Preparing Your Resume
Tips for Developing Content
Resume Strategy Checklist
- Numbers are universal - Driving $80M of incremental revenue or 100K new monthly active users is easy and quick to understand impact. Quantify everything you can.
- Show your impact - Be the catalyst. Write in terms of what you've specifically accomplished, not what your task was. Use "I led" not "I was responsible for."
- Less is more - Stick to one page. Blaise Pascal famously wrote: "I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time." Take the time to be concise so every word adds value.
- Unconventional experience works - Don't limit yourself. If you created an open-source project, then explain why you built it. If you ran online ads for your neighbor's small business, then show the business value of it. Passion projects are one of the highest ROI investments an aspiring PM can pursue.
- Build honest credibility - Avoid buzzwords. Showing how a seemingly-unrelated experience can be applied to a PM role builds a story. Authenticity matters.
Reflect As You Draft Your Resume
Product Passion & Preferences
1. What products are you most excited by? Why?
- Is there a pattern among these products (e.g., sector, B2B vs B2C, company mission, company values)?
- What features or experiences stand out to you as exceptional?
- How do these products solve real user problems?
Self-Assessment
2. In your past experiences, what are your strengths?
- What are the experiences that gave you the most energy?
- What are the experiences that drained you?
- What patterns emerge when you think about when you're at your best?
PM Responsibilities Alignment
3. Which elements of product management are you most excited about?
- Which responsibilities would fall into your ideal day at work?
- Customer research? Feature prioritization? Cross-functional leadership? Data analysis?
- What aspects make you lose track of time?
Skills Inventory
4. Which skills of a product manager do you feel like you've excelled at in the past?
- Which skills do you need or hope to learn?
- Where do you have concrete examples and metrics?
- What transferable skills from your previous experience apply?
Experience Translation
5. What are some past experiences that you've had that might translate into a product management role?
- How have you led without authority?
- When have you balanced stakeholder needs?
- What data-driven decisions have you made?
- How have you advocated for users/customers?