It is a visitor publish from our PMHQ Advisor, Fernando Delgado.
Context
I labored at Google for five+ years, the place I interviewed over 150 PM candidates. I then labored at Yahoo for 3 years, the place I interviewed over 100 PM candidates. At Yahoo, I used to be a member of the hiring committee for two years and co-founded the APM program. So the observations under primarily apply to these 2 corporations and the Product Supervisor position.
Once you apply for a job at a tech firm, you formally enter their recruiting pipeline. That pipeline has numerous filters that reduce down the of candidates at each step. At a excessive degree, the method might appear like this:
- receives resume
- Recruiter calls candidate
- 1 or 2 cellphone interviews (will be in-person campus interviews for school college students)
- 3 to six in-person interviews
- Supply is prolonged
Word: sometimes, there are exceptions to those steps. For example, if a candidate has a proposal from a competitor with a decent deadline, the corporate might select to skip step 3 altogether.
Step 1: Making use of
As soon as the corporate receives your resume, they work out whether or not your background is a match to the position(s) you utilized to. A part of this occurs algorithmically and a part of it occurs through people.
Algorithmically implies that software program ranks candidates primarily based on sure key phrases that seem (or don’t seem) on their resumes. After this has occurred, recruiters, PMs and/or hiring managers will have a look at high matches. Most individuals with a stable resume get a cellphone interview.
Tip: each time potential, apply to an organization through their worker referral program. This will increase your odds of getting a cellphone name considerably. Most likely 2x-5x extra at corporations plenty of individuals apply to. When you don’t know anybody on the firm, see if a pal of a pal works there, and get an intro.
It could be a good suggestion to shine up in your abilities or undergo a product supervisor bootcamp to hone your abilities.
Step 2: Preliminary Cellphone Name
Some individuals mistake this primary cellphone dialog for an interview. In truth, typically it’s skipped altogether. So it’s at all times a good suggestion to ask your recruiter who the primary cellphone name is with – a member of the HR division, or a PM/hiring supervisor.
This step just isn’t meant to filter out candidates, though it will probably occur in excessive circumstances – e.g. if you happen to’re tremendous impolite to the recruiter, or it’s found that you just lied in your resume. Greater than something, this step is aimed toward explaining the remainder of the method to the candidate, in addition to for the corporate to collect intel which can be necessary for later steps. For instance, present wage, desired compensation bundle, how senior the candidate actually is, and so on.
Step 3: Comply with-up Cellphone Interviews
That is the place the enjoyable begins. You can be requested to do 1 or 2 cellphone interviews (perhaps over video chat). Questions for PMs will fall into one of many following classes:
- Behavioral
- Technical
- Analytical
- Product sense
- Technique
When you do exceptionally effectively on the primary cellphone interview, you may be requested to attend a half or full day of in-person interviews. When you do poorly, the corporate will cease the method there. When you do alright, however not like a rockstar, they’ll schedule a 2nd cellphone interview.
Typically, the 2nd individual interviewing you hasn’t spoken to the first interviewer. This implies there’s at all times an opportunity you get repeat questions. Don’t fear about that – it’s not your fault. If the query may be very particular, then be happy to say to the interviewer that another person already requested the query, however that you just’re blissful to reply it once more.
Tip: it’s extremely advisable to spend just a few hours getting ready for these interviews. Even the most effective PMs I do know need to spend a while getting ready good anecdotes, realized, product concepts earlier than they the interview course of.
Step 4: Closing Rounds
This step is similar to step 3, besides it occurs in individual, and there are sometimes at the very least 4 interviews in a single day.
Most corporations will give you lunch with certainly one of their PMs. This isn’t meant to be a proper interview, however somewhat a time so that you can loosen up and ask as many questions as you might have concerning the firm. Except you screw up massive time throughout lunch, this dialog will truly not depend in the direction of your interview scores.
Some corporations will inform you that you’ve 2-3 interviews earlier than lunch and that you might have an additional 1-2 after lunch. When a candidate just isn’t doing effectively within the first couple of interviews, their afternoon classes get canceled to keep away from losing time. So if you happen to’re on this scenario, it’s at all times a great signal to have the afternoon interviews.
Tip: use the whiteboard each time it is sensible. Pull out your smartphone or pill everytime you wish to present a particular product to the interviewer.
Step 5: Analysis
By now, you’ve in all probability had a complete of 4-6 interviews. Everybody you noticed has submitted detailed interview suggestions. The hiring supervisor and/or hiring committee will check out your entire bundle: your resume, your interview scores, and the detailed suggestions from the interview panel.
As a rule, the choice of whether or not to increase a proposal to a candidate takes lower than 5 minutes of dialogue. On some events, the method can change into extra difficult – the hiring committee might wish to get extra info from one of many interviewers. Typically, the hiring committee feels that an necessary space was not totally examined, and they should schedule another interview.
Scoring:
At most tech corporations, every member of the interview panel will submit written suggestions to the hiring committee and/or hiring supervisor. This suggestions will normally include a numerical rating, a abstract, checklist of strengths, and areas for enchancment.
What the scores imply:
4.0: one of many high individuals I’ve ever interviewed in my profession. I’m ready to combat for this individual with my CEO.
3.5: a really sturdy candidate. We must always positively rent this individual and I might actually get pleasure from working with them.
3.0: this individual is an effective candidate. I consider we must always rent them, however will be satisfied in any other case.
2.5: good interviewers will usually steer clear of this rating, because it’s a synonym for “I don’t have a powerful opinion a method or one other, so I principally wasted my and the candidate’s time”.
2.0: this individual just isn’t totally certified to be a PM. Nonetheless, I will be satisfied in any other case if different individuals noticed stable potential.
1.5 and under: I strongly consider this individual shouldn’t be employed. I’m ready to justify my choice in entrance of the hiring committee.
Since most tech corporations will do a set of 4+ interviews, you’ll get a median rating from all of the interviews. The common of those interviews have to be over 3.0 so as so that you can have a great likelihood of getting a proposal. For example, the next units of scores would doubtless get a proposal:
- 4.0, 3.5, 3.0, 2.0
- 3.5, 3.5, 3.0, 3.0
- 4.0, 4.0, 3.5, 1.5
The next scores are in dangerous territory and may go a method or one other:
- 4.0, 3.0, 2.0, 1.0
- 4.0, 4.0, 1.0, 1.0
- 3.0, 3.0, 3.0, 3.0 – nobody was blown away, so why hassle?
The next units of scores doubtless gained’t produce a proposal:
- 4.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0
- 3.0, 3.0, 2.0, 2.0
Remember that whereas this course of appears democratic, scoring excessive with probably the most senior people is an effective consequence, even when the interviews with junior people didn’t go too effectively. Senior PMs (i.e. Administrators and above) typically have extra and affect over a hiring committee’s choice.
Concerning the visitor writer: This was a visitor publish contributed by Fernando Delgado, Advisor to Product HQ and former Senior Director of Product Administration at the place he co-founded and led ‘s Affiliate Product Supervisor program. He has interviewed over 300+ product managers in his profession at Google & Yahoo .
