I’m coming up on 2 YoE at my current company as a PM and I’m thinking about applying to other places over the next few months.
Problem is most “entry-level” PM jobs I see on LinkedIn are 5+ years of experience or 0 years of experience (APM/MBA). I don’t think I have a chance at the 5 YoE jobs and I have no desire to run the APM gauntlet again.
Are there PM jobs at big companies looking for people with 2-3 years of PM experience? What would you expect from a PM with this level of experience if you were hiring one?
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I would apply for the companies asking for 5 years, especially if you have other experience prior to PM (i.e. not fresh out of school). Tiny startups are less likely to hire IMO because they’ll be looking for leaders who can function with a lot of autonomy and set product direction. I would target unicorns and midsize companies (FAANG probably worth a shot but it’s like winning the lottery).
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@MarcoSilva, Unfortunately I got the job fresh out of my Master’s program. Is FAANG really like winning the lottery? I was hoping it would get better once you have experience. I was able to get interviews at the top FAANGs/Unicorns and several F500s for APM positions when I was in school and I thought it would get easier from there given how ridiculously competitive the interviews were for APM.
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I’ve interviewed at a couple FAANG companies and have 4 years experience and a MS. I didn’t even get a call from recruiters until I passed the 3 year mark on my resume (plus the MS). But everyone’s experience is different.
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@Naomi, Were you successful at any of the interviews? What was your competition like?
Did you interview for APM as well when you were in school? The APM interviews were mostly “riddle” type questions like “how would you design an app for X place” or “how much money do you think X company makes a year?” Is it the same for experienced hires or is it more focused on your PM experience?
Finally, do you have to wait for recruiters to call? I also haven’t been getting calls from any recruiters likely because of my lack of experience. But I would like to avoid spending another entire year at my current company if possible.
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@AmyWalker, I made it to the second round on a few of them, not sure what the competition was like.
I didn’t interview for any APM stuff while I was in school, as I was focusing more on launching two businesses a few people and I had developed.
But the interviews I had with the FAANGs were more conversational and behaviour based on the first two rounds. From what I’ve read, the product questions usually come into play in the 3rd round. When I got to the final round of a very large tech co a few years ago that’s how it was structured also.
I was approached twice by FB recruiters and once I applied via a referral. For Apple I was approached by a recruiter. I’ve never had success applying via the web to any of the companies, which from my understanding is normal and expected.
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@Naomi, Thank you for sharing your experience. Do you think you’ll apply again?
APM interviews at Google/FB/Uber were the entirely opposite experience to what you described. First round they don’t even bother to ask you behavioral questions. Just a “Hi, I’m so and so, are you ready?” and then straight onto the riddle questions. Didn’t make onsite on any of them but I did for a couple other large companies. Similar deal as FAANG for first round but questions were a little easier.
I bought all the PM interview books but I was never great shakes at the questions. I was personally hoping I wouldn’t have to suffer through them again.
I only had a referral to FB when I applied to APM. Everything else was a cold application but I wonder if it’s different for university students. I’ll personally try and get referrals to all the companies this time around but I wonder if having a recruiter is better?
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At around 3+ years of concrete PM experience was when I started getting interview requests in LI from FAANG. I do/did not have an MBA either.
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@Nathan, Hmm… so you didn’t have an MBA before getting those requests? What type of company were you a PM for (startup, SME, large)? It sucks that you didn’t get interview requests until 3 years in - I’d really like to avoid another year at my current company before applying…
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@Amy, Not interview requests in general, specifically reach-outs from recruiters from FAANG on LI. I worked at a big reputed bank for ~2.5 years. So perhaps it was more like 2.5 years when I started getting those requests.
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@Nathan, Oh, well that gives me some hope then. Thank you for sharing your experience.
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@NathanEndicott, Other than working at a huge corporation what do you think made recruiters reach out to you? 2.5 years of experience is really not a lot and I know plenty of awesome PMs with triple that amount of time with big time accomplishments that don’t even get sniffs from FAANG or even just below that.
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@PriyaVarma, I can share my resume if you’d like to take a look. It’s hard to self-evaluate in hindsight and pick what stands out to recruiters. However it may help to look at a baseline for which every recruiter starts their evaluation from (LinkedIn/resume) to establish commonalities.
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No need to do that if you don’t feel comfortable answering. Just seems you may be the exception and not the rule.
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I’m in the same boat. If you scroll through LinkedIn there are jobs with 2+ years of experience, but I honestly haven’t gotten many leads. Would love to hear what others have to say on this topic.
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@HeatherKurtz, Do you see any big firms hiring for 2+ years of experience (FAANG, F500, Unicorns)? The one or two I’ve run across are from small startups/unknown companies.
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@Amy, Where are you looking? I’ve been seeing plenty in the SF Bay Area. DM me and we can talk more, I can send you a couple links.
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Not sure about big companies but I am at an SME that hires a lot at this level. They likely don’t have a graduate programme and are looking for people that know the basics so can start contributing quickly but still have a lot of room to grow.
Are you set on working at a big company?
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@AhmadBashir, I currently work for a large legacy tech company. I’m not dead set on working at a big company but I would like to improve my resume and increase my compensation as well, which crosses out most SMEs.
I’d trade both those things to work on a product I was incredibly passionate about though (ex. a game studio or an interesting consumer product).
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At lower YOE, it’s more likely you will have to apply, rather than they find you. As a result, you should just apply everywhere and find out. The bar may vary more in startups, but you can only find out after applying.
When I last recruited, 3 years from a bachelors and ~1 yr as a PM, I was landing interviews at companies of all sizes mostly requiring more than 3 YOE. The openings are definitely skewed to more YOE, but things like applying through a referral helps a lot.
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