Unlike many other types of roles (such as UX, Engineering and others) that went to school to learn specific skills, product managers are increasingly coming from different backgrounds and often without formal product training.
Traditionally, lot of PMs were ex-project managers, ex-techies or ex-designers, but now the talent pool is diversifying. In-fact anyone willing to learn the chops, can aspire to be a product manager. This means more competition both for internal roles in the company, and even more for external candidates applying for a role.
In this Productify issue, we dig into the very first step of applying for a product role - i.e. getting your Resume (one or two pagers) or CV (multi-pagers) ready for the role you want.
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While the lord internet is full of ‘101 ways to fix your product resume’, I want to cut through the bullshit and share modern fundamental rules to follow when creating your product resume to get the job you want.
This is based on my experience being the first filter (shortlisting candidates for first round interview by scanning gazillion resumes) and being the second filter (resume scanned by HR and then chosen candidates passed on to me) - and both these experiences reveal some deep secrets.
I call it ‘the five acts’ to ace your resume for the job you want.
Before that, you should know the robot that scans your resume
Tools like Taleo | Oracle can scan 100s of resumes in seconds and give relevance check i.e. which resumes are close to the job description or skills required. But, as these tools have gotten smarter, HR Managers and/or recruiters can assign more rules and criteria to shortlist resumes.
1. The prefiltering questions
Before even scanning the resume, recruiters can add some filtering criteria, such as “Do you have at-least 2 years of product management experience?” or “Are you a certified scrum master?’. These are typically yes/no questions, but sometimes they could add a range of numbers as a possible criterion “How many of people management experience do you have?”
Each Yes/No or numeric answer can be allocated a weightage and a score. All candidates then get a score as per what they answer.
2. Scoring the Keywords that match the job description
Recruiters can also allocate weightage to which keywords appear in the resume, example with Taleo recruiters could allocate 10 points to a skill (mentioned in resume) that is nice to have, but allocate 20 points to a skill that is must-have (like a strong language requirement)
Not only skills, but also the phrases in your resume could get you selected. You should analyze the job description for skills/phrases/qualifications that are emphasized over and over again.
That brings us to act one.
ACT 1: Bring the flavor of job description into your resume
And let us learn this through an example. Here’s a real job description: Principal Product Manager, Automation Abuse at LinkedIn (I do not get paid to mention this role). Let us slice and dice this now.
We learn that the role reports into a certain product leader and they have mentioned a few things about their team in their profile page:
As you can observe, you already get an idea what the team works upon and you have lot of keywords that you could utilize for your resume: fake accounts, impersonation, threat networks, compromised accounts, account security, payment fraud and more.
…but maybe this is too broad, so let’s keep analyzing the JD first to look for more relevant hints:
You clearly see some key skills and keywords: anti-scraping, anti-automation defenses, GenAI, vision, strategy, roadmaps, cross-functional team management, PRD, communication, risks, opportunities, executive communication
Let us keep analyzing it further:
Keywords and phrases: trust and safety domain, social media, generative AI, cross-functional team management, collaboration, communication, AI/ML, trends understanding, executive communication, 10+ years of product experience
Now, if you were to find common denominators from all of above keyworks and if you really wanted this role, make sure to include these phrases and keywords in some way or form in yoru resume: AI, GenAI, ML, Trust and Safety, Roadmap, Vision, Strategy
At this point, some of you might be thinking that this is almost like gaming the system, is this right thing to do?
That brings us to act number two.
ACT 2: Tell what the hiring managers want to hear
..And not what you want to tell them. Your resume is not your auto-biography, it has a specific purpose. Borrowing some keywords from the job description is only one part of the puzzle, next your resume should speak about your fit for the role.
This is where most of the resumes who try to ‘game the job description’ fail, because ther are not able to demonstrate capability or fit. But how do you do that?
First, find your relevant experience in your work history. Example:
Have you ever worked with GenAI?
Did you work on trust and safety problems?
Did you work with or optimize using AI/ML?
Did you manage cross-functional stakeholders?
Did you present to executives?
Did you create your vision / roadmap?
Did you work on a strategy document or project?
If you have ‘yes’ as an answer to many of the above questions, you should mention those specific successes and outcomes in your resume for sure, they are must-have.
But if you see you do not have majority of the needed ‘relevant experience’, then it may be true that this job is not for you. Do not try to game the resume selection stage, because in interview stage, you will be faced with your deepest monsters.
Now if you see a fit, there are many ways to write relevant experience bullet points, choose a way that allows your hiring managers to do a ‘quick glance’.. which brings us to the next act:
ACT 3: Don’t word vomit, structure it for ‘quick glance’
‘Quick glance’ means that your resume is understandable and digestible even if recruiter had just 10 seconds to look through it. This is where you get into the driver seat - make the hiring manager zoom into parts you want.
