How to navigate APM job listings
Associate Product Management (APM) is an incredibly rewarding way to start a career. However, as PM and APM roles become more prevalent, there’s a lot of variance in the roles you’ll find on the job market. Here, I want to help you situate yourself solidly in the world of APM. I want to help you see past the title, to the substance beneath.
To do so, we’ll see what APM programs look like. Then, we’ll look at some of the signs that an APM role might not be exactly what you expect— APM is a bit of a buzzword at the moment, and the title doth not the program make. Finally, I’ll give you some great resources to check out if you’re interested in APM. If you’re looking to get started in PM, I hope this can help you navigate the exciting but sometimes confusing world of APM jobs. If you’re hiring APMs, I hope this can be a call to action to think about whether your APM role is delivering everything it could!
(Disclaimer: I’m quite opinionated about this topic, so feel free to disagree. I should also point out that all views are my own, not my employer’s. Onwards!)
👀 What does an APM program look like?
Good APM programs prioritise learning, understanding that what they lose in short term productivity will be more than gained back in long-term excellence.
At bigger tech companies, these programs generally consist of two to three PM placements over a two year period, alongside training, mentorships and social events with a community of current and former APMs. This is all designed to accelerate your development from no/limited product experience to product leadership. Startups and smaller companies generally have less formal, structured programs, which has its advantages and disadvantages. To get more specific, let’s look at a few elements of the Atlassian APM program. Atlassian is a company with around 10,000 employees, so on the bigger side, but this will give you an idea of PM training in general.
APMs are generally the sole PM for a team of engineers working on some feature or function of our products. We work closely with engineering and design counterparts (and sometimes other PMs, marketing, strategy/biz ops, etc) to discover and deliver on product opportunities. APMs at Atlassian have done everything from helping to build and launch new products to defining product strategy to delivering features our users love.
We have the opportunity to engage with some truly amazing product leaders inside and outside the company. We also have ongoing 1:1 mentorship with a senior product leader, and Atlassian pays for us to access Reforge, who run arguably the best online product education programs there are, covering everything from growth to strategy to marketing and beyond.
Social events are a huge highlight. Atlassian recognises how important community is, particularly for APMs (unlike grad engineers, grad PMs are unlikely to spend a substantial amount of their days working directly with other PMs), and we have a lot of fun, and find a lot of solidarity, as a group.
In short, we’re thrown in the deep end and expected to succeed, but we’re given the support we need to do so. It’s not easy, but it’s incredibly rewarding, and I’ve learned more in the last year as an APM than I ever thought possible. Equally important is our community of APMs, like-minded people who I love spending time with and learning from, and who are a brilliant support network.
Now, I want to take you behind the scenes for a moment (you’ll see why soon); these programs are an investment for companies to create. It takes a fair amount of time for a PM to ramp up to being able to contribute fully in a new team or company, and this is particularly true of APMs with little prior experience. It also takes a lot of time, energy and resources to run these programs. APM programs are posited on the assumption that a company can take promising people early in their careers, put them in the right environments, and create great product managers.
This is working out exceptionally well for the companies who have seriously made this investment, and I’m in awe of many of the current and past APMs I know, who are doing incredible work. Companies like Google and LinkedIn are starting to see former APMs become Vice Presidents or take on other very senior roles. My point is, it’s hard to run good APM programs, but APMs in the right environment will return many times what companies invest. When companies make that investment, they are signing up for the upside and the downside.
I give you this context because I want to talk about what an APM program is not. In particular, I want to talk about the increasing number of job ads that look very different to what I’ve just described.
🤨 What should you be wary of in APM listings?
LinkedIn recommends me a lot of jobs, particularly APM jobs. PM in Australia is starting to really take off, and I’m seeing more and more of these ads. Some of them are, from what I’ve seen and heard, great opportunities at companies that have fantastic PM culture and are serious about growing the next generation of product leaders.
Many of them… concern me. I talk to a fair number of people who want to be APMs, and I find myself wanting to caution them about these listings. To be clear, this is not a judgment of the companies posting these ads per se — they could, for all I know, have brilliant cultures, impactful work, great benefits, etc. What concerns me is clarity — the APM title is associated with many of the characteristics we looked at above, and if you take a role with APM written on the ad, I want you to be crystal clear on what you should expect to both give and be given.
You might take a job that looks like what we’re about to speak about, and it could be a brilliant and rewarding experience. I want you to make that decision with all the facts, and I want to equip you to ask the right questions if you do interview for one of these.
So, in order of most to least concerning, let’s take a look at some of the flags that are at least worth asking an employer about before taking a role.
