6 Strategies to Increase Callbacks for PM Internships & Full-time Roles
This guide has been created for Product Management roles, but the strategies can be applied to other fields as well.
Need help preparing for PM interviews? Check out my full guide here.
Once upon a time, a recruiter told me: For a PM intern position, there are close to 10K applications. Ancestry got 15K applications for 3 PM intern positions in 2021. For Full time, it depends. Uber got 27K+ applications for ~ 10 APM openings. A series A startup got 10K applications for an APM role.
In addition to career fairs and applying on university career websites (e.g. Handshake), which I recommend and are highly important, I have the following recommendations.
6th Strategy: Don’t wait to apply; submit as soon as the position opens.
When do recruiters check job postings the most? Typically, it’s within the first day (maybe two) of a live posting. Once a recruiter receives some great applications, their time checking for and reviewing new applications reduces — and so does your chance of having your resume seen.
What should you do if you’re waiting for a referral? Well, that depends on how confident you are in the referral.
- If it’s a sure bet, it’s OK to wait. That insider connection will help your resume be seen.
- If it’s a maybe, you can try this approach*:
- Apply with one of your email addresses as soon as the posting opens.
- Use another email address to apply when you get a referral.
*This suggestion has its caveats. It’s intended as a safeguard in case the hoped-for referral doesn’t happen. This way, you won’t miss out on the initial application review. However, recruiters may find it confusing if a candidate has two email addresses in the system. Also, submitting two resumes will not beat the ATS. ATS scores will be the same irrespective of how many times you apply with the same resume (more on ATS next!).
5th Strategy: Optimize resume to beat ATS
- Use the X-Y-Z formula to format your bullet points:
- “Accomplished [X] as measured by [Y], by doing [Z]”
Example: “Won second place out of 164 teams in IIT Bombay, an organized national robotic competition, by solving the problem of planet exploration by designing a space rover and base station in collaboration with other three team members”
2. Use VMock to rank your resume and understand how you can improve it along various dimensions. (For students, most universities provide access.)
3. Use Jobscan to understand whether your resume is tailored to a job posting/job description (JD) or not. Always tailor your resume to an opening.
4th Strategy: Perform X-ray search on Google
An X-ray search is conducted by typing a pattern in the search bar. This strategy will yield more relevant job listings; otherwise, promoted opportunities crowd out the search.
This may work with other search engines, but as a person of habit, I use the de facto search engine — Google. (So you think I’m lazy? I might be😆)
For example:
site: lever.co (“product management internship” OR “product management intern”)
Anatomy of X-ray search:
site: [insert the site you want to search][keywords you want to search]
Other examples of X-ray search:
- site: greenhouse.io “associate product manager”
- site: workable.com “product manager” “new grad”
- site: lever.co (“product manager” AND “New York”)
3rd Strategy: Scan LinkedIn for postings (or Hiring Managers)
- Go to LinkedIn search and type
Hiring position name[Product managers] location[Seattle/New York/ Chicago/Phoenix/Austin/Bay Area(for California)] and search for posts.
Most of the folks posting are either hiring managers or recruiters and so reach out to them directly. (Tips on outreach listed below.)
2. Go to LinkedIn search and type
Hiring position name [product manager] and search for people. You can also filter by the location you are interested in.
Almost all of them are hiring managers, few of them are recruiters, and you can quickly understand that by glancing at their profile.
So, how do you reach out to them? In your LinkedIn message, provide value.
- Read through the company page about their product or any interesting recent news about them. Mention what you have read, that you are interested in learning more about it, and ask if they are free for a 10 min call. If yes, hurrah! Form a connection and leverage it later.
- Share any projects, internships, or professional experiences of yours that align with what they are looking for or what the company is working on. Request a brief call to discuss more about the role or opportunities at the company.
2nd Strategy: Be different
Do what others are not doing. If everyone is applying to jobs in California, then apply elsewhere. You may miss out on big companies, but you will be able to land an offer sooner. If everyone is applying to big tech, go after smaller, unknown startups.
For startups, check these websites:
- https://angel.co
- https://www.ycombinator.com/jobs/
- https://fellows.kleinerperkins.com (Full time only)
- https://builtin.com/jobs
For angel.co job listings, the name of the person (hiring contact) who posted the job is often there with the listing, so reach out to them on LinkedIn. Include where you saw the posting, and don’t forget to add value in your message!
1st Strategy: Provide reverse value
Disclaimer: Be ethical while implementing this strategy, or it will backfire.
This is what I follow, but it takes up a lot of time and drains an individual.
- Make a list of companies where you want to intern or work. (Max 10 or 15)
- Research the company and study its products, related news, how the industry is shaping up, and where the market is headed.
- Then, aligning with the company’s vision and mission statements, use your research to formulate a strategy to achieve their business goal (OKR — Objectives and Key Results) and to identify issues that may prevent them from reaching that goal.
- Validate the problem by doing user research or talking with people working at that company.
- Brainstorm solutions and create a product deck. For an example of product decks, check Section VI(6) here of my PM interviewing guide.
- Email the deck to, at most, five people working at this company.
You are providing value with this approach. In your email with the deck, mention:
- Why are you interested in that company?
- What role are you interested in?
- Highlight the skillset shown through the deck you created.
So, how do you find the email address of people working at these companies?
Utilize email finding tools, some of which I listed below:
There are a lot more…
I repeat: Be ethical when reaching out to people. If you email everyone, you won’t hear from them.
After you have done this N number of times across companies, you won’t need a tool as you will start recognizing patterns in company email ids (Just like I started doing😅)
People also use email tracking tools (such as Mailtrack) to check whether their emails are being read or not. (I mostly don’t use it as it is a cognitive overhead.)
Note: Ideally, it should take seven days for each company, but after doing it over close to 50 times, my average ended up closer to two days.
Wrap up — Quality over Quantity
Let us put on our PM hats and do a bit of estimation to make a more compelling case for quality of applications over quantity of applications. To arrive at these estimates, I reasoned the time it takes to submit generic applications, the likelihood of job referrals, and the time needed to submit tailored applications. So, these results have not been scientifically derived. (Payscale released data a few years ago on employee referrals.)
As you can see from the above stats, generic applications, which seem great in the moment, produce minimal gain while tailored decks, and even referrals, produce better returns in the long run. (Delayed gratification > instant gratification)
A person who has spent days researching a company even before applying is on better footing compared to a generic resume applicant or even a referred candidate as they are already armed to the teeth.
It is indeed very hard to break into PM (and many other industries too) as a new grad, but as my best friend says, “Difficulties mastered are opportunities won.”
References:-
1. Cover Image: Filled in so many applications but no calls
2. Parting Words quote: Link
3. Funnel used in search stats of a PM aspirant made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com
