 Do you feel like you are disadvantaged because of no product management experience? Do you also feel like you can become a product manager because you have technical background and you didn't go to grade school? If the answer is yes to any of the questions above, I have a solution for you. Today we're going to share with you guys how do we use the best strategy to become a product manager and lend entry level AP and product manager offer. Let's get started. Hey guys, this is Dr. Nancy Lee, director product from DrNancyD.com. I help people transition from worker B to a product manager and business leader. In this video, we had such a great pleasure to invite Genesis to join us to share her experience about how did she become an APM within eight weeks with no product management experience. And if you like this video, please make sure to smash the like button and hit the subscription button. And on top of that, if you want to learn the most effective way to become a product manager, please make sure subscribe. And so that every week you will be notified when I post a new video every Wednesday. All right, Genesis, do you want to quickly introduce yourself? And by the way, congratulations on your offer. Just tell us more about who you are. Yeah, quick introduction. Hi, my name is Genesis. I'm a recent University of Virginia graduate. I got my bachelor's in math and outside of school. I had a two years of experience as a medical interpreter. I wanted to combine my analytical experience from my math degree and my customer empathy from interpreting into becoming a product manager. Before I was before I joined Nancy's PM program, I had no product management experience. And luckily, I was able not necessarily luckily, but luckily, I was able to land a PM offer in eight weeks with Nancy's help. Thank you. Thank you so much for joining us. So Genesis, something very interesting about your background is that you mentioned you have interpreters experience, but you have no PM experience. I think lots of people watching this video right now, the one to learn the secret behind the scenes, how exactly you make it happen. Can you tell us how did you become an APM? And how do you nail those offers? Yes, so I would say the first thing I did, the kind of an order, really I started doing the cases and the biggest resource for me or biggest help for me to do those cases was I watched your channel and joining the PM Accelerator program really helped me with the different resources and lessons helped me really nail down how to do an interview and also putting myself out there. So networking, going to career fairs, all those things combined really helped me land offers. Besides using those resources, can you also share with you guys how you conquer the challenges of someone who is a fresh graduate? I think you are going to graduate, haven't graduated yet, right? Who is fresh graduate with no experience, because lots of you guys, I know, do not have PM experience. How will you even like elaborate this to interviewer and also comfort the fear that you don't have it? I think the biggest issue is tailoring the resume towards PM if you have no PM experience prior to, you know, when I first learned about Prodigy, I was so nervous because I didn't know how I was going to make my resume look any past the keywords or the different machine things that they put the resumes through. So I was very nervous about that. But I was with some time, creativity, and help. I was able to turn my experiences and really describe them with the PM keywords and really pick out the different skills that I would need as a product manager. And I think the resume really helped kickstart my job search. Awesome. So for everybody who wants to learn the PM keywords, feel free to check out those video on top and there's another PM sample resume template and you guys can download as well. I'll put the link up there. Yeah. So actually the first video that I saw of yours was the video for the keywords and I downloaded before I was even in the program. I downloaded the PM keywords and that helped me kind of start thinking about it. And then once I got into the program, I was able to fully flesh out my resume. Awesome. So besides resume, what are the suggestions you have for them, especially for people fresh graduate and no PM experience? The 30 second elevator pitch is really huge because there are so many people, recruiters, and hiring managers talk to so many different people and people with a lot more experience, honestly, or people that may even have better backgrounds, better education, more, you know, second degrees, like I'm getting my bachelor's degree for a lot of these 8pm roles. I was competing with people with MBAs from very prestigious schools. And so I think not only tailoring your 30 second elevator pitch to what hiring managers for PM jobs are looking for, but also practicing it. So not only, you know, going to career fairs for target cities that you have, but also going to career fairs of cities that you may not necessarily be thinking about moving to, but really practicing talking to different people and getting comfortable, really selling your value to these companies. Awesome. Can you let people know what career free did you go to? Yeah, so the two career fairs that I have been to are Women Hack and Hacker X and I actually got the offer for the job that I'm starting in a month at Women Hack. So Genesis, can you also share with everybody how long have you been trying to become an 8pm? Because we all know becoming 8pm is a less than 1% of chance that you can actually get in. So how long have you tried? So what specific timing strategy you recommend others to do besides what you said, the networking and 30 seconds elevator pitch and resume? Yeah, so I actually saw a lot of, depending on when you find out about product management. So a lot of people, they always say like people fall into product management when they like discover it. So for me personally, I didn't find out about it in my third year where I could have done an internship. So for me, I actually started in my senior year, my last year of college, but for a lot of people, you know, you may be able to start earlier, maybe, you know, to apply to those rotational product manager programs or those associate product manager programs in the fall or even in January, I found myself really interested in product management already