Beating Out the Competition for that Product Management Job

This presentation answers the question how to beat out the competition and to do better than them so you can land the product management job of your dreams.

Transcript

1. Beating Out Competition For that Product Job How to get and nail the interviews better than others
2. My Start-ups ProductHired (Cofounder; VP, Product) Kredya (Cofounder; CPO) My Day Job Broadway Technology (Dir. of Knowledge Program) Experience 19+ years of Experience Experience in both Looking and Hiring Product Talent Organizer ProductTank Austin Austin Christian Technologists and Entrepreneurs Texas Crypto Meetup Product Jobs Meetup?? (Ask me) My Articles medium.com/@mstephan
 Hiring and Interviewing Articles medium.com/open-product-management Mark Stephan Product, Serial Entrepreneur & Advisor mark@producthired.com
3. What We’ll Hopefully Cover • How to prepare before submitting for a role • Finding a Job and Applying • Interviewing Well • Resources
4. Before Submitting to a Role
5. How to Prepare to Look • Recommendations • Resume • Writing • Job Club • Network • LinkedIn • Indeed Prime, Hired, 
 Vettery, etc…
6. Recommendations • Be generous, Recommend others • Ask Others for Recommendations • Write up your highlights for them proper terms to use and ideas. Tell them to be, specific, honest, and their own words. • Get A lot of them. Some people can lie, dozens are not likely to lie. Size matters. • Pick some and attach to your resume
7. Resume • How to do this well is HIGHLY opinionated. • Share PDF’s to people, Word Docs to ATS • Always include Coverletter if possible that is personalized and authentic, and short. • Always include T-chart as last page if submitting to ATS, not if to a person. • Check out JobScan, see how your resume compares to Job Description (http://bit.ly/Jobscan) • Add a highlights page to your resume, metrics, etc… • Add some recommendations to the resume.
8. Writings • Pick an App/Site • Create Your Own Data • Interview Users who use it, or Personas • Do usability testing on it • Synthesize • Suggest improvements • Write it up • Send it to that company, and reach out to PMs • Get feedback from other User Researchers • Post (Medium/LinkedIn) My product Articles medium.com/@mstephan
 Hiring and Interviewing Articles medium.com/open-product-management
9. Job Club • Rising Tide floats all boats • Encouragement • Interview Help • Networking Help • Wisdom of the Crowd • Mentorship/MasterMind for Job Seeking Find out more: ProductJobClub.Com
10. Network Austin is a strange city, and you need to network. It is very much a who you know type of city. It’s big enough to have a lot of tech jobs, but small enough that everyone knows each other, mostly. Product community is not mature. • ProductTank • Product League • Products That Work • Productcamp • Women in Product • karmapond.com • ProductinAustin.com site & slack
11. LinkedIn Use LinkedIn to the Fullest! Fill it out completely. More than your resume. • Great Summary • Keywords • Details of roles • Create attachments • Recommendations • Add everyone
12. Other Job Services Use Interview As A Service Companies • Indeed Prime • Vettery • Hired
13. Finding & Applying
14. Finding the Job • Networking is best! Many jobs are unpublished! • Product Focused Boards: ProductHired.com, Mind The Product, Product School, Product Jobs • General Boards: indeed.com, Linkedin, Glassdoor, etc.. • Remote: virtualvocations.com, remoteok.io, weworkremotely.com • Get beach-head networks into power hubs, Google, Amazon, etc… • Get involved in the Community hackathons, volunteer, present, host, etc… • FOCUS! Don’t go broad and shallow, Go narrow and deep! Research the companies and know them well.
15. Applying • Use Your Network! Seriously Use it! • Referrals are ALWAYS best, unless you suck. • Use 3rd Party Recruiters Ask, do you get paid more if I get paid more? Or less? • Marc Cunningham • Allen Bastow - Knowit • Hirestarter • TalentPair • ? • Apply on Website • If ATS, use T-chart • Pray
16. Interviews
17. Researching Companies • Do your Due Diligence • Find Connections • Do Competitive Analysis • Create a Company Dossier (The Notebook) • Company Info • Linkedin Profiles of Interviewers • Notes • Questions for Interviewers, teams, prod, Eng, etc. • Resumes (To hand out) • Articles Written, Examples of Works, Homeworks, Props, Etc..
18. Interview Styles • I want a Friend Questions • Real Behavioral Questions • Product Design Questions • Estimation/Analytical Questions • Case Questions • Technical Questions
19. Strategy: Phone Interview • Great Communication • Learn beforehand their style of Interviewing (Glassdoor or just ask) • Austin is very Behavioral • Do your best to get them to do video interview
20. Strategy: Homework Assignment Simply blow them away • Create Data • Do User Research • Go far beyond • Wire-framing • Designs • User Stories • Set-up a Trello board • Go mad
21. Strategy: Onsite • Simply blow them away, again • Notebook Dossier • Props • Whiteboard master • Know their style • 100 Mock interviews • 30/60/90 Day plan on how you would join, ramp-up and make impact in the first 90 days AT THEIR BUSINESS.
22. Know Thy Company • Amazon Interviews have a General Style • Google Interviews have a Cookie Cutter Style • Facebook Interviews have a style • Etc.. Know your company’s style All Interviews are Opinionated and Arbitrary!! Don’t suck, but that doesn’t mean you will get the job. A lot is up to the interviewer.
23. Interviewing is Acting • Be great at Improv • Act the part, no one can create strategy in 20 minutes, that’s why it’s acting. • User-driven, Show Empathy, Empathy, Empathy! Cry on Queue! • Visualize everything you can!
24. White Board Mastery 101 • Have Templates • Write a Scaffolding • Be Organized • Write it all down
28. Engage the Interviewer • All Interviewers are secretly asking themselves, “Do I want to work with this person?” • Collaboration is key • Give your opinion, then ask for theirs • Brainstorm together • Get them to agree with you
29. Resources • KarmaPond.com - (Austin Company) Helping each other networking site • ProductHired.com - (Austin Company) Product Management Job Board w/ Study Guides • PMInterview.com - Product Management Interview Questions & Practice • pramp.com; mockinterview.co - Mock Interviewing site • Product in Austin - Slack/Meet-ups http://productinaustin.com
30. Thank you! My Start-ups ProductHired.com (Cofounder; VP, Product) kredya.com (Cofounder; CPO) My Articles medium.com/@mstephan
 Hiring and Interviewing Articles medium.com/open-product-management Mark Stephan Product, Entrepreneur, Mentor & Advisor mark@producthired.com