How Real PMs Get Jobs In This Market

Let's go straight to the source: these are the strategies and tools 5 real-life PMs got jobs in the tough PM market that we have today in 2024. Complete with 30 min+ videos from 2 fellow readers.

In all sorts of product management (PM) content, we need less generalities and more specifics. This couldn’t be more true for job searching content.

There’s a plethora of advice-givers out there but there’s a dearth of storytellers.

That’s what today’s piece is here to correct.

We’re going to break down the stories of how 5 PMs got jobs in this brutal job market.

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Today’s Post

Words: 3,882 | Est. Reading Time: 17 mins

Today’s post is the antidote to today’s maze of content - real stories from real PMs:

1. 5 Case Studies:

   • Laid Off PM with 8 YOE in B2B SaaS

   • 3 Offers in 1.5 months in France

   • Laid Off PM with a Job in 40 Applications

   • From Laid Off to PM at Venmo and 5 Offers

   • 3 YOE PM Uses Script to Gets Job in 2 Months

2. Counter-Intuitive Strategies

3. Most Common Mistakes Made

4. Food for Thought on What to Do

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1. 5 Case Studies in Actual PM Job Success

Case Study 1 - Laid Off with 8 YOE in B2B SaaS

Let’s start with a public post on Reddit that is very different from the rest, but has a lot of great insights.

It’s the case of Redditor Kaufnizer:

Redditor, we’re going to assume this person is goes by she/her pronouns

It’s worth first translating this funnel to percentages so you can benchmark yourself:

1. 8.7% Application to Screener Rate

2. 67% Screener to Hiring Manager Rate

3. 50% Hiring Manager to Final Rounds Rate

4. 40% Offer Rate

These are really good rates in this market, and exactly what you should be targeting yourself. If you’re above these, great. If you’re below in any one area, that’s the step of the funnel for you to focus on.

Now, what worked to generate these numbers?

Funnel Step 1 - Applicant to Screener Rate

In a market that’s as brutal as this one, you have to be realistic, targeted, and fast to go from a sea of hundreds of applicants to the screener round:

1. She was very targeted to go for roles that she was actually qualified for and had at least a second degree connection for. That really is table stakes today even to get a less than 10% screener rate.

2. 70% of the jobs she applied to were with a customized resume. When she didn’t have a referral, she also used a cover letter.

3. She also applied to all jobs within 1 week of posting, which is best practice.

Funnel Step 2 - Screener to Hiring Manager Rate

Getting reached out to by a recruiter isn’t as important as you think at this stage. Only 1 of 5 of this person’s recruiter reach-outs moved on to the hiring manager stage. A hiring manager reach-out or referral is much preferred.

Across interviews, she did very well. And her experience goes to show that you do need to spend money on coaching and tools to succeed:

• She used a mock interview service which she paid for 8 times. Whether you use me or another one, these services work.

• She also used the conversational AI interview coach Orai.

As they say, “you get what you pay for.”

Funnel Step 3 - Hiring Manager to Final Rounds Rate

Referrals matter even into the offer! Many people fail to realize this. 4 of the 5 jobs this person made it to the final round for was from a referral.

How did she get referrals? She approached a shared 1st degree connection (someone she had worked with before). Then she dropped this message:

Hi XYZ! I see that you are connected with ABC who works at The Company I'm interested in. I'm going to apply to this role (link) and think I'd be a great fit. Do you know ABC well enough to ask if they'd be willing to put in a good word for me? I can share my resume and cover letter that I intend to use, or meet with them if they'd like to learn why I'm a great fit.

She also mentioned that you need to practice behavioral questions first. This is because 90% of the questions, at the end of the day, that you get are behavioral. There are just a few cases and homework rounds as well.

So, it’s very important to nail your story bank.

Funnel Step 4 - Final Rounds to Offer Rate

When it comes to the final round, you’re usually competing against 3-5 candidates. So getting to 40% success is quite good.

All the practice, coaching, and tools this person did helped. She also spent time “listening to product podcasts to stay inspired and learning.”

But she didn’t let the process engulf her life. She spent less than 40 hours a week and “spent my other time enjoying hobbies, life, and family.”

Time and time again, I’ve seen with my coaching candidates that it’s that type of holistic approach to the job search that works — especially if you had a traumatic event like a lay-off.

Read on for 2 full. 30+ minute interviews with Product Growth subscribers about how they nailed PM jobs at Lemlist and Venmo. These conversations are too valuable to give away for free.