Lessons Learned From 270 Product Management Job Postings On LinkedIn
I recently mentored a student in preparing his skills and CV to land his first product management job. One of the things I recommended for him was to look for what employers are looking for.
However, I found out that most aspiring product managers are busy developing their skills and building their side products to show off in their CVs. They don’t have the time to analyze different job posts and develop their CVs accordingly.
The good news is I’m here to help. So, I got started on this mini-quest. I analyzed 270 recent junior-level/mid-level job postings tagged ‘Product Manager’ on LinkedIn. Then identified top keywords using Worldclouds, significant themes, top-mentioned skills and responsibilities, and other unique patterns like certifications.
So here I am, sharing what I found. But before we get to that, here are a few details and caveats you should keep in mind:
- The job postings are from roles across the major cities in the world (San Francisco, New York, London, Singapore, Berlin, Melbourne, Dubai, and Bengaluru).
- The analysis includes open positions from global tech and non-tech giants (Google, Microsoft, Apple, META, IBM, Adobe, Nvidia, JMPC) and many promising high-growth startups.
- I have skipped the experience requirements. From my previous experience, hiring managers sometimes ask for ridiculous amounts of experience in job postings. However, they might eventually close the requirement with someone with fewer years of experience. Hence, experience is not a reliable metric, in my opinion.
- There are a lot of unwritten skills and unsaid expectations, and there are a lot of not-so-well-written job postings. You can never fully understand the scope and expectations until your first round of interviews, and in many cases, until the day you start working.
Top Keywords Recruiters Look For
Strategy Keywords
- Product Vision
- Product Strategy
- Product roadmap / Roadmapping
- Strategic initiatives
- Business Value
- Strategic Thinking
- Market Research
- Competitive Analysis
- Customer Need
- New Opportunities
UX / UI Keywords
- Product Discovery
- User Research
- User Journey
- Design Thinking
- Wireframe
- UX Research (primary & secondary)
- User Persona
- User Flow
- Figma
- Balsamiq
Technical Keywords (Execution, Analytics, and Tools)
- Backlog Management
- Feature Prioritization
- Agile Methodologies
- User Stories
- PRD (Product Requirement Document) Writing
- Feature Specifications
- Jira
- Product Launch
- Ship Features
- Successful Release / Release Management
- Success Metrics
- A/B Testing
- SQL
Leadership Keywords
- Cross-functional Collaboration
- Product Team
- Product Life Cycle
- Stakeholder Management
- Stakeholder Updates
- Key Stakeholders
- Trade-off Decisions
Action Verbs (Mentioned In Roles And Responsibilities)
- Led (e.g., Led a cross-functional team of 5 engineers to execute a strategic initiative)
- Built (e.g., Built front-end/back-end features for app XYZ)
- Measured (e.g., Measured metrics’ improvement and introduced X feature to improve Y metric)
- Managed (e.g., Managed backlogs and prioritized technical work)
- Gathered (e.g., Gathered UX feedback from users)
- Identified (e.g., Identified ideas and market trends that aligned with the product strategy and led to XX results)
- Negotiated (e.g., Negotiated timelines with Lead Engineer / CTO)
- Recommended (e.g., Recommended strategic initiatives for X product vertical)
- Ran (e.g., Ran two-week agile sprints and improved the performer by XX% by doing Y)
- Drafted (e.g., Drafted release notes for product launches)
- Wrote (e.g., Wrote user stories and defined requirements for design and engineering teams)
- Aligned (e.g., Aligned stakeholders on the prioritized features of Q4)
Education
Here is a breakdown of the top desired degrees for product management roles.
- 72% (195 companies) Look for BSc in Computer Science/ Software Engineering/ Human-Computer Interaction/ Information Technology graduates.
- 8% (22 companies) look for BSc in Business Administration/ Marketing/ Finance graduates.
- 15% (41 companies) look for MBA/ MSc in Computer Science graduates.
- 5% (14 companies) haven’t mentioned any degree requirements.
Certifications
Certifications are seen as differentiations. For a product manager, the NUMBER ONE differentiator is if they’ve done a product on their own, end-to-end, from ideation to sales.
However, some giant non-tech companies (e.g., EY, Bain) are still seeking professional certification holders. So if you have time and resources, you can pick one and invest in it.
Below are some of the mentioned certifications.
- Product Management Certification — Product School (Basic Product Management Training)
- Professional Scrum Product Owner/Scrum Master — Scrum.org (Product Ownership And Scrum Training)
- Certified SAFe® 5 Product Owner/Product Manager — Scaled Agile (Agile and Product Ownership Training)
- Certified Business Analysis Professional — IIBA (Business Analysis Training)
- Project Management Professional — PMI (Project Management Training)
- Prince2 — Axelos (Project Management Training)
Special Insights
- Some companies want business-driven product managers and require consulting or a business experience rather than a tech background.
- Around ten companies required applicants to submit a portfolio containing business, UX, or product case studies.
- A few companies (2 companies) mentioned explicitly that they are looking for someone who graduated from a top 100 university and/or has experience working with a FAANG company.
- Some companies hire junior, mid-level, and director product managers using one job post. So always pay close attention to the job description.
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