Tech Industry
2d
30777
I want to destroy my company on LinkedIn
Software Engineering Career
Yesterday
511
Work Life Balance for FAANG and other companies
Offer Evaluation
Yesterday
1791
L64 Microsoft offer evaluation
Tech Industry
3d
41299
I'm rejecting any interview that is LC
Today I Learned
Yesterday
303
Unpacking Zionism
I wrote this post a while ago. Reposting it to make sure that Blinders looking for advice on PM prep can access it. https://us.teamblind.com/s/pj56HMHQ I coach PMs and teach PMing at Product School and General Assembly. Ask me anything. TC: 405K #google #productmanagement #interviewprep #facebook #amazon #microsoft #career #tech
How easy or difficult is it to move from sales to a PM role? What preparation tips will you give?
this one is tough. They are fundamentally different roles. However, you have to market your user obsession mindset from sales. Much easier transition would be to product marketing manager and from there switch to PM. Difficult to make a direct switch at large companies such as Microsoft. Maybe some smaller startups can provide you that opportunity with a hybrid business PM role.
Should i prepare differently for a PMT position compared to PM position ? I guess this is bit specific to Amazon
PMT has a T bar round but everything else is same.
Leadership principles and stories will be same for either roles. For technical round get your fundamentals right. Amazon doesn't ask algorithms or questions on a lot of technical subjects. They may ask basic technical stuff like what would you do if someone comes and tell you that Amazon website is rendering slow.
How is the switch from analytics/business analyst to PM? How did you learn to communicate effectively with stakeholders? What are the most crucial skills for a PM to have according to you?
Well, both PM and Analyst need to do a lot of number crunching so that is one similarity. But the most important thing is to make sure that you are focusing on the user. Communication with stakeholders is one of the key component of being a PM. There are lot of resources on learning to communicate effectively. One of the ways I learn was to read the weekly status emails, read user journey docs, and shadow PM meetings. You can offer to take notes for them and they are more than happy to include you in their meetings. One month of this dirty work can teach you a lot a about stakeholder communication. I recently had an analyst join my project on their 20% time and one of the first things we did was to make sure that they take the notes, assign AIs, and follow up on them for the first 4 weeks. Now I am asking them to help me with a section of the doc that focuses on user research and help run numbers.
It's a journey and takes a lot of effort to switch ladders.
Do you think drilling mock interviews is worth it?
Drilling?
Aside from communication skills, in terms of technical skills. What topics are helpful/important? I know this is difficult and it depends on the product you are working on/domain. The reason I’m asking: being technical is very broad and having a CS background doesn’t mean you know everything. There are some topics you know better than others. If someone is not from CS background, what topics do you suggest he/she be well aware of?
Refer to the post you will find answers there.
How're you liking Google? How's it PMing there vs Amazon?
More collaborative, less stressful, and highly impactful. In Amazon PM is the lone warrior vs at Google it functions more like a Pride that work together.
What tools do you use on a day-to-day basis at Google? Do you also pull your own data or you have analysts doing that?
I use Figma for mocks and designs. Smarthseets for project tracker, and some internal tools for Roadmap. I write my own queries - but it differs from team to team. Most of the PMs in my team have technical background so we simply pull our own data and do not have a BA.
I've worked as a Data Scientist for 4 years now. I have experience building models and doing product analytics. Do you think switching to a PM role is very tough for a data scientist?
I have 1 YOE as a SWE and a BS in comp sci. What can I start doing now to set up my career towards an eventually switch to PM? Is an MBA necessary? (Note: switching to Microsoft next month)
Thanks for sharing earlier post. Great resource. I am currently working as Data Engineer and would like to switch to PM roles. Do PM roles require SWE experience and any recommendations for building side projects to move to PM world?
They don't require SWE experience. It is good to have though helps your earn trust with Engg. Side projects - it depends. You can get involved in local startup community. They are always looking for product help. If you know couple of good PMs in your company then ask them if you can shadow them. Offer to take their meeting notes, and learn how they deal with the pressure of feature request vs prioritization.