Cracking your next PM Interview: Guide to that perfect resume
At the end of this article you will get a template of the resume that has worked for me very well — with a hit rate of over 40% ( 4 out of every 10 companies that I applied to, called me for initial discussion). However, the format may or may not work for you. In this article I am covering some aspects that are a must have on your resume to create that immediate impression.
Why is the resume so important? Whenever I have posted PM hiring needs, I have been flooded with resumes EVERY SINGLE TIME. General statistics, the ratio is around 1:80 and I am only counting the relevant ones. In some companies, especially the aspirational ones, this ratio might be something like 1:800. While hiring is the most important activity for many in the organization, practically no one will have time to go through all the lines of all of these resumes.
So as a PM your task is really cut out — reduce the bounce rate on your resume. You can do this by incorporating below 4 elements and I will explain each of these.
- Relevance
- Design
- Content
- Marketing
Relevance: Before you apply for any position read the job description carefully — I suggest at least 3–4 times. And ask yourself can you “really” do this job without requiring any help from colleagues. Things to consider are, skillsets asked, years of experience, relevance of industry, lead or individual contributor. You can change the words on your resume to suit the description. Check if there is any metric the description expects you to manage and if you have missed it out from your resume.
Bonus tip: If you have never lead a team and the job requires leading teams, do not bother applying. If have been a lead and this is a individual contributor role — have a good answer ready on whats really motivating you to move to individual contributor role.
Design: Now this can get a little subjective, but hey as a PM you are great at managing ambiguous situations :). Let me help you with some elements…
- Limit resume to 1 page — I know this can get difficult but please prioritise.
- Font: Use a font that is non-traditional — I used Roboto
- Font size: Not to big, not to small — do not go below 10
- Areas of responsibility: Clearly call out areas of responsibility in terms of metrics.
- Balance the white space — not too much space not too much text
Content: This is where the rubber meets the road. You must clearly mention the Products you have managed, key initiatives, metrics impacted by these key initiatives and what impact did the end customer have because of these initiatives. Every initiative must create impact in one of the following 3 areas, if its not please do not mention it on your resume…
- Customer experience impact
- Growth of your organization — contributing to the topline
- Efficiency of your organization — contributing to the bottomline.
Impact must be clearly quantified in such a way that the reader of your resume gets a relative scale — remember the interviewer may not be from your industry to understand the impact.
Bonus tip: Avoid any jargons — for each line item ask yourself 5 times “so what?” to get to the bottom of the impact.
Marketing: Humility is a must have trait for product manager to succeed, but not on your resume. When writing resume think of the bigger picture and then dissect it to specific impact that YOU have created so start with impactful words “Create, led, managed”, “Launched”, “Revamped” — you get the point. Think of SEO just replace the crawler with the eyes of the hiring manager. Try to write in a neutral language — stripping or rewording elements that are geography or industry specific.
Some more tips…
- NEVER LIE ON YOUR RESUME
- Edit it multiple times — have your friends review it for obvious spelling mistakes.
- Speak to some of the hiring managers in your network to see what do they expect on a resume — good A/B test :)
- Begin early — it can take good couple of months on the resume.
- Be neutral — not to informal, not to formal.
- Take a print to be sure.
