Episode 5: Advice from a Career Coach and Instagram PM
In this episode of Paths to Product, I interviewed Yue Zhao who is a Product Manager at Instagram and a Career Coach for early in career PMs. I learned the advice Yue has shared to help her clients find their paths to product.
Listen to Yue’s episode on anchor.fm here.
Background
Yue grew up in the Bay Area and went to college at UC Berkeley. After graduating she worked at McKinsey and founded a wine e-commerce startup. Yue then moved into Product Management at Thumbtack, a local services marketplace company, where she lead the pro side of the marketplace for five years. Currently, Yue is a Product Manager working on Instagram Stories and has previously worked on Feed and Profile at Instagram.
Outside of work, Yue is also a Career Coach focusing on early in career PMs. You can find more information about her services here.
Top Three Takeaways
1. Know Your Why
The first question Yue asks her clients who are looking to transition into Product Management is why Product Management? Often, this starts a broader conversation about what her clients want from their careers, or even more broadly, their lives. If your motivation behind the desire to transition into Product Management isn’t clear, not only is it hard to interview effectively, but it’s also challenging to determine which type of product role is right for you. Understanding your motivations behind wanting to become a Product Manager can help you determine which type of Product role (business vs. consumer facing), company size, and industry is right for you.
2. Clean Up Your Social Media
Yue mentions that the first thing she does when helping her clients with their resumes is look them up on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. This is common practice for interviewers, especially those at smaller companies with less defined recruitment practices. Oftentimes interviewers will look up candidates right before their interviews to get a sense of what types of questions to ask. Making sure your social media profiles are clean and professional, is a great first step to ensuring you make a positive impression.
3. Find Ways to Get Product Experience
Getting into Product Management without any previous PM experience can be challenging. However, there are lots of ways to gain PM-like experience to help you get your foot in the door.
Yue suggests the following three approaches:
1. Look for projects or opportunities at your current company
2. Consider working at smaller companies that have more flexible roles
3. Work on side projects that demonstrate PM skills
In this episode, Yue elaborates on these three ways to provide practical advice to aspiring PMs that are having a tough time gaining Product Management experience.