Before I give some examples on how to write your successes and outcomes, the lord internet has many ways or tips to write resume bullet points, example:
TAR method (Task-Action-Result)
STAR method (Situation - Task-Action-Result)
STAR WARS method (I am just kidding. Don’t believe everything you see on the internet)
But if you just want one simple take-away point, then write your resume bullet points in a way that they atleast convey:
What you did
To achieve what
Since our job description (in ACT 1) and ‘relevant experience’ (in ACT 2) mention “cross functional teams” and “strategy” as keywords, let us see how to write the resume bullet points related to that:
(What you did) Led cross-functional teams of product managers, designers, and developers to successfully launch multiple enterprise-focused SaaS solutions,(to achieve what) resulting in a 25% increase in customer retention and a 20% increase in revenue
(What you did) Develop and execute product strategies aligned with
Now if I was a hiring manager and I had 10 seconds to go through 10 bullet points like above, I would write them as:
Led cross-functional teams of product managers, designers, and developers to successfully launch multiple enterprise-focused SaaS solutions, resulting in a 25% increase in customer retention and a 20% increase in revenue
Develop and execute product strategies aligned with
,creating a 30% increase in market share and a 15% increase in customer satisfaction
As a rule, you should not bold too much text and make everything seem allimportant. As a thumb rule, you can always bold the metrics and phrases that match keywords (we found in Act 1 and Act 2), but limit the amount of bold keywords and phrases to 30% of the text on the resume.
As a rule, do not exceed number of pages of your resume to more than 2. One page resumes are my favorite - this means the candidate really made sure she’s cutting out the bullshit and just putting the most important stuff in.
While you start writing ‘quick glance’ bullet points as mentioned above, do not fall for the ‘responsbility trap’ - a thing I have seen so often, and that brings us to the next act:
ACT 4: Responsibilities of your previous job is for your mama to hear
..and not for the recruiter. Often many candidates write amazingly well written bullet points that just tell what the responsibility of your previous role was.
Look at this work of art:
Managed the entire product life cycle, from planning to tactical execution, by creating detailed product requirement documents, developing product prototypes, and launching products on time and within budget
You literally just ended up describing what product manager does, or what you did in previous role.
This conveys nothing about ‘outcomes’. Do not fall into ‘responsbility trap’ - instead rewrite all bullet points to mention what you achieved and how. (as shared in ACT 3)
But that’s not all, even some ‘outcome’ oriented bullet points may look too vague that they could go with all product managers of the world:
Implemented Agile and Scrum methodologies to streamline product development processes, producing a 40% reduction in time-to-market and a 20% increase in team productivity
This is good, but too general. Bullet points like these sell in the black market. Don’t buy one.
Now, if all product managers ended up reading this article and ended up with great resumes, don’t worry - world is a fair place. This brings us to the last and final act:
ACT 5: Be human and reach out
If you really want the role, you should start reaching out and network a bit, so that luck is on your side in the job hunting casino:
Reach out to the recruiter
Reach out to the hiring manager
Reach out to someone working in that company or similar role
Reach out to someone who worked there in the past
Once you have applied for the role with a resume that projects your relevant experience in the most optimum manner, then it is generally a good idea to let the recruiter know and the hiring manager know if you have a way to find out who they are.
Let them know you have applied, why you’re interested in the role, and you would love to hear back.
Cover letters are optional but writing them shows extra effort and makes you stand out. Specially for product managers, writing cover letters also show that they are good at written communication, detail-orientation and crafty.
Example of a one-pager resume format:
Below are some elements to include in a one page resume and an example of how it may look like:
Clear and Impactful Summary: Begin with a concise summary that highlights your key strengths, such as strategic thinking, market analysis, and cross-functional collaboration.
Quantify Achievements: Use metrics to quantify your accomplishments. For example, "Increased user engagement by 30% through a feature redesign" or "Managed a $5 million product budget."
Relevant Skills: Highlight skills crucial for product management, including user research, product roadmap development, A/B testing, and stakeholder communication.
Experience Tailoring: Tailor your resume to the specific job you're applying for. Emphasize experiences and skills relevant to the company's products and industry.
Education and Certifications: Include your education background, but focus more on relevant certifications, workshops, or training programs related to product management or industry trends.
Screenshot below shows a good format to follow for one-pager resumes. The red highlighted texts are bad examples of bullet points and others are decently written. Below screenshot is only to demonstrate one-pager format and the content inside it is placeholder (do not copy the content - not recommended), so use your own.
