McDowell

Don’t give up. When job hunting it’s important to be willing to talk to lots of people and not worry about rejection. It wasn’t that easy to get my job at Google. I was the last person in my MBA class to get an internship. Take heart, all these things can turn around.

You need to genuinely like being around people and working with people, bringing their best energy forward. You need to be the type of person who thrives on being in the thick of it, solving problems on the fly, and making decisions quickly without fear. You can’t be the quiet person in the corner who wants to be left alone all day.

What this also means is that as a PM, you have to recognize that you will never be the best marketer, or engineer, or sales person. You have to be proficient and versed enough in a lot of these areas and have a good sense of how they fit together in the product. It’s what I imagine being a conductor of an orchestra feels like.

Do you have a position that you can back up while respectfully disagreeing?

A resume isn’t read; it’s skimmed. A resume screener will glance at your resume for about 15 seconds (or maybe less) to make a decision about whether or not to interview you.

This forms the guiding principle of resumes. A resume should be optimized for that 15-second skim.

Read through your resume. Anything that’s three lines of text or more should be condensed. Additionally, you should aim to have no more than 50 percent of your bullets expand to two lines. That is, at least half of your bullets should be just one line, with the remainder being two lines.

Products: What is the array of products or features that the company creates? How do the products fit with each other?
Competitors: Who are the competitors? How does the company differentiate itself from them?
Customers/Market: What is the target market for the company? Are there any secondary markets right now or that you would suggest the company enter?
Revenue: How does the company make money? How would you suggest the company make more money? If it doesn’t make money, what revenue strategies would you want to explore?
Love and Hate: How do customers feel about the product? What do they love or hate? What are the most common complaints and issues?
Metrics: If possible, try to learn about the company’s key metrics. Finding exact numbers might be difficult, but you can at least get an understanding of which metrics they’re doing well on and which ones they’re struggling with. How many users does it have? What is its conversion rate? What is its growth rate?
News and Rumors: Have there been any interesting news reports about the company? What is the company rumored to do? Don’t just read this stuff. Formulate an opinion on it.

Mission: Look up the company’s mission statement. How does it live up to this mission? Be specific.
Strategy: What do you think is the company’s strategy? Are there any missteps with respect to that?
Strengths: What are the product’s selling points? How does the company leverage those? What about the company or its products has enabled its success?
Weaknesses: What are the major issues with the company and its products? How should the company address those weaknesses, or should they just accept them?
Challenges: What are the biggest challenges for the company right now? How do you see them addressing those? What challenges have they overcome?
Opportunities: Is there anything on the horizon (with technology or in their industry) that might create an opportunity for the company?
Threats: Similarly, is there anything on the horizon which might threaten the company’s success?
Future: What do you think the future holds for this company? Think about any new products or features that would be a natural fit.

What’s a typical day like for you? How much of your day do you spend writing specs versus working with designers versus doing other activities?
How has the role of a PM changed? How do you see it changing?
What is the balance between PMs, developers, and designers? How does decision making work?

What’s your favorite part about working here?
What would make someone the ideal PM candidate for you?
What do you think makes this company’s culture unique?
What do you find most challenging about being a PM here?
Who do you work with on your core team versus extended team?