A Non-tech product manager’s guide to enter IT industry

Let’s listen to some music while we read this, shall we?

Can I become a PM without an engineering degree?

Let’s start with the difficult one right away… So, Yes, you can become a PM with whatever degree you have. I did my bachelors in commerce honours from Christ University, BLR. With nowhere near written a code in my life.

Can I become a PM with no PM experience?

Difficult, but definitely possible! I worked in a sales job where I had to cover 80 to 100 calls to strangers to sell some one-time tax product. Though it could be difficult if you plan to switch after being stuck at a mainstream job for the past 3 to 5 years. Hence, decide early!

Now an important question, how?

How do I make it to PM role without having either an engineering degree or a job profile?

Begin with a close door discussion with yourself. “Am I looking to get this job because my friend does it. Because it’s high paying, or I really like what a PM does” . This will help you to stop fooling yourself.

Now, let’s assume you’re the latter kind.

• Start with a plan — Don’t just copy a resume and start applying on LinkedIn. Think what kind of companies would like to hire you for the PM role, even if it slightly relates to your current role. For example, you work in finance, your chances of getting into a financial product company would be higher. Compared to you trying to get into a data product company.
• Say “No” before you apply — Get the market correct. MNCs need great experience, degrees, MBAs and what not. Reject them. The chances are you’ll waste your time applying to these. Or being stuck at a very junior level. Startups, yes! However, be cautious if they are really providing a PM role or a generalist role.

How to approach for jobs?

• Build Product Dissections for companies — The great part of being a PM is being product driven. Head over to ProductHunt or AngelList, find good startups and visit their websites. >80% chance is that they will have a free sandbox environment. Create a product dissection doc. Talk about their features, what could be better, why, what effort it will require, competitors products, scale of industry, everything!
• Reach out to founders directly — Finding emails of startup founders are pretty easy tbh. Send the product dissection doc you created as an attachment. Create a kick-ass email content on how having you can help them go 10x and achieve the mission they have with the company.
• Interview — Your advantage compared to other candidates with PM role is that you have nothing to lose. Be 120% more confident. Listen to some Metallica before you enter the call. Talk about problems, and not solution. You don’t want to talk like the mediocre PMs who keep blabbering about the best solution for a feature. Rather, talk about why a feature is required in the first place, what problem it could solve for the users and how you validated that this feature is actually required. Solution is for the great designers and engineers you will work with.

Difficult question to be prepared for:

How would you work with engineers if you don’t know how they write code? — You don’t need to. You have to be clear on defining problem statement to them and help them with the timeline of delivery. Although, good to have the info about how APIs work, what type of task is time taking vs what will require dependencies with other teams, etc. Know that you are the orchestrator of the team.

Must haves:

• Great communication skill
• Great problem solver
• Good team player
• Knowing what a product cycle looks like
• Being Proactive and not a Reactive product person.

Good to have:

• Analytics mindset — Most PM won’t have it, but knowing the required analytics events after shipping your product will blow minds of your interviewers.
• Knowing how engineers work — Is my engineer dependant on designer? Is my engineer facing logic problem or implementation problem?
• Any engagement of your interest in PM — Could be social media, seminars, etc.

I will end this with a story…

How did I get into a product company as a PM?

I never wanted a finance job even though I studied from one of the great colleges in India studying finance. I wanted to do marketing, but never got a chance due to no experience. To stay in Bangalore, I took a job in ClearTax as an inside sales representative. I hated it. I wasn’t an extroverted person and used to get stressed out making so many calls.

Luck got me one day. I was helping one of the cold callers to setup business in India. The help was by selling a product that ClearTax had. The deal didn’t go to become a revenue. But after 9 months, I got a text over LinkedIn, asking if I’d like to join his company. I couldn’t say no! It was an operations role and not a PM role. Post joining, I started showing interest in building a great UI and understanding the market better. It was a 21 y/o boy just working ass off to make a great product. Soon after, the transition started happening.

I survived 1.5 years there before moving to a mid scale product company with great customers. This was the real deal. There were other PMs along with me. I struggled bad at first. But, did what I liked the most — Solving problem and build processes. Later on this again..

If I could do it, you most definitely can.