in like March, really early March. And then I, you know, I was doing a lot of research and I started actually watching your videos near the end of March. And that's when I joined the PM accelerator program. So now by the end of March, and I was graduating in May, that's when I would that's the small timeline that I had to find a job. That's a squeeze, for sure. So and something that was really concerning to me too, once I realized like, oh, I missed the internship before my fourth year, I missed the application for RPM and APM programs in the fall, I missed the January round. Now the golden season typically for PM jobs that are even more senior than what I was even trying to get where it's like March and April. And already at the end of March, like I felt like I was in a very big time crunch. But I was able to find that women hack event that I mentioned previously, it was April 29. So it was like at the very end of April. And thankfully, it worked out for me. So awesome. Great, great. So the message to everybody is that, yes, timing is important. And you do need to hit the timing if you apply for APM RPM program. However, if you're towards the end of the recruiting season, and you can target at relative like smaller company, because their timeframe might be like a little bit longer than bigger companies. But I know Genesis, your company is also a still public public trading company, right? Yeah, so it's a smaller company that had was acquired by a much larger company. And the reason why the APM role came to be is because of expansion. So they're expanding their product department. So I would say a product team. So I would say a really big opportunity for APMs or aspiring APMs who missed the typical maybe fang cycles or whatever is to find those companies that are expanding because when there's need, there's need and it might not coincide with the traditional fall or January or March, you know, when they need more people, they need more people. Great. Genesis, I also noticed that your background actually you do not go to the Harvard MIT or get a computer science degree. Do you have any specific advice to people like you who wasn't like Ivy League, but still want to break into product management? Yes, I would say for those who especially don't have a large technical background or go to one of those top tier schools, investing in yourself is super important. So as a college student, you know, it might seem unimaginable to join any program, you know, on top of your existing school work. And, you know, the cost and everything like it might seem like, oh my gosh, like that's too much or that's like too much work. But really thinking about it as an investment for my future self, like what would Genesis six months from now like want me to have done? I would not I can say it very honestly, I would not have gotten this job if I would not have enrolled in this program. And what seems like a very, you know, drastic solution in the beginning, it turned out to work. It turned out to be one of the best decisions I would have made for my career. Because even after getting the offer with Nancy's negotiation help, I was able to pay back the tuition of the accelerated course, and I have some extra as well for, you know, relocation and things of that nature. So I think that really investing yourself at any age is important, but especially if you're someone who may not have the the right, you know, PM background, technical background or coming from those really bigger schools that might help you get further in the entry process. Yeah, thank you Genesis for sharing this. And I do see this, the mindset of investing in yourself is very critical for young people like you guys. I'm just being very frank with you guys and to be honest, and investing yourself is always generating at least 10 times of the return of anything I have done. I wish I wish I work as hard as you guys knowing this concept. Like the first thing I came out of college is take a program to help me to accelerate my career to be honest, I did it way later. I believe you guys will do very well, especially so young, you just had a jumpstart compared to everyone else. Congratulations. And Genesis, another question I have for you guys is, how do you prepare for put a sense and put a case interview is very difficult and very challenging. So what's your strategy to nail those case interviews? And by the way, on top of that Genesis also did a mock interview with all of you guys, and you can check out the video right here and she did a fantastic job for the Facebook Product Manager interview questions. I would say the main and the most important thing is to understand what the framework is and to practice. So watching videos of people doing the mock interviews and then doing them and getting feedback from other people who have more experience. It could be people who are at the same level as you but ideally you would want a feedback from people who are experienced in the industry and already RPMs to really give you that necessary feedback to push you to the top and really do well in your interviews. Awesome. Great. Cool. How many cases have practiced by the way? I don't know. Honestly, I don't know how many I personally done compared to how many I've been a part of because as part of the program, we do them kind of as a group. So I wouldn't be able to, I would count those honestly as cases that I've practiced because I've still done them. So as far as including the ones I've done with the program in my own personal case work, I would say at least 20. I mean, I think that's a good number especially since I started so late, so recently. Awesome. Any last minute message you want to deliver to the audience today, Genesis? If you have any questions about maybe being a Nancy's PM Accelerator course or if you're an aspiring APM like I was just three months ago, please don't hesitate to reach out to me on LinkedIn. My name is Genesis Smith. You can look me up and you can either message me. We can connect there and really talk about if this accelerator program would be right for you. Great. Cool. I like that. You're so genuine. And for everybody who wants to reach out to Genesis, feel free to reach out to her on LinkedIn. If you guys are interested in the PM Accelerator program, please take a look at the description down below as well. All right. Looking forward to seeing you guys. See you guys. Bye. Bye.