Transitioning to Product Management

Question

Hello everyone! I've been building my career in software development, but I'm now looking to pivot into product management. I'm curious about the best strategies to make this transition and would love to hear your insights or experiences.

Here are a couple of options I'm considering:

Internal Transfer: I could ask my current employer (where I'm interning) about the possibility of moving into a PM role. However, I've only been with the company for a month, and I'm concerned that it might be too soon to request such a shift. Should I wait a few more months to build more credibility before making the ask?

External Opportunities: Alternatively, I could start applying to PM positions, highlighting my relevant skills and experiences on my resume. Another path might be pursuing an MBA to strengthen my credentials for a product management role.

Which approach do you think would be more effective, or is there another route I should consider? Thanks in advance for your advice!

Bonus question - is there a "Taro" for Product Managers? Where people give advice on career growth, etc.

Rahul Pandey · Accepted Answer

As an intern, I would purely optimize for doing what will give you the best chance of a return offer. There are almost certainly more engineers than product people at your company, especially if you consider that there will be even fewer junior product managers. So from this perspective, I'd stick with engineering for the duration of your internship.

Entry-level PM jobs are difficult to land. Your best bet is to join an APM program like the ones that exist at Google, LinkedIn, or Salesforce. These are quite exclusive and tend to only recruit from top schools.

If you don't get into this, you are clearly doing well as an engineer, so I'd take a job as an engineer at a medium/large tech company. Work there a few years, start to take on more planning/PM work, and then try to do an internal transfer.

I'm skeptical of the MBA path: Is getting an MBA helpful?

I put a bunch of thoughts on switching from Eng to PM here (and why it may be a mistake!): How do I advance from Software Engineering to Product?

Another really good discussion by Alex and Girish (VP of Eng at Chan Zuckerberg): How can an engineer transition to product manager and do you think there is higher potential to reach VP level at PM?

Transitioning to Product Management

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