 You really want to become a product manager. However, you're very busy with your current job and you also have family obligations that may keep you busy. At the same time, the overwhelming information on the internet, you don't know where to focus. What if I tell you that it is very possible you can lend two product manager offers within three weeks, even with your six months pregnant. In this video, my student Somiya is going to share with you her top secret. Hey guys, this is Dr. Nancy Lee, a product manager accelerator from DrNancy.com. I hope people transition from worker B to product manager and business leader. If you want to learn the most effective way to become a product manager, feel free to subscribe to the channel and hit the bell button. So be notified every time I post a new video every Wednesday. Today, I had such a great pleasure to have Somiya with us and I'm so excited waiting to talk to her because she actually landed two product manager offers within three weeks while being six months pregnant. All right, Somiya, all the world is waiting to hear your advice. Do you want to quickly introduce yourself? Sure. Hi, everyone. My name is Somiya, like Dr. Nancy Lee mentioned. I recently took a job at Development Seed as a product owner. But prior to that, within three weeks, I had about 10 companies that I was actively interviewing with and I ended up managing getting two offers within that time span. It was a wonderful experience and I never thought that I would be able to do that. When I started my job search, I was getting a lot of interview opportunities to be an analyst and I knew that that wasn't a journey that was right for me and I really wanted to be a product manager. So I was part of this program and I really learned that there are ways, there are strategies to make it happen and behold, it actually did and I landed my job in less than three weeks. Awesome. How exciting. Awesome. So Somiya, I love how you tell us you had challenges when you start looking for jobs and can only get business analyst type of jobs. Can you tell us how exactly did you become a product manager starting from a business analyst, eventually become a product manager within three weeks. That's actually very, very impressive. So tell us what's your journey to product? Yeah, I would say my role prior to this one was as an analyst. So of course, just the way how LinkedIn and other job algorithms work, they try to tend to give you opportunities that are similar in titles and such. That was one of the key reasons but one of the primary things that I learned was the language itself. I wasn't using a lot of product management languages or keywords but I was using a lot of analytics focused language and I didn't realize that at first. However, it was such a big struggle when back in July, I kept trying, I was applying, I was trying for referrals and whatnot for none of which worked. I kept getting a lot of referrals that went back to an analyst role. Either the referral itself would suggest that or the recruiter would say, you know what, you might be a better fit for an analyst role and I knew that that wasn't the right thing for me. Oh, that's really bad. I think it's hurting confidence, especially really want to do it. Actually, this happened to me as well. When I was the engineer, actually I got a PhD when I started my career years ago. I don't guess how old I am. Then people would say, when I write, want to transition into product management, people say, oh, it's just like Nancy, maybe it's better you stay with your lane because you got a PhD engineer. Oh yeah, everybody asked me to do what you're supposed to do but I know my heart is calling to do something different. So tell us more, what did you do afterwards? Yeah, I would say the very first thing I needed to do was really I wanted to network and connect with people who were in the space, observe their language. There was something that I kind of caught on to that I was probably using a different speak than what it's supposed to be and soon I learned about all these different programs that I might want to be part of and that's how I landed on your program. I saw your program through the YouTube channel itself. So shout out to that but I did see that this was probably the best fit for me of everything that I saw at least and I knew that within seven weeks or seven modules that we have, I was going to get a lot in that short time span and you know, one of the challenge that you kind of touched upon was me being pregnant. So I knew that I didn't have a ton of time personally either and not just that, it's also I didn't want to join a job and immediately go on maternity leave for a while. I wanted to make an impression, add some value to the company and then maybe go on vacation or well it's not vacation right on maternity leave. So I knew that I had to act fast. So I joined the program and I think it was the perfect pace for me. So I joined in August and August and midway through September I finished the course and that's when I knew okay these are the things I need to work on and I focused on those challenges and I reworked my resume which is you know again is part of the program itself. I knew how to speak to people which was very different from how I used to speak so I could see the difference itself myself and then all the different exercises that we did through the programs, the products and questions, those were very new to me like I could see a lot of those questions online yes but how do you answer it in a guided framework in a structured way, in a concise way that was completely different. So as I did that bang on I started getting those interviews right away. That's awesome. So can you give us a quick example of ThinkPeak regarding how you change your language. For example you said before you were talking about experience in A now you use a program learning from which to talk about experience and all of a sudden you get interviewed. Just give us a quick example like before and after. Yeah I'll try my best but I would say that back in the day my keywords used to be all like consulted, analyzed, I used this data and these are the steps I took rather than product which is very focused on the output. So you know you focus on the value, you focus on roadmap. So you're planning, you don't just say plan, you say more of more in terms of the roadmap itself. You talk about prioritization, you talk about strategy, those were things that really called out to me. Those were