 So just a little bit about me first. I'm a product school alum from summer 2018 And I'm a product manager right now for software enterprise software at guba-gu a Little bit of day-to-day for me at guba-gu is working on their conversational commerce platform for auto dealerships So we're solely focused on the car industry and our platform advocates all of the communication between customers looking for their vehicles To buy and the dealerships themselves These will include things like live chat on their websites integrations with Facebook marketplace and messenger Apple business chat Google my business email and text It's also a super exciting time for the team at guba-gu and myself Because we're pushing into digital retailing. So really cracking the nut on the entire process for buying cars online But before I had this job I worked in startups including my own and mostly in nebulous roles Touching everything from product to project management and design and coding The PM course at product school was what I used to formalize and improve on a lot of what I was doing already at the time And to help sharpen my presentation and interviews and it absolutely played a key part in helping me get this role here as A product manager at guba-gu. So there's three key things that I did while at product school that I thought really helped And the first thing was having a game plan to make the most of your time at product school So when you go to the product school class You want to make sure it's to actively shape your product school experience to give you your best chance If you want to get a PM job, you want to do more than just come into class and just absorb the information So, you know before the class think about or even write down two to three priorities you wanted to take away from the course and there's so many different Opportunities in the course that you could take away from so, you know ask yourself a couple of questions You know, are you here just for the material? Do you want to connect with like-minded product focused people? Are you looking for practice doing product development cycle work or do you want to practice PM interviews? How much time are you going to spend at product school committing to you know doing the reading and the class work all of these Questions you want to have answers to so you could tailor your time in the class to specifically bridge So the cat gaps that you have getting that PM job For example, you know, if you're getting if you're struggling on getting interviews You can talk to your instructor and you can make connections with your class to find out how your classmates or your instructor Had approached their search and so, you know asking these questions in class are super important It's not just about coming to that class For me for my own experience, you know, it was not a it was about my experience not having been in a large product organization You know, I'd always been in startups and I'd always been the lone product person in those roles so I didn't have a lot of structure to how I Approach product management when I was working in startups and I wanted to focus on connecting with my instructor and my classmates and Asking them about their structure and processes in the jobs that they have now The course covers some of this but you'll get a lot more from actively shaping your interactions And even now, you know, I keep in touch with my classmates We recommend job opportunities to each other and we get together and talk about products all the time and help each other Think about our products. I also keep in touch with my instructor and he's a great resource for challenges I face at work So really know the gaps that you have and have a plan to fill them with before even stepping into your first class And I'll be really helpful This is just a photo of the class that we had you can see that we're all quite happy And you know, we still talk to each other to this day and it's been great the second thing that helped me was product schools focus on Making sure you're playing to your strengths and that means taking your path to PMing one step at a time So during the course they'll teach you to start with what you know and do well already So, you know something with your career job and your company and you're probably already doing Some product work even if you're not a product manager So I know a lot of us do want to change industries when we're changing roles We want to step out and try something new But learning a new industry at the same time as learning product management is going to be an uphill battle Especially in your job interviews So product school can help you understand how you can tailor the work experience You have now to product experience that your company right now or a new company is looking for in a product hire As you learn throughout the class, you know pay attention to where parts of the product management role fit Well with your experience and where it doesn't look for opportunities and job posting where that fit is the strongest and then But be honest with your shortcomings, right? So, you know actively work to overcome whatever gaps you have with the knowledge from the class and it will show through in your interviews My previous work, you know before Google goo was with JP TV and we were an entrepreneurial focused content service We wanted to help educate and open up the world of entrepreneurship and startups to more people and in that class in my product management class There's a project and you and you get to focus on another company maybe in your field and dissect their their company and their product and What I'd worked on was masterclass and some of you guys may know this company They're very similar to what we did with JP TV But they have a much broader mission and because of this project and the analysis I did on the company and their products and also because of the connections that I mentioned I made in the first points a classmate in my class knew the VP of marketing at Masterclass and I was able to actually make it to the final round interviews and masterclass and you know During these interviews they told me that you know from my work on the project and because of my my experience with Draper TV That Mike's assessment of the opportunities in their in their industry and in their products Were exactly what they were going to be working on at that time So, you know just take it one step at a time look for companies similar to your expertise Or look for opportunities in your current team and your current company and help you get ahead much further The last key points and I think the biggest factor to my success with starting a PM job right after product school Was that I was constantly interviewing during the course Now you might not have actual interviews lined up before you start But you can still do mock interviews You can still practice with some PMs or product people that you might know you can also practice with your classmates It's really important to find out firsthand how the interviews work and to connect it with what you're learning in your product school Class doing both at the same time will help you remember and make those connections between the class material and the real deal And since you're in class at the same time as your interviews You can ask your instructors and you can ask your classmates for advice and guidance Before and after every single interview Don't wait until you're not seeing your instructor and your classmates at least once a week So if you're done the class, you're not going to see them anymore it really make a difference to be able to Do those interviews and hone in on some of the gaps that you have right away in class and You know that will end up making you much better as a candidate Yeah for my experience I Mentioned earlier that my instructor and my classmates were a huge resource and getting my foot in the door to get those first interviews During the class I interviewed with five different companies Some of them were in education some of them were not like Google goo and I was able to make it to a couple of the final rounds I was able to impress the team at Google goo because I was able to talk about the work that I had done in product School on my project and all the skills that I learned and I applied it to their products and their challenges at Google goo So things like talking to customers building personas finding opportunities in their products and how to apply data to their Product decisions all of these were skills that I somehow had before that I somewhat had before product school But from taking the course it really gave me the ability to articulate them in a very structured manner and having it So fresh in my mind since I was interviewing at the same time and constantly improving by talking to my instructors and my classmates It really allowed me to apply them on the fly in the interview Which was key to getting my PM role at Google goo and all of you will likely have similar skills that can be transferred over and Product school can help you bridge that gap and make that connection with the PM role So, you know what before I finish up the main key takeaways from this talk if you have Any struggles with getting that PM role or you're trying to think of how product school can help you, right? The first thing is always to have a game plan before taking the course knowing where your gaps are and making sure that when you do take a Course like this that you can you can kind of Shape it to make sure that you get the most impactful information out of it The second key point is to you know look for opportunities in your current role, right? Something that you're already an expert in in your industry in whatever job that you're doing right now And to just apply it a way of product thinking to it and see if there are product opportunities within those Situations that you have day to day and the last thing and the most important thing I think for myself and probably for a lot of you is to interview during that course right to make sure that you're Connecting the course material to the questions you're being asked to interview and to constantly improve your interviewing skills As you aim for that product role and make sure that you know, you're falling up with that right away Don't be afraid of those interviews and applying like my key point about interviewing during the course Start applying now start applying as soon as possible. Don't wait until the moment. You think you're ready, right? It's not about I'm going to take this course. I'm going to have that knowledge and then I'm going to start applying it's about jumping in right away with both feet and actually Experiencing what the interviews are like experiencing what product people and product organizations are thinking and want in a candidate And and then being able to learn those lessons and reapply them with each interview as you go and that will really help you move forward