Global Companies Job Search Experiences

By Leslie Cook
Posted on December 27, 2023

Welcome to our Product Newsletter, a biweekly email highlighting top discussions, and learning resources for product managers.

What We Will Cover In This Edition:-

Top Discussions:

1) What are the best methods in product management compared to the harsh realities?

2) Which software companies are recognized to have the best product management practices globally?

3) How has your job search for a PM role been?

Top Learning Resources:

1. How and why to write product-focused PRDs

2. Tools I use as a Product Manager

3. Changing the conversation about product management vs UX

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Top Discussions

Question 1) What are the best methods in product management compared to the harsh realities?

What has become blatantly clear is that there are goals we pursue as PMs and dismal realities of the job. Therefore, I’m curious to know what you’ve learned from your experiences and how you handle these conflicts.

– Jonathan Tessa

Discussion

A] Here’s my opinion:

Not all startups are outcome-based. Some are merely feature factories that are driven top-down.
The company’s product culture cannot be altered from the bottom up. The corporate management must support the initiative.
Even though idea validation is a hot topic, most companies prefer teams to start building right away and don’t like the thought of PMs spending time validating before anything is done.

– Maire Hamilton

B] It’s not a science to manage products. Success is not assured by any of the frameworks, testing, or best practices. Since there are so many potential issues, it is impossible to always do everything right. In the end, the product is only one little piece of a larger puzzle. We hardly ever consider the role that luck plays in anything.

– Nathan Endicott

C] Here are some of mine:

Much of what we do is based on instinct or product sense. You can get better at using your instincts over time, but it usually involves making a lot of awful mistakes.
Although frameworks are useful to study, it is nearly hard to use them in practice given how most organizations are managed. Although not as helpful as experience, knowing them will aid with the product sense.
“Playing the game” takes precedence over what it ought to. As in, gaining the favor and support of certain individuals, such as stakeholders, senior leaders, etc., is a crucial component of this work. Without it, it will be impossible to persuade people to agree with your roadmap, and you will constantly be subject to micromanagement.
You are powerless to act alone. In fact, you are frequently the sole person present who lacks a specific talent. I can’t just sign up for Upwork and start working on someone’s product. Without engineers or designers, creating useful, functional software is exceedingly challenging. Only if they do will we succeed. It is our responsibility to bring these skills together in a way that benefits everyone’s success.

– Anushka Garg

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Question 2) Which software companies are recognized as having the best product management practices globally?

Product management is the backbone of any company in the marketplace. It’s not just about designing, building, and selling products; it’s about building a team to help make sure that the company has the best products in the market. and that they compete with the best in the market. Product management involves a wide range of activities and tools, including building a team, managing schedules, writing strategy documents, and organizing meetings and events. Working as a product manager means working with different types of people from different backgrounds to create a vision for products that have value for customers. A product manager typically has experience in business analytics or marketing but may also have experience and skills in engineering, design, or sales.

Which software businesses are recognized as having the best product management practices globally? I’d appreciate any articles or links!

– Donovan O’Kang

Discussion

A] According to their blogs, events, podcasts, and other public appearances, I find that many product organizations are just as much of an internal clown show as most other businesses are. Being a frequent reader of Intercom’s blog, I was disappointed to learn as much about the company as I did.

– Karan Trivedi

B] My experience after working with numerous PMs is as follows. The top product specialists are more concerned with their clients’ problems and how to address them than with “PM talents.” Consider joining one of the FAANG + tangential companies if all you’re looking for is a good product company. Any organization that makes reference to Marty Cagan is also attempting to be a decent place for PMs to work.

– Melissa James

C] I’m ready to guess that the majority of world-class companies and teams are ones you’ve never heard of. Many of the well-known figures who assert to have the answers are, as someone else said, just as dubious as everyone else.
Do you have a specific justification for asking this question?

