My God, we product managers can be so boring.
We love to talk about tech, process, and "user value".
All of which we're responsible for.
None of which get us:
- Recognition.
- That job.
- That promotion.
- Better compensation.
When I started as a product manager, I was seen by business people as too technical.
And I had a tough time getting promoted.
And this was after I had been a tech entrepreneur. Go figure.
Over the years, I've found so many product managers, even product leaders, have this same challenge.
The problem, I eventually discovered, is that we need to become better at selling ourselves.
And the key to this is to become a better storyteller - i.e., business storyteller.
If we want to be recognized and advance in our careers, we need to talk beyond the job activities we've done - customer discovery, user research, requirements or stories, prioritization, tech stack, working with design and engineering, etc.
Turns out, no one is really interested in hearing about those.
Of course we've done these things. That's expected. It's our job.
What we need to be able to do is to tell the story of our business impact.
The customer outcomes we helped achieve. The business results we helped deliver. The organizational impact we've had.
And, as product managers, we definitely have had an impact. Whether directly or indirectly, we have.
Take resumes, for example.
I used to write my resume like this:
Skills, jargon, and jobs held. And a LOT of heavy text.
Turns out, this is completely misaligned with how a hiring manager reads a resume.
Having been a hiring manager, I can tell you it takes less than 6 seconds to decide whether to proceed forward with a candidate or not.
Unfair? I used to think so. Then I became a hiring manager and realized the reality of that job.
As hiring managers, we know hiring is super important.
We see 100s of resumes, though. And I can tell you, after a while, they all seem to blur together.
It's the same stuff over and over.
On top of that, we've got so many other priorities to deliver on.
- Teams to manage.
- Stakeholders to manage.
- Deliverables to deliver.
- Our own personal goals, both inside and outside of work. (We're human too.)
This means the hiring manager has a lot more pressure and a lot less time to get through a huge pile of resumes.
So is it any wonder they're going to be a LOT more picky and less willing to give us the benefit of the doubt or read between the lines?
Our resume is our sales page
Think of it as encouraging someone to click your personal "Free Trial" button - the "Free Trial" here being giving you that initial interview.
Your resume has to be crystal clear at showcasing who you are, why you're different, and the impact you can make.
That's why Nils Davis, expert product manager resume coach, and I hosted a live webinar on July 18, called Unlock the Secrets to Resumes That Get Interviews.
In just 60 minutes, we covered so much:
- Why resumes fail and how to avoid these pitfalls.
- Inside the hiring manager's brain - their inner monologue.
- Dangerous vs good resume patterns.
- Format, structure and content of an effective resume.
- What to do about keywords and recruiting systems.
- The new resume rules.
- Before-and-after transformations.
- Lots of examples.
Watch the recording and take the steps to upgrade your resume today.
Access the webinar replay here.
