The Return: 📝 Life Updates and 🖐🏽 5 Pieces of Advice on the Current Job Climate for Graduating Students
It's been sometime since the last TTP and I apologize. However, hopefully a couple life updates can help you understand the break and why I'm excited to begin writing again!
Bonjour! Thanks for checking in with this month’s issue of Tyler Talks Product! Before getting into the article, I wanted to celebrate a big milestone for the newsletter: we’ve reached 600 readers 🎉
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🇫🇷 France, Growing Up, and Recruitment 🇫🇷
It’s been three months since the last TTP and since then, there’s a lot and I mean A LOT of stuff that’s happened. First, I moved to France in January for an exchange term for my last semester of university! It’s been a transition for sure, as I have no mastery of the French language, but it has been scenic! I’m on the east side of France and it’s still cold here. I cannot escape the cold!
I’m eating fresh breads and new cheeses with the hope of trying more food. I’ll be travelling around more so as I continue to post, I’ll include photos to give you my view of Europe. Since I lived at home and commuted to university in Canada, I’m learning to do many Adult things for the first time in France like getting weekly groceries. I’ve made my fair share of mistakes from buying the wrong bed sheet size to understanding that one Tupperware cannot fit all your leftovers. France caused me to get out of my shell more. It’s scary, it’s different, but it’s a welcome change to start the new year.
Lastly, I wanted to let ya’ll know that I made a long-term goal a reality recently. I’m happy to say that I’ll be a Rotational Product Manager for Zynga’s new grad program after I graduate from university. I found a company/program where I felt there was a confidence to nurture my young product career and loved the people I met. Two years ago, I wanted to be an APM/RPM at the beginning of my product journey and I want to dedicate a piece of this article to thank all the mentors that have helped me reach this point. Every piece of advice, mock interview, and hangout brought me one step closer to where I wanted to be (trust me, there were a lot of steps).
Thank you for your time, patience, and confidence in me.
One year off, four internships as a PM, and dozens of side projects later and I’m graduating into the field I could only have dreamed of breaking into.
📝 Product Management Recruiting in 2022 📝
With all the life updates out of the way, this month’s issue is advice on traversing through the recent wave of tech layoffs as a student. Many people are aware of full-time workers being laid off from titans such as Meta, Google, and Microsoft. However, graduating students have felt the ripple effects of recent layoffs too. Many new grad programs were axed, return offers were rescinded, and hiring freezes were enforced. This left reduced opportunities for an already scarce number of positions.
Similar to many university students graduating in 2019 (the first real year of COVID), there was a panic amongst students on how the job market would solidify. From my personal experiences and stories from previous graduating classes from similar circumstances, these were some popular methods that helped re-adjust mine/their course to find success.
🖐🏽 Five Ways to Find Success for Product Management Recruitment Amidst Tech Layoffs 🖐🏽
1️⃣ Number One: 🤔 Understand Your Graduation Options 🤔
Gone are the days of graduating university in four years. If you’re in your senior year, you should evaluate the following options (1) Graduate your expected year, (2) Take a semester off, and (3) Take a year-off. It may seem like a large setback, however, before you choose to graduate (especially in this climate), ask yourself these questions -
“Do I have enough experience to be competitive in my job search?”
Be honest with yourself. Do I either have relevant experience or previous experience in the field I want to be in. If you realize that you do not, then possibly an internship or a side project can be a substitute for some shortcomings. When I realized I had a technical gap in my knowledge, I took Udemy courses and made coding projects. With increased talent in the job market, new competition has made it difficult to even just get an interview.
“How valuable is graduating right now?”
Although internal reflection is valuable, gain insight from others on how they feel about this prompt. Personally, when I made the decision to take a year off from school to intern in product, I really feared the idea of being behind relative to my classmates. However, talking to friends and mentors that have done something similar erased the doubt in my mind. If you use the year right, it will go extremely fast, but be immensely valuable.
“How much time do I need to gain the necessary skills for a career transition, can I get it in four months or will it take a year?”
If you choose to take time off, you may only need one semester off or a year off. What you feel most comfortable with may differ depending on various reasons. Drawing on my experiences once again, I only planned to take one semester off, however, I continued to land internships in product management and made a decision to ride the momentum. Regardless, please understand that your decision can be flexible.
