Saw some misguided student post about PM internships. This is for anyone considering a PM internship.
DONT.
A fresher should not be going into Product Management. Focus on building hard skills first. You need an edge/alpha in your career strategy while reducing risk.
Atleast work for 1 year in the industry in a hard skill role. Then, think about transitioning.
This does two things.
Having a PM internship is not a good enough differentiator. No company would hire a Product Management intern over someone with hard skills in another domain.
Product is different. In SDE, it makes sense to have multiple internships as it gives confidence to the recruiter that you’ll be able to do your job.
In PM, no recruiter worth their salt will consider a PM internship contributing to you being a successful PM. Your internship doesn’t contribute anything meaningful to its ability to communicate your skill.
I’ve seen many such freshers switch into product and get into suboptimal orgs. Don’t. Do your career a favour and work on your hard skills. That alone will contribute a lot more to your Product Skills than some poor internship.
As a GPM at Gojek, I will never hire anyone who has done a PM internship unless they have a solid track record in a hard skill based role.
You can only be a good “enabler“ if you can empathise with a “builder”.
Can you be a PM out of college, YES? Should you? NO.
You’ll realise this later in your career. First gain experiences building/enabling real products, you’ll thank yourself for that when it helps you build better Products.
Also, stop listening to these charlatans who masquerade as Product Gurus. They are out to make a quick buck. Don’t do these Product Courses. It’s all a farce. First, get some experience and then you’ll know
Any company hiring freshers as PMs needs their funding cutoff.
@Elon_Musk There’s only one argument for one to work as a fresher that I agree with. You join a mature org with an excellent Product culture and enter as an APM. Then, work for 2-3 years before making a switch.
You really don’t want to worry about being laid off and then having a rough time finding your next PM job with a 3 month stint in Product.
All the best Product guys I know, have been builders for a substantial amount of time. I feel having that is non-essential but for your own good. It reduces risk as you can always turn to your initial hard skill for employment.
Completely agree especially with the one needs to be a builder to understand what it takes to build a successful product.
This does make a lot of sense. What are your thoughts on someone with Product design experience going for an MBA to transition into a PM role? Would it be helpful? (Apologies for the question not being very relevant to the post)
@Gabbargg not a bad idea, but you should always get some Product experience before an MBA, what if you don’t like it. You don’t really want to spend a lot of money on an MBA and get stuck.
That makes sense. Thank you!!
Do you feel mba is necessary to move into product role from sde? is it ok if i focus on next five years in hardcore coding and then switch to product., will i need mba? due to competition as this role is supermarketed
No one size fits all answer. You’re already in SDE right now. You have two options with two different outcomes.
A. You do an MBA. You can get into a top tech company as a PM like Uber etc.
B. Transition from SDE to a startup You get into an early stage start up.
What you want from your career is what matters for your next step.
My 2 cents: Transition to Product Role. Work for 1-2 years in PM at early stage and then go for an MBA/MS. During 1-2 years, live as frugally as possible and save a lot of money.
Your Product work experience works for you when you apply to a top tech company during campus placements in India or you apply externally abroad, and you crack a product role.
See, having work experience always trumps someone else have no relevant work experience. So, having some Product Work Experience post your SDE stint will look very appealing.
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