Dear Product Manager, Nobody Is Looking At Your Resume

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This post is part of the So You Want To Be a Product Manager series. 

Now that you have narrowed down a target list of companies, let’s focus on how to get the attention of the hiring manager.

In a perfect world, you would apply for a job, the hiring manager would review your resume, see that you are the perfect fit, and you would be on your way to landing a great job. But this world is far from perfect.

Instead, when you apply for jobs, more often than not, nobody sees your resume. Or at best, someone glances at your resume for all of 3 seconds. This isn’t your fault. It’s not because you have a bad resume. You can revise your resume all you want. It won’t fix the problem.

The reality is, companies receive far too many resumes for every job listing they post. Larger companies use technology to filter resumes by keywords. Smaller companies use busy people who review resumes in between the nooks and crannies of their regular job duties. In either case, unless you match the job listing exactly and have worked at big-name companies and went to an elite college and you happen to be lucky, guess what? You are going to get passed over.

So what are you supposed to do if you are in sales, account management, design, engineering, or any other non-product manager role and you are looking for your first product position?

You now know that if you could just get someone to look at your portfolio or have a  quick phone call with someone, you could show them that you can do the job. But how do you get your resume moved to the top of the stack so you even have a chance?

There’s only one way.

You need to find an inside connection. You need to find someone who currently works at the company, or knows someone who works at the company, who can refer you to the hiring manager.

I don’t care if it’s your uncle’s, second cousin’s fiancé’s, kid sister. It can be anybody. But it needs to be somebody.

I know. I know. You don’t know anybody. I don’t care. Find somebody. Use LinkedIn. It’s perfect for this. Where did people work in the past? Where did they go to school? What groups are they a part of? Odds are, you know someone who knows someone who works there. Find that someone.

I know it can be a lot of work. But the reality is, this is how people find jobs. In today’s job environment, it’s the only way people find jobs. And if you are trying to switch into a new role, it’s even more critical.

Now while any referral will do, some referrals are better than others.

First, while a referral from anyone within the company will do, it’s best to find a connection to the hiring manager. The closer you can get to the hiring manager the better. 

Similarly, if an engineer tells me another engineer is great, that’s going to hold more weight than if my office manager tells me an engineer is great. That’s not a knock against my office manager. It just means an engineer is more likely to know if another engineer is good or not.

And as a career switcher, a product manager is going to be more likely to know if you can do the job, than someone in another role. So if you can, find another product manager who can refer you. It doesn’t have to be a product manager at the company. It just needs to be a product manager who knows the hiring manager.

Finally, it’s even better if the person referring you has worked with you in the past. It’s one thing if someone can say, “I was in a fraternity with this person, he’s a good guy, you should look at his resume.” It’s another thing entirely, if they can say, “I worked with this person and I’d love to work with him again.”

But remember, while some referrals are better than others, any referral is far and away better than no referral. So don’t get too caught up on finding the perfect person. Do the best you can and make sure someone is advocating on your behalf.

Now you might ask, why don’t I just contact the hiring manager myself on Linkedin?

There are a couple of reasons why this isn’t going to work in most cases.

First, anyone can do this and lots of people do do this. So it doesn’t make you stand out. 

Second, in most cases, the hiring manager wants someone else to handle incoming resumes – a recruiter in a large company, an office manager in a smaller company. If this is the case, your message is going to look like spam. That’s a bad thing.

Third, everyone thinks they are great. You are far better off having someone else say you are great to the hiring manager than you saying it yourself. 

So do the work. Find an inside connection. And when you get the interview, knock it out of the park.

Have you found a job through a referral? Have other tips for how to get the hiring manager’s attention? Please share in the comments.

This post is part of the So You Want To Be a Product Manager series.