the reasons why I really wanted to be a product manager but for some reason I was not using them in my language itself. I see. So I knew that that's where I needed to improve on and the program was helpful where you know everything we spoke was kind of along the same lines and I keep emphasizing on the language itself but there's more to it of course. There's the practicality of it, the way you think about product in terms of customers. Back in the day I used to focus on the process rather than you know the end outcome or the primary customer needs. So when I shifted my directions towards those things I felt like the whole world changed for me. Awesome, awesome. Okay so now let's talk about how the whole world changed to you within three weeks. Awesome. So can you share with us how you make it so fast? Let's focus on efficiency. I also recently had a baby. I totally understand not just hey I get job fast is we do not have time right with new babies coming up. I know you're actually at the time six months pregnant now is all your babies almost out. We don't have that much time in the world and also have full-time job to tell us how would you make it so fast and so efficiently and manage your time. One thing I did was as I did the program I just wanted to focus on that. I thought I'll just pause my job search for that span. Yes if I had any inbound interviews or something that's a different thing but that was in my priority and you know as a product manager everything we do is you know ruthlessly prioritize everything kind of set a wild roadmap and then prioritize everything through that. So for me this was a product portfolio in a way so finding a job while I was working full-time and learning the program itself and at the same time managing my pregnancy and just my overall personal life. So it was a lot of different things that I had to juggle through but and I think the biggest struggle was switching between those things and that took on a lot of energy especially being pregnant I felt like I would doze off anytime. So that was definitely something I knew that these were some of the challenges I needed to work with of course more things came up as we went but one thing I did was prioritize right. So I knew that my current job was important and I was very thankful that I was working at that point but I knew that that I couldn't be there long term. So I knew that I could only focus on it enough so I tried to manage my schedules between my current job and my job search itself. Those were the two things or the two buckets I did during the day and in the evening I focused on learning, preparing, networking that kind of thing, manage that with you know my personal life itself. So those were the major buckets I focused on but my primary thing was you know if I want a job I need to act right now. Once I'm further in my pregnancy I know it would be harder to get a job or it wasn't right for me at least I know people can do it and you know kudos to them but it wasn't right for me. So I knew that I had to act super fast so I would effectively not entertain opportunities that I felt weren't right for me. That was the first thing I did. So one of the key things I did was reflect on what was important for me. Is it just another job that had that PM title or is it something beyond that? So for me the strategy, the mission values of a company really matter. So I knew that I wanted to focus on that and you know with that so every single company that I encountered with whether through referrals, whether through inbound LinkedIn opportunities or just job you know job portals and whatnot I would always go back to the company itself try to find how they function their maturity with product management all of those things and then I would see can I see myself working there five years from now. You know of course things change I don't know if I'll work for five years in the company but do I see myself doing that right now or is it already an adjustment? So if I felt like it wasn't right and I did the same exercise after every single interview as well. So once I felt like it wasn't right I would just say that hey you know what this is not going to work out and I would essentially drop that particular opportunity. That way I knew that I had to focus on fewer things. The other thing was scheduling interviews more strategically so that at fewer days to take off from work and focus based on the interviews itself and again I didn't have to do a lot of task switching between you know being an actual employee and focusing on my company needs versus thinking of myself as a job seeker as a potential product manager. So switching between those two switching between an analyst and product manager was huge and I didn't I tried to minimize that as much as I could. Yeah especially you mentioned you need to train yourself to be in the shoes and zone of product managers when you talk to them right and not like one day you're like or an hour ago you're doing business analysts and all of a sudden switch p.m. so it's very hard it's very smart so you just line up all the interviews closer to each other throughout the day and you're in the zone and p.m. and p.m. p.m. yes yes and I would say that through the course itself we had a lot of basic questions that are typically asked and that kind of thing and also other questions and some of the things that I learned that may not even be directly in the question in the question answers itself. I just caught up on few things that were relevant to me or resonated with me I would jot those things down in my in my notepad and then I would say you know what how do I add that to my answers you know when people ask me questions another key thing was I know the program really focuses on not making it an interview where it's like the interviewer asks you a question then you answer it but instead make it more conversational. Yes so I think that was very helpful practicing through all of that was helpful even some of the recorded you know past sessions or recorded sessions that we had I tried to watch them whenever I had any free time instead of watching Netflix I tried to focus on that so because it was only three weeks I I know that I didn't go too crazy with those but yeah between the seven weeks of the actual modules itself and the three weeks that I did my interviews I think I learned a lot and between those four buckets I knew I could manage those. Those are some very impressive I totally love your idea of like let's schedule