I think I went to 20 interviews in the past 2 years. Never got the job. I get approached on LinkedIn by recruiters for jobs at companies like wayfair, bed bath etc. My experience is at small companies where I do everything, built websites, edi integrations, account management for 30+ channels like Amazon, Walmart etc, PPC campaigns. I lead a small team. These companies dont use agile/scrum. At big companies the PM roles are for very specific positions so It seems I'm going from Jack of all trades to master of none and never get the job. Not sure how to overcome this. Any interview advice or career path advice for making the jump to the next level ? Small companies cant afford bigger salaries than 100k so I'm stuck with what I have. New York is too expensive for my salary. I'm 38 years old, 10 years experience in e commerce.
You’re probably stuck at this point. You could try getting a top MBA to jump directly into a high end PM role; otherwise I’d say you have too much experience outside of a big company and it kind of pigeon holes you.
FWIW: I felt like you about 2 years ago. Never got the job at the big companies and wasn’t sure why. Keep up the good fight. I’m now at Apple. Not everything is honky dory but I would agree that you’ll be better off at a big company than not. My recommendation to get the job is to cultivate yourself. Find a professional headhunter to work with you. Subject your resume to rigorous review. Work on your personal narrative or story. And keep trying.
Don’t feel there is no hope. I worked at small companies many years and got a PM job at Amazon in my 40s. Now make double what I was making before!
There must be some specific knowledge or experiences that they’re all looking for, but you don’t possess. For example, I can’t imagine a PM that doesn’t know deeply about Agile/Scrum. Most PM I worked with also has a MBA degree. Sth to consider.
Knowing everything and doing everything gives you great perspective and is a great fit for AWS solutions architect role. Happy to refer
Try an SDM role.
Port your skills into the cloud Security or Big Data.
Don’t be a ‘Jack of all trades’. It’s fine to know a lot, be be an expert in at least 1-2 areas. Learn to sell yourself as a PM. What you said(how it was presented it) looks like analyst work. Make sure your resume focus’ on your PM work, not everything else you do. Present all the extra stuff as value add. ‘Experienced product manager that’s comfortable getting into the weeds.’ Reach out to recruiters on linked in until you connect. Be bullish. Finding a headhunter to help tailor your resume is a good idea. Consider program management as well.
Amazing feedback, thanks so much!
Also in this direction, tailor your resume to the position. I was a generalist at an MSP. Moved into pure network engineering at a Fortune 500 with the recommendation of a peer and now specialize in firewalls and security. It's just about what you choose to show. And then I go around beating people over the head with my "hidden" generalist knowledge. Oh, that doesn't work, get one of your AD guys to check these permissions on the domain controller.
Prepare to work asa TPM. You know the depth, you have done coding, you understand full end to end picture. Try to write down about your programs with breath and depth. There will be tons of people here to help you review docs. This gives you good hang of what you do. Then, for each Amazon leadership principle, write example of one of your programs in STAR format. Once you do that, you are ready to interview with any company . Ping me for more details . Happy to help
Agree. Sounds more as a TPM
Tighten up your narrative. Highly suggest working with a professional to at least be a sounding board. Also find people on LinkedIn that would be your potential boss and ask for their feedback. My honest 2 cents: you’re missing something in your experience or mindset that is holding you back in these interviews. Bigger companies narrow responsibility, but have scale and complexity that small biz experience doesn’t always translate to well. Keep trying.
Try to get promoted in current role. There's always some wariness with folks who try to jump without an actual measure of output in current situation. Since you aren't getting more competitive offers, you're probably paid at market rate. So congrats on that fact.
Cant go higher than this at my current company. I report directly to the owners
benefit of a small company is that if you're really as crucial as you say you are, they CAN pay you more