After being laid off by a large company due to their financial constraints, I continuously kept applying at several big and small companies, desperately looking to get hired. Given my experience of about two years as a PM i got a few offers, and interestingly I had to withdraw my application from a company after being interviewed for 6th round
Well, all is well that ends well, have at last landed up with a decent package as a PM.
Quite a slog of a search to be honest but likely par for the course in PM.
Any way you could go into detail about the withdrawn offer and the round 6th round rejection?
Withdrawn offer:
The guy gave me an offer at the first stage, insisting I should resign right now and go work with him. Because what he thought was âwe clicked instantlyâ
Told him to send a written offer with the contract, otherwise, I wouldnât do anything. The guy told me yeah sure, next Monday the I called the guy and they told me they were looking for someone more experienced. The guy felt so guilty that he called me 5 more times to make sure that I wasnât feeling bad, told the guy that I wouldnât work for that kind of company regardless of what he has done from this point forward.
6th round rejection was dramatic. They went completely off-course of the hiring process, telling me that it is better for me if someone else from the team also makes an interview with me. This happened 4 times. At the end, they told me that I wasnât a good fit because I was too âpushyâ, no other significant feedback. 5th round guy made sounds with his teeth (also sticking a finger in his mouth while the cam is open), which made me hate the company, thus the following interview was a nightmare.
Hope that was clear!
Yeah, that 6th round path caught my eye as well. Before I even came down here to the comments I was thinking to myself, âto hell with those guysâ
6 rounds of interviews, Oh God! Iâm not ready for this crap. Also what does too pushy mean? Were you pushing for higher salary? HahahaâŚ
They told me I have expressed too much about how I liked the company, honestly, I told them they were the only ones who called me from this sector so thatâs why I was interested. I went completely honest and they labeled me as âneedyâ.
Most companies would love someone with that attitude, seems like a bad place to work. And what did they think it was? Itâs not dating, eagerness is fine. Hell with them, am glad that you got a better place to work with.
Also interested to hear how/why you decided to withdraw your application 8 times. What made you feel you werenât interested in the company?
I was most interested in growing startups, already at series A or maybe a tad more.
After receiving offers from companies that are within my scope, I was given quite limited time, about 2 days to respond to the offer. Told them that if they could vary the hiring procedure, I would gladly continue but didnât actually push my chances. Commented on it is a tough market for searching jobs right now due to all COVID stuff, thus I must withdraw. Broken up all happy with them, some of them called me a couple of days forward to make me an offer but told them I am settled.
Donât know much about the career path, but why startups? If not startups, what are the best companies to work for?
My current (soon to be previous I hope) work is also a startup. But rather a small one.
You get to be the go-to person for a handful of stuff and be responsible for almost everything. I did the product design, business, metrics, QA, handoff, and scrum master stuff. Going for a series-a startup I get to still keep many responsibilities and avoid becoming a corporate drone for a while.
Iâm at the two year mark as a PM as well. Have gotten zero responses on applications, Did you apply directly to companies? Or were a lot of these through referrals? Lastly, would you mind PM-ing your resume? Resume seems like an area I am falling short.
I didnât want to open the referral door, but I did for one of the withdrawn offers.
There were 4 other but I got rejected without interviews, so only 5 of the local applications were with referrals.
I played around a lot with my resume, including the numbers for how many people I worked with, how many projects, and the main responsibilities. I will PM you the resume by excluding personal information.
I started my PM career earlier this year and having done many interviews, Iâm stuck at the no-offer stage and perpetually doing more interviews. The feedback Iâve gotten is that I donât have enough experience but Iâve tried getting more (doing pro bono work, side projects). Do you have any advice for me?
@JuanAllo, how long has it been since you started working as a PM? Are you employed right now?
I started earlier in the yr with a non-profit startup but I was only there for 3 months before they started restructuring the team and I had to leave. Since then, Iâve been building side projects, which is a big talking point in interviews but again, they always seem to choose someone else in the end
@Juan,I think at that point it is not CV related, it is more like your attitude and product knowledge.
Are you eliminated at the HR stage or product interview?
Iâve made it to the final round a few times and Iâve also been rejected along the pipeline. I usually make it to meeting the Hiring Manager if I am selected for an interview though.
What is your interview/application rate? I seriously believe your problem is not with your resume. What kind of questions do you struggle the most?
I havenât been keeping track but something like 1 interview/ 5 applications. I wouldnât say I struggle with any questions par say but most hiring managers have told me that while they think I have great potential, they chose to go with someone else with more experience.
I think that is a magnificent ratio. I think everything with your resume is perfect, but you need to work on your hiring manager skills.
I think those would be shaped around basic PM interview questions. Read the books! Watch mock PM interviews on YouTube by exponent, those also helped me a lot.