interviews and shift in the mindset and actually somebody brought this up this series is like it takes a lot of fuel for airplane to take off and then once it's towards the cruising phase takes very little fuel same as how our brain is working so that's why we like to batch all the tasks together but also like you how do you batch all the interviews together and also quickly learning from I just people ask me this question so I mean redo it and make a conversation for the next one that's how you just boom boom boom and now the interviews and getting offers that's amazing. Okay so also remind me this you mentioned that you actually rejected some in companies own purpose not they reject you you reject them that takes lots of walls lots of like like confidence to do it and tell us how you make that decision and what are the reactions when you reject them and are you afraid once you reject them you may not just lend anything. Yeah that's a good one I would say I was very clear with my goals this time at least I was privileged where I did not need to get a job within this time or you know I'll be deported or anything like that I've been in that in the past yeah I should try and be we have laid off only try and be that that's very scary. Yes exactly so thankfully I was not in that position I was working and things like that so I knew that that was in a factor but at the same time that was one of the key reasons that motivated me to reject them where I felt like you know what if I don't do well in this job or what if I just don't feel like doing my best in this job they might end up laying me off or things like that it might just not work and what if I end up in a position where I don't have another job offer lined up and I have to find a new job within 30 days or then I have to leave which was huge for me that was one of the key factors but additionally I also felt it's very important for me to align with their mission with their values I know it's not the same for everyone but that was important for me so I knew that if I don't do that I'll end up back in the job search process again in six months which I hate at this point I would admit I want my my goal was to find a job where I can potentially be there for years and years at least and not have to think about another job application or things like that in the in the near future at least right so that was my primary goal I knew that it wasn't just to find a job in the product space so that's where it was a struggle at first but every single after every single interview with any company I would ask myself do I still see myself working with them how did this wow things like that now between those I would admit there were some companies where I was like you know let's see how things go I wasn't absolutely sure if I wanted to reject them yet there were companies where I knew that you know what this won't fit of course there were companies who rejected me based on the same criteria right so I thought if companies have that leverage I think we should too so I took that ownership and and I would say it took a lot of confidence and I would admit that in the past I've not done that I wish I did but I had that confidence this time I knew that if not this month maybe two months in I might find a job or worst case after the baby comes right so I knew that that was the way I wanted to pursue this but I would say I would admit that I was not 100% scared I had a small fear in the back of my mind where I thought what if I don't land it in the right time right this was the timeline I said for myself which was two months and admittedly I did it much faster than I thought I would so I'm really glad that happened but at the same time I thought you know this is a realistic timeline and I have enough interviews with enough great companies to know that I should be able to work through one of those at least that's very powerful I like your very powerful statement in terms of the company has the power to strike us we should have the same equal among the power to strike them as well I also believe that that they can see that in you as well so your your companies who whoever aligned with the mission might be the one reason they just love you making offers so quickly that's amazing I love this awesome so let's do this we talk about how fast you can offer so let's let's nail the specific what specific strategies you can give others so that they can land the pm job quickly like you right I would say the very first step is that you focus on the company itself whether it's one or 50 companies doesn't matter focus on the company the mission the values and the products that they have really know what they are about the second thing is know your job description very well be thorough with it see what's you know the number one two three things that they've asked in the job description itself focus on those as you answer those questions the third thing is try to know the people around it if you can network you know if it's through a referral even then try to network with more people try to understand what how their role fits in with the company things like that ask a lot of questions have informational interviews if you can if you have the time if not just research online that's the most important thing for I would say which is very important write down your answers practice it if you can practice with a partner that's very huge again shout out to the program because we did a lot of mock interviews we did one-on-ones between my peers so that was helpful people are from different levels but you can still gauge what they get out of your answers because you yourself might think oh my answers are just perfect or you might think my answers are really not good but someone else can give you that perspective and preferably someone who's not you know within your family or friend circle but someone who doesn't necessarily know you so that's always a great way to do it and five really prioritize across companies awesome so I also love to check in regarding the mock interview process right um so how many mock interviews have you done by the way through the program with your peers especially we talk about the efficiency which is we highly focus on how can you use much less time than others really get the result right so how many mock interviews have you have you done with your classmates yeah I would say I did a few of the casual mock ups that were part of the office hours so that would be about six or seven of those