I thought others might find these stats interesting/helpful. During the 2019 job search, I had 2+ YoE, and I had just been through a layoff, so I took the first offer that I received. During the 2021 job search, I had 4+ YoE, and I was employed while looking, so I was able to turn down a job offer that wasn't right for me. It was definitely easier to get interviews and advance in the interview process in 2021. I think this was due to more/better PM experience, a more favorable market and more/better interview preparation on my end (though I blundered a few of the first interviews I took, but this helped me get better for others later on). All my experience (4+ years) is in product manager roles, and current TC is 120k. The offer from my current search that I'll very likely accept has a TC of ~200k. I'm happy to answer questions if you all have any, and I'm also curious to know what people think of these stats... Are the similar to your experiences? Edit #1: Since a lot of people asked, I got referrals for 8 jobs in 2019 and 10 in 2021. In both years, my "Phone Screen" rate for these was ~50%, so it definitely helps to have a referral, but it's not a guarantee that you'll be contacted by a recruiter. Also, I found it worthwhile to apply for jobs without a referral as long as I could make the case that I was qualified by customizing my resume (less recruiters reached out, but still some did!). Edit #2: I realized that my formulas for "PERCENTAGES (of total)" were wrong for the 2021 Job Search Stats, so I updated it. The data still tells the same story, but it has accurate calcs now! #productmanager #pm #product #jobsearch
@OP what are the sources you relied on to find jobs and apply? I am curious to know how you found 40 and 33 jobs applied.
For the most part, I found jobs by searching in LinkedIn, Glassdoor and Indeed. For a few of them, I had someone I knew let me know about it.
How many of those 40 did you apply through a referral?
I got referrals for 8 in 2019 and 10 in 2021. In both years, the "Phone Screen" rate for jobs with referrals was ~50%. It's definitely better to have them, but it's not a sure thing either.
How did you get your first PM job?
I was able to join a not-well-known company as an Associate Product Manager because I had the domain knowledge in a specific area (though I had zero product management experience). The role wasn't "real product management" and only lasted ~1 year, but it was a good spring-board to other PM roles since it gave me the title!
Sounds good. I hope I find something like that too
I am also a PM. I am also interviewing at the moment. Disney, JPM, Meta, HBO, Pru, etc. Your post is greatly appreciated and definitely a breath of fresh air compared to the waste of time posts on here... Thanks,
What are your lessons from the failed interviews?
1) Practice, Practice, Practice! I fumbled chances at good companies by failing to answer some basic questions well, such as “why do you want to work at [Company X]?” 2) Make sure your stories tell the right “story”. I shared examples about prior successes that weren’t quite relevant to the role for which I was interviewing. I think I seriously fumbled a presentation by focusing on my experience with technical products when I should have focused on a UI centric product. The presentation itself was well-delivered, but the content wasn’t relevant!
Are you comfortable sharing what companies you had onsite with? I’m always curious about the rejection rate from on-site for FAANG and equivalent
I won’t share the names of the companies with which I did on-sites, but I can tell you that I applied to zero FAANG PM jobs in 2019 and only two in 2021, Google and Amazon (AWS). I got rejected right away by Amazon. With Google, I made it past the recruiter but didn’t pass the Technical Phone Screen
Thanks! Sorry to hear that. Those companies are tough and maybe luck is a bigger factor there
Really great stats, thanks for posting! I've been tracking my own job search and it's been interesting to now look back and see what "worked" and what didn't, as well as the dates that certain stuff happened. I would highly recommend to anyone reading this to track your search in a spreadsheet. And then post it to blind as well!
Very kind of you to share your experience with the stats. I bookmarked this post for a later read.
27.5% itself is pretty solid in my opinion. You either choose the companies carefully or have a great resume! Phone screen > HM > On-site improvements are due to your relevant experience. Thanks for sharing this data! Really adds to the quality of content in Blind. 👍🏼
Thank you! Yes, I only applied to roles for which I thought I could make the case that I was qualified, and I always tailored the resume based on the job description, at least a little bit. I also leveraged referrals, but only from people I knew personally (so I didn't ask for referrals via Blind). My "Phone Screen" rate was ~50% in both years when I had a referral, so better than not having one, but not a sure thing either.