my experiences. PM Interview process has surely become tough with so many things to practice - product sense/ product design, product execution/RCA, strategy, estimation and what not. My take on Interview process: 1) Recruiter interview: Recruiters are nice but they will not pass your resume to hiring managers unless you highlight or talk the skills/terms/experiences that are required in the position. 2) Hiring manager round (sometime 2 parts): Key is confidence and practising behavioural questions (for Meta and some other companies, its product sense and execution) 3) Take home assignment or presentation: I hate it as it will consume your entire weekend. 4) Final 5 hour virtual onsite interview: This will exhaust you and you will not have energy or any thinking capability for last 2 hours. TLDR: Just a Gareeb Insaan (poor man) sharing his happiness and motivating others on the same journey! YOE: 9+ (4+ in PM) Old TC: 100k with no RSUs New TC: 190k base with 60k RSUs and bonus (in LCOL) [Remote] #product #productmanagement #pm #motivation #keepgoing
Congrats! I think I’m more impressed you had 200 interviews. Did you use any paid services like exponent, product alliance, or mock interview?
Thanks man… I bought 2 lewis lin books but did not find it helpful… I also bought tryexponent.. its good
Did you do any unpaid / paid mocks?
Congratulations OP ! Your hard work and perseverance paid off. Very motivating.
Thank you 😊
Great work OP. I don’t know you but super proud of you. Best of luck at Salesforce
Thanks ImvI80 😊
🥲 I’m in that process now. This was inspiring and thanks for the heads up on Lewis Lin and Tryexponent. I was thinking of signing up for interview kickstarts product masterclass or the product alliance to familiarize with the interview process. Need to make this exit from consulting!
Dont worry man… keep trying, you will do great! I also wanted to exit my previous company as its industry was not aligning with the product companies.. Lot of time, I thought may be that was the reason of rejection.. but PM interviews are tough and have lot of competition.. dont think of it as one shot game.. think of it as war.. keep on fighting daily.. your day will come! 🤟🏻
Congrats! Thanks for sharing! Very inspiring to so many of us! How did you get the interviews ? Referrals? Applied direct ?
Thanks.. All applied directly… I have never asked anyone to refer me… it takes 3-4 edit iterations to the resume to make it perfect.
Congrats! That is impressive!!! More than 6 months of continuous interviewing if each interview is on a separate day! Did you work during that time?
Thanks startseek..!! Yes I was working during these interviews except for the final virtual onsite interviews for which I usually took half day off! The tough part was, my previous company and the manager do not know the work life balance, they kept calling me on teams whenever they need me.. even if my calendar says busy.. lot of times I got their call in the middle of my interviews.. I had to provide them some reason later for being unavailable.
Congratulations Op! In similar ⛵, Would you mind guiding me if I DM you next month (sorry ran out of DM currently)
Sure, DM me whenever you want!
Congrats OP. This is very motivating for me to not lose hope. Btw, curious to know in the 1.5 year, did you apply to some companies twice? (FAANG)
Yes, sure… For walmart I have applied atleast 40 roles and got inyerview calls from 5-6 of them… same for salesforce, amazon… I go to each company’s career website and apply for all the roles I like.. from 2 roles to 20 roles.. doesnt matter. But for FAANG, I think I applied 1 or 2 roles as I never thought I will get a call from them.
Thanks for your response OP. Did you reapply to any of any the company that you were rejected at final round? I heard that there's a 6 months cool down period but not sure if that's only for SWE or also PM.
Congratulations! I'm trying to break into PM positions in Canada. Would you be able to review my resume and provide me with some comments?
Sure, DM me
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Congrats OP. Which company did you get into?
Thanks man… its Salesforce
🎉🎉🎉