1. The ‘3–5 years of experience’. Concern level: Mount Everest.
This one is easy. If you are hiring a Product Manager with 3+ years of experience, you are not hiring an Associate Product Manager, you are hiring a full Product Manager. If you are hiring a PM with 5+ years of experience, you are hiring a Product Manager or a Senior Product Manager.
Companies doing this, please stop. Advertise the role you’re hiring for, and pay accordingly. It’s bad for APMs, it’s bad for more senior PMs, and to say it shows a fundamental misunderstanding of what product management is would be the most generous possible response — I won’t give my less charitable interpretation here.
This is particularly frustrating because we know that people from underrepresented backgrounds are less likely to apply to roles where they don’t meet all the requirements. Please, our industry needs more diversity, not less. Be part of the solution, not the problem.
2. The ‘past successes’ or ‘experience in everything’. Concern level: Kilimanjaro.
Earlier in this piece, I said that companies that hire APMs take on downside (investing in training inexperienced PMs) because of the great upside (APMs can grow to be amazing product leaders).
If a company wants significant prior experience, that’s upside without downside. Again, if you want someone experienced, hire a PM and pay them accordingly. If a company you want to apply to is doing this, make sure you’re aligned with them on expectations of your role, and make sure they’re taking your learning seriously.
3. The ‘Product Owner/Project Manager/PM’. Concern level: Mt Kosciusko.
As far as I know, there are two reasons to write a job title like this one:
- You want to get more hits on your job listing, so you’re broadening the search terms that could hit, or
- You don’t know whether you want a product manager or a product owner.
If it’s 1, I guess we respect the hustle? If it’s 2, we need to talk. Product owners and product managers (and product analysts, product marketing managers, project managers, program managers — I could go on) have very different roles. Product owners prioritise a backlog of features or other work, representing the needs of stakeholders (ie users, leadership, etc). Product managers discover user and business needs, prioritise work and rally a team around a vision and a roadmap. PMs generally have broader responsibility.
If the company you’re applying to looks like they’re conflating roles, make sure you’re very clearly aligned on which one they’re after. Product ownership can be a great role with a lot of value, but it can feel like a micromanaged version of PM. Product analysis, product marketing management and many others can be great, but they’re not the same thing. Figure out which one you want to be, and make sure it’s aligned with what the company is offering.
4. The ’technical background’. Concern level: well… it depends.
This one is tough. Some PM roles would genuinely be nigh on impossible without a technical background (I work with a data PM with a PhD in data science, and even with my undergrad technical background I wouldn’t want his job). In reality, most wouldn’t, and there are more and more incredible PMs who have no technical background whatsoever these days. These people bring their own diverse perspectives to PM, and their ability to see and tackle problems their own way can be a huge strength.
I’ve included this because it’s so prevalent and can be disheartening if you don’t have a technical background. If that’s you, don’t worry. It’s not you, it’s them. There are a lot of forward thinking companies out there, like Atlassian, that hire PMs with all sorts of backgrounds. My two cents: we desperately need more people with backgrounds in arts, psychology, philosophy (particularly ethics), etc, and the industry is realising that.
Bonus: whatever this is ⤵️. Concern level: ?.
My preschool also had a minimum 0–3 years product management experience!
🥰 Wrapping it up
APM programs are a great opportunity to ramp up very quickly in product management. Companies prioritise your learning, aligning your incentives with theirs; you want to be a great PM, and they want you to be a great PM.
I believe an APM program is one of the best ways you can start your career, even if you don’t necessarily want to spend that career in product. You get to solve interesting problems with super intelligent people, and are afforded a lot more responsibility than a grad might otherwise expect.
If you are interested in this path, just make sure the job description matches your expectations — PM is still relatively young, and not everybody means the same thing when they say ‘Associate Product Manager’.
😁 What’s next?
If you’re interested in APM roles in Australia or NZ, Earlywork is a good place to look.
I loved this piece by Izzy Kohout (another Atlassian APM) about why she chose PM as an engineering student, and it could help you decide whether it’s what you’d most like to do.
Inspired by Marty Cagan is a great intro to modern PM. This video by the legendary Sherif Mansour, Atlassian’s Distinguished PM, is a good high level overview of the role. Cracking the PM Interview is the best book I’ve come across about how to get hired as a PM. (If you want more book recommendations, product and otherwise, my favourites are at www.graubenh.com — just click ‘Reading’ at the top.)
Atlassian’s Sydney APM roles for 2023 have just opened up, so if you want to come work with me (and a bunch of much cooler people), I would strongly recommend checking that out — it’s been an excellent place to APM for me. Check out internships, too, if you’re not graduating this year.
If you have any questions about APM in general, or at Atlassian, please feel free to send me a message through LinkedIn or drop a comment below — I’m happy to chat! 🙂
