My partner works at Accenture as a tech consultant. She’s not a very technical person (never had a role that involves coding) but she has the basics and understands how many processes work as she collaborates with DEs/DSs on a daily basis. She doesn’t have much exposure to deployment and production for now though. We’re trying to think about how she can switch to tech and land a role at FAANG or equivalent. From what I’m seeing, a PM role seems the most common transition for similar backgrounds. What does it take to be considered for such a position ? What skills should she work on ? Courses you would advise taking ? Any advice / opinion would be great ! Thanks :) #productmanager #pm #consulting
My path MBB > MBA > msft PM > lyft PM
Thanks ! Did Microsoft reimburse your MBA costs ?
No. They gave me a sign on bonus but was 50k. Never heard of a tech company fully paying MBA costs. That being said, it was very easy to repay my loan and 4 years later I have over 1M in net worth
showcase PM experiences on resume even if her title is not necessarily PM. Maybe can put “acting product t manager” for position?
Personally, I see a lot of consultants do this and it doesn’t land well with me, but maybe for a more entry level role
OP, I am from the exact same company as your partner and I just went through final round PM interviews with Google. Now, I dont have an offer at hand yet, but honestly, I think the hardest part really is to get interviews. If she's never had any PM experience, my suggestion is: - Try for APM positions, and don't get hung up by the FAANG name. Honestly, some non-FAANG companies pay just as good (if not better) as FAANG these days so do consider them too. Search on the web for a list of companies that offer these programs. Google, Capital One, CoinBase, all have APM programs; Facebook's program is called RPM; For Amazon, honestly, it is easier to just go in as a Program Manager and switch into Product. - Google and many others interview for technical aptitude. Grokking the System Design Interview is a really good one to do. Study one topic per day, and understand concepts behind SQL/NoSQL, Cloud architecture, and Algorithms (i.e.: how Youtube video recommendation lists are curated), how ML/Computer Vision/Ambient Computing works, and you should be fine. I really feel you on this one - working at Accenture sometimes make it difficult to follow a defined career path, and it took me so so long to start getting interviews. Good luck!
Best wishes for G! Would you mind sharing how you actually ended up getting these interviews? Having the same struggle of not being able to get interviews in the first place but perhaps that’s worse for me because 2 yoe.
Hey EY, thank you! I was desperate.. - Essentially, internally at the company, I do whatever I can to get projects related to Product, including roles like Product Owner/Product Manager even Program Mgmt - I probably edited my resume 1x times to make my experience seem relevant to PM - I paid for 2 sessions (there are services like that online) to get ex-FAANG hiring managers to review my resumes and see if they would hypothetically consider me as a candidate had they received my profile. We literally spent each hour going over my resume to make it stand out. One takeaway: there are more human eyes involved in the candidate selection process rather than what I believed was all ATS. Make your resume easily readable, but also ATS optimized. - Since most of my projects are enterprise-facing, I built startups as PM to make up for my disadvantages rooting from minimal consumer-facing project experience. It was a very long, hard, and discouraging 2 years, but don't give up! These companies still do value consulting experience, but the resumes need to be relevant to the skillsets they are looking for.
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I put this on another post but here’s my advice: It’s easiest to change jobs in pieces. For example, in Uber product, I wouldn’t hire someone who did product at a non tech company, wasn’t a marketplace, and wasn’t consumer facing. If they were a product manager on a consumer facing tech product that wasn’t a marketplace, then I’d consider that. For example, I started out as a consultant at MBB. I then went to Google in product strategy for their platforms team. Then I switched teams to a consumer facing product strategy team. Then I became a PM. Then I joined Uber. Being a PM is the most popular role right now, it’s hard for current PMs to get into FAANG PM, be okay making smaller jumps first. Or get an MBA, go to American Express or an older company, then switch. FAANG does not value MBAs
For perspective, I just hired someone for my team. 900 people applied for the role and this is Uber, not FAANG. Maybe 500 people were absolutely not qualified (not enough YOE, Uber drivers, teachers, machinery operators, etc). The remaining 400 all had “good credentials” - PMs, consultants, tech strategy managers, TPMs, product ops, etc. The competition is insane. Maybe an entry level role would consider a direct consultant to PM jump but for a senior role, there are more than enough qualified PMs to choose from.
Thanks a lot for your insightful feedback. I actually always thought that FAANG values MBAs a lot for PMs. Interesting ! What are “transition jobs” that you’d recommend ? We’ve been looking at some “operations manager” roles at some tech startups. Are these a step forward from consultant to PM ?