How I Transitioned from Engineering to Product Management — Part II: Applying to Companies
Hello! My name is Jacky and I am a Product Manager at MemSQL and previously a Software Engineer at Looker. You can find me on Twitter and LinkedIn. I also founded and manage a PM group called subtle asian product manager.
You are reading part two of the guide to transition from Engineering to Product Management. In part one, I talked about why I transitioned and how to craft the perfect PM resume. If you haven’t read that, I highly recommend reading it first! Have a job interview coming up? Then skip straight to part three on how to prepare for that.
“Jacky Liang wrote this awesome TLDR cheat sheet on how to transition into product management.”
— Lewis Lin, author of Decode and Conquer
How do I apply for PM positions?
Good job 👌 — you finished crafting your resume, you got an important piece of the puzzle out of the way! Now it’s time to send it out.
There are multiple ways to apply to companies.
Bring out your notepad..
Because we’re going to write down a big big list of tech companies.
Here’s a list of High Impact Companies
One of my favorite resources for this is a little known gem called the Breakout List that tracks companies that have the potential for exponential growth over the next few years. Its premise is to basically help you find the Googles and Facebooks when they had a few hundred employees.
I also recommend Breakout Careers which outlines how to have an impactful career in product, engineering, and design. Wealthfront’s Career Launching Companies is also a good resource for new grads. Additionally, Glassdoor’s Best Places to Work and LinkedIn’s Top Companies makes the rounds every year.
Here’s a list of Top Venture Capital Backed Companies
I also looked at top VC firm’s portfolio companies. I recommend Andreessen Horowitz, Kleiner Perkins, Google Ventures, and Google Capital. Or maybe you want to work for a tech company in China — Kleiner Perkins China and GGV Capital. The fastest growing mobile + e-commerce + online-to-offline market in the world isn’t for the faint of heart, however.
Of course, the Associate PM program exists too
There are also (competitive as hell) Associate PM programs from Google, Facebook, Uber, Twitter, Zynga, Asana, and more. There are dozens of articles written about APM programs, so I won’t go into them.
Which companies should I focus on?
Once I created this list, I prioritized them by companies I wanted to work for. Qualities I optimized for were:
- 📈 Growth — Is the company growing? Can I grow with it? Where could it be in a few years?
- 💥 Impact — Are they doing impactful work? Will I be able to have an impact working there? Is the product all hype, no substance?
- 🌐 Mission and values — Do their values and mission align with yours? Are they a net positive to the world?
- 👨👩👧👦 Team — Will I get to work alongside very smart people? Are they jerks? Are they humble? Will I learn positive things from them?
- 🔮 Culture — What is the company culture like? Is it healthy? Do they fit you?
- 🎓 Mentorship — As a first-time PM, what type of mentorship will I get? Will I even get mentorship, or would I be thrown into the deep-end on the get-go?
A much more in-depth way to determine which companies to join is outlined in Breakout Career’s “What Company Should I Join?”. I highly recommend reading everything in there. Multiple times.
Do optimize for a company that is growing fast and will also help you grow. Super early stage companies can be a hit or miss. Often times it’s a miss, so understand these risks. Work for companies with a strong team and established network. Be useful. Well-known companies like Facebook, Apple, Twitter, Google, etc, have significant resources (so higher starting salary, ample perks, work-life balance, etc), but you may not learn as much. Work for a breakout company if you really want to grow.
— Breakout Careers
How to get them to REALLY notice you
For companies I really wanted to join, I went one step further.
Do reactivate LinkedIn Premium
I reactivated LinkedIn Premium.
“😷, LinkedIn, I know right?“
Using its advanced search functionality, I looked for each company’s Engineering Managers, Product Managers, and Recruiters of all levels (Director, VP, Senior, etc) and sent them a quick connection note expressing my interest in knowing more about being a PM at that company.
Sure, you will not hear back from the majority of these requests, but you will find interesting people that are happy to chat about the company, product, culture, team, and working there. Don’t wait for opportunities to come to you. Be genuine, be sincere, and be curious.
Do reach back into your network
Another way to get your foot in the door is simply reaching back into your network. Do you know friends, family, and ex-coworkers that work in companies you are interested in? If so, don’t be afraid to reach out and send a friendly message to them expressing this interest. People are generally willing to help if you are friendly and show genuine interest.
Do meet people in person
Alternatively, every major city in the U.S. have Meetup groups and Facebook events for PMs. Attending events in person is massively underrated as you get to understand people on a personal level. Don’t just be part of a network. Be a friend. Get to know people.
Do apply through the company’s careers page
Using the list of companies compiled earlier, go ahead and apply to open positions on each company’s careers page.
Be prepared to be rejected. A lot. A lot! Don’t worry, you get used to it after your 100th rejection. It’s normal. Applying through the Careers page is still one of the best ways to land interviews in my opinion due to sheer volume alone.
Don’t be intimidated by job descriptions and seniority requirements. I applied to everything but Director-level positions. Never say never. If it’s a right fit, companies will know this.
Do make yourself irresistible by doing this
It is worth it for companies you really want to work for to do a project for them as your application. Some people go through the lengths to really show their passion for the company such as Francine Lee’s Usability Test for Dropbox or what David Rogier did.
Personally, I did not do a big project, however, in my company research (which I cover in-depth in part three of this series), I put a lot of care into each company’s product to brainstorm new features, verticals, markets, and strategies based on their mission and “why”. In my phone screens and on-sites, I would present such findings to them while also having assessed its priorities, tradeoffs, reach, impact, and effort.
Remember, a PM’s job is to work on the most impactful. Simply presenting a list of things to do isn’t enough.
I learned this the hard way, where in one of my first ever phone screens with a company, I presented them a list of things I thought would be impactful for the product. However, when the Director of Product presented me with the question — “which one would you do first and why?”, I was at a loss for words because I did not consider that. My interviewer added “a PM’s job is to do what’s the most impactful and saying no. Simply doing everything on a list is not enough”.
This is a lesson that stuck with me afterwards.
Now that you’ve compiled a list of companies and know how to get noticed, send in that beautiful resume you crafted!
Thank you for reading part two of the guide to transition from Engineering to Product Management! In part one, I talked about why I transitioned and how to craft the perfect PM resume. In the final part, I will talk about how to ace product management interviews and how to get multiple offers from your dream companies.
What are some application tips you can give for aspiring product managers? Comment below!
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