Google “product manager jobs in New York City” and you will more than 14,000 jobs on LinkedIn alone. Such an optimistic figure, you might say. But don’t get your hopes to high just yet. In this highly competitive tech world, building a career in product management might not be as easy as you would wish.
This much coveted position can be quite difficult to qualify for, as companies are very careful to hire the best candidate for the role. If you are one of the many applicants trying to land their first job in project management, here are a few tips that can help you finally get hired:
Be Opinionated
As product manager, you will be responsible for product vision and your opinions on everything related to your product will matter. Don’t worry about being right or wrong, the important thing is that you have your opinions about everything that will be put on your plate. Of course, your opinions will have to be supported by facts from research for them to be convincing, so be sure to learn the users, the market, and the competition.
Be Analytical
A product manager is not a data analyst, but data analysis is a skill that every product manager should have if you want to succeed in this role. Knowing how to properly interpret data and translate these into meaningful information about the users and the market enables product managers to come up with product vision and innovative ideas.
Know Your Interviewer
Once you receive confirmation of an interview schedule, you would want to make sure that you have sufficient information about the person who will be conducting the interview. Google will again come in handy for this. Generally, a lot of those who screen applicants for the product manager position come from an engineering background, so you would definitely want to be familiar with codes.
But to be sure, you’d also want to check if your interviewer’s background is design or user interface because then the interview will be more conceptual.
Know the Market
Aside from the company you are applying at and the person who will be interviewing you, you will also have to know the industry that the company revolves in. If you plan to become a successful product manager, you will need to know how to plan strategically and develop a product vision that will lead the company towards its set goals.
To be able to do this, knowledge of the market is necessary, including the competition. It will also be advantageous to attend product manager training in New York. Another thing you need to do is buy their product and their competitor’s product, and assess what works and what needs to be improved by both.
Know the Product
The role will of course be about the product, so you will need to be familiar with the product’s features, functions, advantages, and areas of improvement. It will also be helpful to do your own customer research prior to the interview so you gain relevant knowledge as to what the users like about the product, how they use it, and what they might be able to suggest to make the product perform better for them.
Michelle Rubio has been writing for SMEs across the United States, Canada, Australia and the UK for the last five years. She is a highly-experienced blogger and SEO copywriter, writing business blogs for various industries such as marketing, law, health and wellness, beauty, and education, particularly on product management training such as those offered by ProductSchool.com.