2️⃣ Number Two: 📈 Define the New-Grad Landscape and Where Your ROI is Highest 📈
I wish I did this tip more deliberately. Before even applying to a lot of jobs, understand the current macro-environment. I am not saying to predict possible lay-offs, but a beneficial task may be to connect with recruiters and current employees to get better nuggets of information for what may be going on. For example, talking to a friend from Microsoft revealed that their external recruitment efforts for new grads in product management were heavily reduced this year because of the looming recession. Recruitment can be a long process so conserving energy can really help in the long-run!
3️⃣ Number Three: 👯♀️ Join/Create Communities 👯♀️
Community makes hard times easier. During your recruitment journey, it's always great to have someone to lean on, whether it be to mock-interview, talk through your experiences, and meet someone new. In my experience, I relied on Slack Group channels to get updates on interview timeline (ie. If someone got an interview for a company, I would be aware of the timeline). Additionally, there was a great Facebook Messenger group chat where I made a ton of friends from various schools and countries. Without these different forms of support, I do not know where I would be in respect to my APM journey! Don’t underestimate how powerful a great support system is.
Here are some communities you can join to kick-start your support system:
4️⃣ Number Four: ⭐️ Find Unconventional New Grad Jobs to Jump into Product ⭐️
As opposed to the traditional APM program, there is an opportunity to explore other means of becoming a product manager. In the short-term, this may mean applying to entry-level product manager roles for a non-tech based company (eg. Nike, Coca-Cola, Gap) or start-ups. Both routes have pros and cons, however, what is important is that you’ll begin your career in the product space. To find these jobs, one can go on sites such as LinkedIn, AngelList, or Handshake!
A second option, which may take longer to transition into product management, is to find product-adjacent roles and convert later on. Roles that are product-related could be product marketing, product strategy, operations, sales, and software engineering (team dependant). I found this video from one of my favourite PMs Liam Bolling, who talks to a Google PM and his transition from consulting to product management -
5️⃣ Number Five: 🎬 Understand What is in YOUR Control 🎬
This may be the most abstract piece of advice compared to the rest of my tips, but this may have been the most important. I was talking to one of my mentors (shout-out Kyle) about recruiting for full time in product management. I was venting about all the aspects that were going wrong during my recruitment and he showed me a perspective that helped reduce my stress.
“Identify what you can control and do that. Everything else that isn’t in your control doesn’t deserve your energy.”
When I first heard that, I thought it was just something you say to calm someone down. However, after sitting with the advice, I plotted out all the things I can control, (1) Having a resume that reflects my value as an aspiring PM, (2) Meeting new PMs in the community to learn from, (3) Practicing and reading PM concepts to be ready for the opportunity, (4) Being aware of opportunities that I can apply to. I optimized those aspects and everything else that I couldn't control, I tried my best not to stress out about. I will say it’s important to realize that when you make this list to be honest about what you can control. Often times (myself included), we put too much on our shoulders. As much as I’d like to believe otherwise, I do not control economic downturns.
I hope these tips can help in some way. Good luck on your journey, you’ll be exactly where you’re supposed to be.
Resources for Growth 📕
Recent Tech News That Might Interest You
Microsoft launches the new Bing, with ChatGPT built in
Game Boy games make Nintendo Switch Online feel like the ultimate retro subscription
Google’s AI chatbot Bard makes factual error in first demo
On General Product Prep
Try Exponent: A PM website home to questions, company guides, and helps facilitate 1:1 interviews with other aspiring PMs.
Tech Talk for Non-Developers: A course dedicated to demystifying technical concepts for product managers in a more digestible way. (Fun Fact: I did this course and it helped a ton with my first PM job!)
APM List: APM season is here, keep up to date with PM job postings!
Coffee Program and Thank You ☕️
Thank you for taking the time to read this month’s issue! I’ll see you next month :)
Personal thank you to my editors (Cat, Anne, and Lucus) for taking the time to read each issue before it goes out to the amazing readers!
I’m going to go Belgium right now! Feel free to use the scan below to buy yourself some coffee on me at Starbucks. As always, please be respectful as to the amount you’re purchasing <3
Keep the conversation going.
Until next month,
~ Tyler