How to Win at Remote Interviews

The Competition Is Hotter Than Ever

Interviews are the most important skill they don’t teach you in school. Too many of us are forced to do the process on our own - prepare, practice, and give the interview - all without guidance or support.

Remote interviews make this process especially hard. You have to deal with technical issues, awkward silences, and a lack of body language.

Once it’s all over, you just get an email rejection. There’s no humanity to it.

The crazy thing is - once you reach the interview stage, you don’t need to be the smartest or most qualified person to get hired. You need to be the person with the best interview performance. So, today I’m going to help you all conquer this incredibly tough skill.

The Process is Tougher than Ever

I was chatting with one recently laid-off big tech lead product manager who had this to say about his grueling interview processes:

I’ve had 7 processes now where I had 10+ interviews and still haven’t secured an offer.

Many of you are going through the same. With the crazy lay-offs at companies like Lyft, Dropbox, and Unity, high-quality talent is competing with you for the same limited number of jobs. All of the factors in the market are conspiring against you. This month:

• Job vacancies hit an all-time low

• The ratio of open jobs to unemployed workers hit 1.6, the lowest since October 2021

• The ratio of voluntary job leavers hit a 24 month low

It’s a crazy concoction of economics forces. And it’s even worse in the tech market specifically. I looked at the number of layoffs this year per Layoffs.fyi and compared that to the change in job postings on LinkedIn for the technology industry. People seeking work is up 142K, while jobs available is down 212K.

Supply is up a ton, while demand is down a ton. It’s a nightmare. That’s why several of you have booked me for paid coaching on interviewing.

Here’s what I’ve learned working with several of you.

You Can’t Use An Outdated Strategy

The fact is, most of you haven’t been on the market in a few years. You had strategies to research and answer questions that work for you in the last cycle.

And they worked. You got a great job.

But the market is much more competitive now. The techniques that worked for you in interviews a few years ago just won’t cut it now.

To crack the remote interview world we live in now, you can’t use the “Cracking the PM Interview” - or book of choice -tips from a few years ago. You need something for this moment.

Working In This Market

The good news is, I have exactly that type. This week, several of you who reached out to me got jobs!

How exciting that has felt compelled me to write this week’s mid-week deep dive.

I’m going to share the exact strategy that I’ve used to get 6 laid-off big tech senior PMs jobs in the past 4 weeks. Each of these individuals was struggling with their post-layoff experience and came to me. But our efforts together paid off.

Here’s what one said:

AAKASH! I couldn’t have done it without you. Thanks so much man for helping me think differently about that final round. I GOT THE OFFER!

So, I’ve put together advanced tips & tricks to implement the exact system I have been coaching them on:

1. Key strategies before the interview

2. Templates for what to research and how to answer questions

3. How to maximize the post-interview

4. The exact places and ways to use ChatGPT to help

This issue even includes four subscriber-only videos. Most creators package this into a course and charge $500 for it. I give it to you as 1 of 8 other insightful pieces you receive per month.

ICYMI, here are the last 8 deep dives I shared:

Career Advice: How to get interviews, How to get a raise in this market

Product Management Guidance: Advanced Roadmap Techniques, The Product Review Bible, A Real PRD Example

Tech Breakdowns: How to Build a Flywheel, Midjourney, Runway

So, let’s get onto it!

The Sales Strategy to Winning At Interviews

The secret to my recruiting strategy is you are doing sales, not being interviewed. This is a crucial mindset shift for most of you.

What is the Hollywood depiction before interviews?

Worried, nervous, stressed. People go into interviews expecting to get some tough questions or case studies thrown their way.

The key to performing in interviews is to not just focus on their questions, but actually advance your own interview. You have to sell yourself. Let’s go over how.