– Priya Verma

D] I’m looking for this as well and hope to see a well-run prod-org in the future. It appears that what other people have said about articles is accurate, and not just in terms of products but also in terms of engineering and other fields. It was amusing to read articles about infrastructure written by engineers who were tasked with maintaining the platform of the previous firm I worked for, which was its most fragile and unstable area. Being able to observe who really writes articles was quite eye-opening. Now, I hardly ever have somebody in my trust:

The adage “Do as I say, not as I do” is undoubtedly still true, and there are lessons to be learned from it.

– Maria Wilson

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Question 3) How has your job search for a PM role been?

Hello PM’s,

Several recruiters have contacted me through LinkedIn regarding opportunities as a product manager, product owner, and master’s student (I’m enrolled in a part-time Data Science Master’s degree while holding down a full-time job). I’ve interviewed for a couple of them, but after speaking with the hiring manager, I’ve learned that they are looking for someone with 5 to 10 years of experience in ML PM. Or perhaps they are specifically searching for someone with experience in B2B products (my experience is in internal Enterprise products). Most of them are start-up businesses with end-user applications that have amassed large amounts of data and are now ready to begin evaluating that data using ML and PA. For the past seven years, I have been a PM, and for the past 18 months, an ML PM.

I never get a call back when I apply to firms on my own through their websites. I am tailoring my resume to the job posting and not applying for jobs that are well outside of my experience because they are for very comparable roles that the recruiters are contacting me about (and only have 1–5 years of PM experience). I spoke with their talent representative and received a couple of referrals for Google and Facebook, but the recruiting managers didn’t respond. Does anyone else have a comparable situation? or alternative?

It’s merely odd behavior/patterns because the work market in the US isn’t exactly booming. Perhaps there are many highly competent PMs out there and the job market for PMs is quite competitive! I’m unsure.

– Felipe Ribeiro

Discussion

A] After a prolonged search of a year, I was recently hired. I had great expectations because I wasn’t in a rush to leave my previous employment, but it was really exhausting. I had about 20 interviews (probably between 50 and 75 in all), advanced to six final rounds, and received two offers.

It took a lot of time, but in the end, it was worthwhile in monetary terms and career. There is money and opportunity available but be prepared to work hard.

– Jonathan Tessa

B] It’s a result of title inflation combined with an overestimation of seekers. I’ve been seeking for a job since November and recently got one. I had so many interviews that I lost track. I advanced to the final round on 4 and ultimately received 2 offers. However, when you first started talking to them, so many organizations weren’t actually recruiting product managers. It was merely project management dressed up.

Everyone and their mother is applying for PM jobs, and I’m also enrolled in a part-time MBA school. To attempt to pass the bar, use exponent and practice questions. Outside is a madhouse.

– Dhiraj Mehta

C] In the $350-400k bracket, I received a couple bids last year, but it was difficult.

Even though there is a strong demand for PM positions in the US, top employers must compete fiercely.

You should prepare thoroughly for case studies and behavioral questions, in my opinion. Make a list of the businesses you’d most like to work for and arrange them into tiers. Start submitting applications for lower-level positions to get experience and knowledge of the hiring procedure and firms. Apply to higher tiers gradually as your confidence grows.

Good Luck !

– Anushka Garg

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Top Learning Resources

How and why to write product-focused PRDs
By having a document that outlines the why, how, and what, the story doesn’t change. Sure as the product evolves the doc will need to be updated but it’s a foundation that new hires can reference, without needing the time of your current team, to get ramped up fast.

Tools I use as a product manager
This exhaustive list of responsibilities makes it hard for any product manager to perform them manually. Oftentimes, product managers have to rely on various tools in the market to make their lives easier.

Changing the conversation about product management vs. UX
I had no idea what a Product Manager was when I started at Capital IQ, almost 10 years ago. I didn’t even apply for the job. A friend told me they were hiring, and I asked if there were any roles for people like me — engineers who liked Photoshop. After talking to a few people, I was told I’d make a good Business Analyst (their term for Product Manager, I’d later learn). The combination of business and analysis sounded intriguing, so I jumped on the offer.

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