Why I Started The Aspiring PM
All my life I had planned on being a doctor.
I believe this aspiration came because of my early exposure to medicine through numerous relatives in that field. Medicine is respectable and always seemed to draw a warm response when I was inevitably asked, “What do you want to do when you are older?”
Fast forward to my second year at UC Berkeley. I dropped my pre-med aspirations (I wasn’t the only one!), joined a consulting club, and set my sights on diving into consulting post-grad. Despite being at one of the most tech and entrepreneurship-oriented schools in the nation, I had never heard of product management.
I finally learned what a product manager was from a career panel hosted by that same consulting club, and worked hard with the resources I had to land my first product internship.
As I’ve reflected on my journey to eventually land a spot in Coinbase’s first class of Associate Product Managers, I have come to a few conclusions that motivated me to start The Aspiring PM— a publication for both those new to the product world, and those honing their craft.
Here’s what I realized:
- There’s a lack of accessibility in product
- There’s high demand for great, collaborative PMs
Lack of Accessibility
Roles will go to those who have exposure to product management and have access to resources to learn and prepare for interviews.
There is not equal opportunity here. Those that live in tech-heavy cities or attend schools with strong CS and tech programs have a huge edge here.
On one end of the spectrum, UC Berkeley offers multiple courses to undergrads specifically on product management. It is located in the San Francisco Bay Area, surrounded by flourishing technology companies. This is an exception.
I want to close the gap, and offer more resources to those that traditionally have to work much harder to break into the industry.
This means advice from those that have done it before, reflections on what can be improved, how-to guides, interview experiences, and most importantly a community willing to help out.
Demand for Great, Collaborative PMs
Product is a fast-growing, nascent field. Demand for better education around landing and excelling in product roles will continue to grow with the rising importance of software to solve problems in our society.
However, great products cannot be built in a vacuum.
Big technology companies such as Twitter and Facebook now own and moderate much of public discourse. The way in which they moderate content has a huge impact on our democratic system. Robinhood allows millions to invest in public companies for free — the way they build their app will affect the economy and public markets. You get where I’m going with this.
Now, more than ever, it’s becoming vital to build these important pieces of our infrastructure with collaboration and thoughtfulness.
In addition to making product more accessible, I believe this publication will act as a catalyst for great ideas and superb products that make this world a better place.
If you’d like to submit your work to be published on the APM, you can do so HERE.
Thanks for being part of the APM!
Jake
