This blog shares conversations with real people working Product to tease out the common strategies and actionable advice for securing your first PM role and beyond.

From detailing people’s personal transition stories, to asking gatekeepers (recruiters, hiring managers, etc.) how to ensure you get the job, to my own personal experiments in stress-testing the common advice, this blog will be the most comprehensive study in what it takes to get to where you want to go.

Whilst I’ve always loved stories about mavericks - the Arnold Schwarzeneggers of the world who carve their own unique path to greatness with bricks of unerring self-confidence and frankly unbelievable logic (the first step to becoming governor of California? Bench press baby) - my own (numerous) attempts at mixing ambitious goals with obscure methods had not only failed to land me on Joe Rogan, but had failed to keep me in a job.

So there I was, after quitting my job in Australia to move to China to be a line cook in a Shanghainese restaurant… unemployed, twiddling my thumbs, and stuck in Australia because of a pandemic. Things were playing out exactly the way they always did - with little progress and certainly no applause.

That’s when I stumbled across an article by Scott H Young, ‘The Narrow Path to Success’, that hinted at a better (albeit less sexy) approach to ambitious goals;

“Learn the path early and hew to it closely. Ask people who’ve walked it before. Notice what matters to people calling the shots. Be creative in your work, not the path. If you have an idea to pitch - write it into a business plan, not slam poetry.”

Exciting? No. 

Unique? Impossible. 

Effective? Absolutely.

Over the next 2 years, I went from an unemployed former pool boy (see below) to securing my first role in Product Management in a tech startup in London.

Join me as I tease out the most effective and efficient methods for getting your dream job in Product Management.