The Product Diploma : Breaking Into Product Management Out Of College

The complete guide on landing a job as an Associate Product Manager (APM). Two former Google APMs share everything they wish they knew when they were applying for product roles out of college. See a breakdown of what it's like to be a product manager and what a day in the life looks like. Learn how to prepare for APM roles while in college, from what classes to take to what extracurriculars to pursue. Finally, read about how to master the APM interview, from high level strategies to sample interview questions. In 2002, the product executive at Google and future Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer made a big bet. It was the kind of big bet that Google has become known for, but this wasn’t a bet on self-driving cars or a game-changing app. In fact, the bet wasn’t about a product at all - it was about product managers. Back in the early 2000’s product managers were in short supply, or at least the kind that Google was looking for. Google wanted product managers who were deeply technical; people who not only knew how to write code, but who fundamentally understood technology. They also wanted product managers who were hungry and could execute on the smallest details, but who could also think strategically. They weren’t finding what they were looking for in the existing pool of product managers. So Mayer pitched a radical idea: what if Google hired entrepreneurial and talented computer science majors straight out of college and taught them to be product leaders? Google would create a small, close-knit community which could learn the role together as they rotated through different teams in the company. Those in the program would be transformed into the type of product leaders Google wanted - people who could speak in both business and technical terms and who could take products all the way from a high-level idea to a launch. The job would be called Associate Product Manager, or ‘APM’ for short. Fast-forward fifteen years and the Google APM program has become one of Mayer’s most indelible contributions to the search giant. The first class of Google APMs was just 6 people, but today there are over 40 APMs in each class. Google APMs have gone on to become Google VPs, C-level execs of tech giants like Facebook and Asana, and founders of numerous successful startups such as Optimizely. Mayer’s program was such a success that it has been adopted by almost every other tech giant as well as many successful startups. Today, companies like Facebook, Uber, Dropbox, Workday, and LinkedIn all hire product managers out of college into “APM”-like programs. Although there are some subtle differences between each program - Facebook RPMs (rotational product managers) have 6-month rotations versus Google’s year-long rotations, and Microsoft has hundreds of new grad product managers each year - they all have the same foundational goal of finding and developing the product leaders of tomorrow. Today, the product manager role has become one of the most coveted and prestigious jobs for ambitious college students, but it is also one of the most competitive and misunderstood. Perhaps you picked up this book because you heard about the product manager role, and want to understand more about what it is and whether it is right for you. Or, perhaps you heard about how rigorous and intimidating the application and interview processes can be, and you want to get a leg up. We faced those same questions and felt the same way, and that’s why we decided to write this book. Before we became Google APMs we were frantically googling: “Should I be a software engineer or PM out of school?”, “What do companies look for in new grad PMs?”, “How do I prepare for the interviews”, and “What does a PM do exactly?”. At the time, we didn’t find great answers and still there aren’t many answers out there today. This book gives you the answers we were looking for; we’ve synthesized everything we learned through the job search, application, and interview process along with everything we’ve learned on the job. We discuss what it means to be a product manager and why you could be a good (or bad) fit for the role. We talk about what to do during college, across classes, extracurriculars, and internships, to develop the skills that will help you excel as a PM. Finally, we teach you how to land and then nail a product management interview. For each topic we cover, we’ve also asked our peers - new grad PMs from Google, Facebook, and more - to reveal their secrets as well.

• | Author: Davis Treybig, Alan Ni
• | Publisher: Independently Published
• | Publication Date: Mar 16, 2019
• | Number of Pages: 223 pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Paperback
• | ISBN-10: 1728740916
• | ISBN-13: 9781728740911