The #1 reason you aren't getting product manager interviews

Frustrated that you aren't getting any product manager interviews? Wondering why these companies aren't responding even though you know you have the experience and the skillset? Trust me, I've been there. When I was looking for my first product job, I applied to hundreds of roles and only received a handful of interviews even though I knew I could do the job well.

Turns out, if you're applying for product manager jobs and not getting any interviews or not as many as you like, the root cause is your resume. Your resume simply isn't selling you in the right way as a product manager and telling your story properly for these hiring manager and recruiters. Your resume must be specifically tailored for product management.

To understand why, it is important to look at it from a company's perspective. When it comes to hiring for product managers in particular, companies tend to be very risk-averse. They want to have 100% confidence that whoever they hire to fill this role is someone who can come in, hit the ground running and produce results quickly. There is a reason at every company, there is one product manager for multiple developers. If one or two developers turn out to be sub-par, it's not ideal but the business won't be severely impacted. But if the product manager turns out to be incompetent, then the company will almost certainly have major problems. That's why companies don't want to introduce false positives when it comes to hiring for PMs.

What that means for you as an applicant is that you have to give these companies the confidence that you are indeed someone who can come in day one and start providing value straight away. And the only way you can do that is through your resume especially if you are applying online (which is probably most of you). Everything on your resume needs to be showcased through the lens of product management. Even if you may not have had the "product manager" title in your previous roles, you still need to show that you performed PM activities.

At the end of the day, due to high competition and the risk averse nature of the selection process, if recruiters and hiring managers look at your resume and don't get the impression of product management, it is very unlikely they will take a chance and give you an interview. On the flip side, if they look at your resume and what jumps out is someone who's essentially been a PM his or her whole career, then they will be a lot more inclined to at least give that first round interview.

If you are interested in learning how to have the best product management resume or want to break into product management, please schedule a free call via the Contact page. We would love to chat and see how Product Manager Dojo can help.