MERCHANDISER Resume Sample | CV Owl

Things you can do in college/job to become a senior product manager

Product management is a tough nut to crack. Hustle and make your way up in this industry

What is a product manager?

Every company wants their product to succeed in the market and at the same time to be in the best interest of its users. This is where the role of a product manager comes into play.

A product manager works with the cross-functional teams of a company like designers, engineers, analytical teams, financial teams, customer support teams, and marketing people to articulate the success of a product or its blueprint.

Thus, product managers are people who play a pivotal role in the company, especially in technological and IT companies.

They ensure minimal uncertainty and evaluate the risk factors before mass production of a product.

Every decision that a product manager takes during this course will ultimately reflect in the final finished product.

However, the role of a typical product manager is so extensive that oftentimes, people do not have clarity about product management and its outcomes.

This is the reason why candidates do not produce an efficient product manager resume while applying for the same because they are unaware of the vastness of this role.

One of the fundamental reasons behind this vastness is that the arena of duties involving product management varies with the size and type of company as well as the type and stage of the product.

What are the core product manager skills?

Product manager skills include excelling at getting people with different agendas and backgrounds within a company and unifying them with a single vision.

  • Delivering

    • A typical product manager resume caters to the achievement of growth objectives like revenue, market share, profit, and loss, return on investment for the product as well as the categories of customers.

    Thus, one of the important product manager skills is the delivery of the functional plan.

  • Marketing

    • A product manager resume implements effective marketing strategies through proper research, planning, and ultimately a strategic implementation of the ideas and visions.

  • Management

    • An effective product manager resume manages the design, functioning, sample testing, cost, mass production, product durability, and finally the promotion of the desired product in the marketplace.

To sum things up, a prudent strategy, a careful execution, and finally an efficient user understanding is what echoes through the job profile of a product manager.

The indispensable roles of a product manager

In a majority of cases, the crucial roles of a typical product manager resume for the business triumph of a product are :

  • To establish a long-term strategy and vision of the company's products.
  • Act as an intersection point to communicate between the cross-functional teams and stakeholders.
  • Deduce an excellent roadmap for the product that will holistically lead to the product's success.

How to become a product manager?

Oftentimes, candidates with little or no prior work experience in a particular field spend their time in dilemma when it comes to grabbing a job.

The first step towards fetching this diverse role is finding your talents, interests and passion before jumping to any conclusions.

You must keep in mind that although broad, all product manager roles aren't the same and hence, so is the product manager resume catering to each role.

For instance, one company might have a product manager that's primarily focused on the technical side like the UI/UX interface. However, some other company might have a product manager whose duties incline slightly towards the creative and visual side.

Hence, curating an effective product manager resume and finding out the skills and strengths that makes you stand out in the competitive crowd should be your first priority.

  • Manage projects

    • Handling a relevant end-to-end will give you an insight and stimulation in the world of product management.

    You can work on projects that give you a handy experience in marketing, budgeting, coordinating among the team members, and real-time problem solving.

    This can work wonders for you in the recruitment process if added to your product manager resume.

  • Internships

    • Internships are short-term work experiences that students and job-seekers prefer to gain valuable experiences and knowledge in various realms like customer support, human resources, content writing, data entry, app or webpage development, etc.

    Investing your time into those particular internships that emulates the role of a product manager will give you brownie points during the recruitment process.

    Moreover, the newly added skills in your product manager resume through internships will help you glide smoothly past the Applicant Tracking System (ATS).

  • Build a track record

    • Simply doing relevant internships and projects to gain work experience in product management won't suffice.

    Try tackling demanding problems like leading the cross-functional teams, conducting research and surveys are crucial in your quest to become a senior product manager.

    Keep a thorough documentation of the projects that you have managed, experiments performed, etc to add in your product manager resume or your professional Linkedin profile.

  • Make yourself visible

    • These days, a solid digital brand is the demand of the hour.

    You can add to your online visibility by the following:

    • Create a Quora profile.

      • Having an active quora profile and extensively solving a plethora of user's doubts will help you fetch relevant experience for your product manager resume.

    • Create a LinkedIn profile.

      • Creating a LinkedIn profile is a clever way to make a good first impression digitally.

      Having a strong social footprint will enable you to stand out in the crowd and make a name for your business or expertise.

      Since LinkedIn is actively used by recruiters and potential customers from all around the globe, it helps generate traffic and thus, will boost your overall visibility online and your product manager resume.

    • Don't forget your Twitter account

      • Having an active Twitter account and sharing your views, accomplishments and passion will play a major role in making inside connections and networks that will help you and your product manager resume in the long run.

  • Attend meetings and networks

    • Attending the good old-fashioned meetings and social events related to product management will again get you professionally connected with relevant people in the industry.

    You might even end up meeting a product manager recruiter.

    Hence, demonstrating your product manager skills and your product manager resume in front of them will definitely bring you a step closer to your goal.

How to learn skills for a product manager resume

It is also noteworthy that you do not need any specific degree to become a product manager.

However you can definitely acquire the product manager skills for your product manager resume through:

  • Specialized training

    • This is probably the quickest way down the road to become a product manager.

    Formal training to enhance your communication skills, understanding of user interface, data analysis, etc will give you a prior knowledge and a lavish skills section and portfolio for your product manager resume.

  • MBA

    • MBA, also known as "Master of Business Administration" is one of the hotshot degrees that everyone seems to be running after.

    MBA can only provide you with an outstanding degree to state in your product manager resume, but also gives you vision and leadership skills.

    People already doing a job can take up online courses. However, remember that an MBA degree is not all inclusive to get a job as a senior product manager.

  • Learn as a junior

    • Becoming a senior product manager is extremely tough without any prior work experience.

    Hence, your safest and strongest option is to land a job as a junior product manager and eventually work your way up through hands-on experience and skills.

Tips to become a product manager with no experience

  • Do your research

    • This is your initial step to become a senior product manager.

    Do a thorough and extensive research about your company, the product handled, its history, competitors and the audience that you are targeting.

    The more you research, the easier it will become for you to understand the basics and marketing tools.

  • Test the product

    • The best way to represent your product is by trying it yourself.

    It will give you a better representation of your product and a scope of suggested changes for its betterment.

  • Interact with customers

    • The best way to guide the product through its future roadmap is by talking to customers who have been using your product.

    This will make you understand your product value better and enhance it in the long run.

  • Keep a check on your competitors

    • Before taking the interview to become a senior product manager, be sure to track the progress of your product and at the same time, keep yourself updated about your competitors and their products.

    This will highlight your self-awareness about your product and will give you extra points during the job interview.


Jessicka
Career Expert at CV Owl