but again I was just answering one or two questions through the entire thing but I also did one I just had enough time for one mock interview with one of my peers and I was the funny thing was I was just about to schedule two more with people and I was just talking to them uh they were all excited to do mocks with me and even before that happened I managed this so I knew that I didn't have to do that anymore that's very fast awesome that's impressive so you did us through the office hours mock interview six or seven mock interviews but then you only did one with your peer and then you learned before you even do other mock interviews yes that's amazing that's very impressive I wanted to do more uh but my time schedule was just so crazy it was either it did not work or I did not have enough energy to just do it with others this is awesome I felt I learned so much today by the way when you share your advice to the alumni channel I took screenshot that's amazing thank you so much all right so one last question what do you wish to know before you become a product manager we know you already started your new job you choose this one over the other one so now a real p.m not analysts anymore tell us more um what what do you wish to know before become a p.m yeah I would say uh there's a lot of confusion around what a product manager is so it's important that you do your research to find out what it means for you and what it means in general and what it might mean for a particular company so funny thing is my previous role they call it kind of a product manager role but it is fully an analyst role so you know I wish I knew that before before I took on that role um but yes that's that's the primary thing so in my mind a product manager like I said is focused on the strategy and the strategy execution itself and all the way to development and releasing it into the market so that's my perception of what a product management role is it may not be the same for every single company there are companies that only focus on you know the product managers only focus on strategy there are companies where you focus on the execution so it's important to know engage all of that through your research through your interview process all of those things um additionally I would also say it's important to learn the language so if you can network if you can you know join a program like the PM accelerator or you know but I would also say that I would caution that try not to go through multiple programs focus on one particular dedicate yourself through that because we again don't even have too much time any of us really so focus on that um and you know think of yourself as a product also you know you need to essentially sell yourself so find ways to build that towards your customers that's awesome I love how you apply the product management principles to your life as well you do this again and again doesn't it we can't practice enough so I thought that's the best way to practice very awesome so I you actually mentioned that you look through other programs and only decide to take one program which is our program um can you tell us more why you choose this one and to be honest with you guys this is not rehearsed I didn't even know this will come up tell me more you compare other program why why do you decide to take hours yeah I would say that um I've been through a lot of different youtube channels one of my primary ways to engage the different programs has been through youtube I really like that yours was very contextual where it's not just about you know it's not only interview focus there are so many different things it talks about the journey it was easier for me to connect with the people that you were bringing on your channel things like that additionally as I did the workshop the free workshop that you had I learned that you know it's a fairly shorter cohort so and it was a decently short program it wasn't too short plus the emphasis on case studies and practical exercises rather than just interviews and things like that so it was a good blend for everything that I was looking for and knowing that many of the people in the program itself were more you know like me that was helpful plus I also felt it was a short I mean the cohort was small enough where you know you can connect with every single person in the program itself but at the same time you have a really large alumni base and when I say really large it's subjective right so it was a good size for me so between all of that it was just right for me and I also resonated with your journey through you know being an engineer all the way to how you became a product manager and all of those things and like I said back in one of the questions I want to align to the mission and the values so some of the mission values that you speak about you know like spreading education you know or educating people things like that that was huge for me so I thought this was far better than some of the other programs that I saw. Thank you so much for telling me that yes the educational mission what we do together and I'm glad this is the mission for Los Alamos students who fail the same way as well that means a lot to me thank you so much. Absolutely. Okay great so Somya one last question and how will people get in touch with you if they have any questions from today's interview? Yes you mentioned the program for anybody who's interested in the program feel free to click the link down below and learn more about the program manager accelerator. Yeah the best way to reach me would be LinkedIn I would put a small caution there that if you just send me a request I may not respond I prefer when people just send me an introductory message or something as you try to connect with me so yeah it doesn't have to be an email but just do an introductory statement on what we're trying to achieve through this network and then we're good to go. Awesome yeah this is also what we teach people in the program when you reach out to people on LinkedIn please just do some like bland requests and you have to customize your messages and thank you so much you're actually teaching us so much they think so much it's so valuable okay so all right everybody I I hope this interview is super super informative and awful very insightful for all of you guys to transition into program management and learn your dream job as well thank you very much for joining us and thank you Somya I'm looking forward to see all of you guys next time see you bye bye