[All New] Technique to Get Interviews

& An Update on Hiring in Tech

Your Update on Today’s PM Job Market

Two key dynamics have changed over the last 6 months for job seekers. With the August data now out, it’s worth reviewing.

1. On the supply side: Layoffs have cooled off over the summer. While many laid off workers from the fall/winter are still looking for a job, there aren’t giant batches of fresh new tech workers being poured into the job market.

2. On the demand side: Companies still haven’t picked up hiring nearly to the level of September 2022. Job postings are down 56% compared to last year. So the demand for talent is way down.

While the supply situation isn’t quite as bad as it was for most of the year, it’s still not great. And the demand situation is plain bad for candidates.

As a result, this is still one of the toughest PM job markets in recent history.

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[All New] Technique to Get Interviews

In today’s competitive market, you need to stand out from the crowd.

Many job seekers I’ve talked to recently have said that the hardest step is getting interviews. Here’s what a friend (who wasn’t a reader) messaged me last week:

Just not getting any interviews. 100+ applications, and no luck.

It’s really sad to hear.

But I have good news. I’ve recently come across an incredibly powerful new strategy to get candidates interviews. It’s completely under-utilized by the broader community. In fact, I hadn’t really understood this technique until very recently.

It had been used on me, but I lacked the necessary context to spot it and reverse engineer it. Recently, it was used on me - and because I had the needed context - I spotted it.

Tested In the Market

I spotted this technique about two months ago.

So the next three paid subscribers who Slacked me mentioning that they were having trouble getting interviews, I equipped with this technique.

You guessed it: all three got interviews. And actually - each got it in the first week of trying this new technique.

So in today’s extra special edition of Product Growth, I’m going to break it down.

Tactics, Once Widely Used, Lose Steam

But as you might guess, as soon as a technique is published for the first time, people will start to use it and share it.

It’s really just a law of writing. As soon as an idea is published, it tends to become a public good.

So techniques lose their alpha over time. This technique will as well. But its relative rarity right now means its alpha is extremely high right now.

I reckon this technique falls in the fantastic technique bucket. Some alpha will dissipate quickly, but eventually it will approach a horizontal asymptote.

It’s that good.

Throwback to a Classic

To this day, you all still ask me questions about my April piece How to Get Interviews.

And the techniques in there are still high alpha. They work in this market quite well. But, today’s technique, I didn’t know when I wrote How to Get Interviews.

It‘s a sort if “401” seniors-only/advanced technique. It hasn’t been written about anywhere else on the internet. Let’s break it down.