Beyond the Resume: How Work Products Can Land You Your Dream PM Role

The work product is one of the most effective, yet underutilized ways to get a job.

1. Why you need a work product

Demand for PM jobs is still not the best. Of course, LinkedIn job numbers aren’t reflective of everything, but they’re a crazy signal.

On top of that, supply of good PMs on the market is at nearly all-time highs. The beginning of the year has seen over 86K tech layoffs.

More people than ever are competing for fewer PM jobs. The result is that, to differentiate, you need to do more than just drop your resume and interview well.

2. The 3 types of work products

One size does not fit all. People try to create an industry report and shop it around. That’s like shopping around a blog post. No one cares.

It’s much better to build either:

• ‘Get an Interview’ work product: that’s specific to the job you want
• ‘In process’ work product: that helps you differentiate from others
• ‘Specific interview’ work product: that helps you rectify a mistake

3. How to make a great work product

A PM hiring manager at Meta said something interesting to me this week:

“Honestly, more of them have been a negative signal than a positive one. I got a few that helped me realize someone who I recommended in the interview doesn’t actually write Meta-level documents.”

That’s not good!

How do you avoid actually hurting yourself with the work product?

• Show you can up-level the docs: be short and insightful
• Help the reader learn something: share insights only you have
• Do not regurgitate or framework share: avoid AI till the editing phase

4. Conditions for a work product

Of course, while this strategy works, you don’t want to use it all the time.

You want to use it when:

• You have an idea of someone you can get it to who will actually read it
• It’s a role you care a lot about, enough to do the extra work
• It’s a part of the funnel you aren’t performing well in

If those conditions are met, it’s a great opportunity to build a work product and distinguish yourself.

In this tough market, it should be a key tool in your arsenal.

Looking for examples of these? In this (free, no paywall) deep dive, I share examples of all 3 types.