0:00 hi I'm Alex founder of product career
0:02 accelerator and an exg gooogle group pm
0:04 today we're talking about how to write a
0:05 PM resume that actually gets you call
0:08 backs and this is point number one you
0:10 got to change your mindset from I'm
0:12 trying to get a job with this resume to
0:13 I'm just trying to get callbacks from an
0:15 interview your resume is only there to
0:17 do one thing and that's get the
0:18 attention of the recruiter or the hiring
0:20 manager so everything that you do with
0:22 your resume has to be tailored to that
0:24 one goal which is to maximize the
0:26 chances that someone will actually look
0:28 at your resume and decide to call you
0:29 back which brings us to point number two
0:31 know your audience and make it easy
0:33 whenever you're working on your resume
0:35 you're always trying to imagine it from
0:36 the perspective of the hiring manager or
0:38 the recruiter most of the time if you're
0:40 dealing with big companies it's going to
0:42 be recruiters and recruiters are just
0:44 trying to optimize for matching the
0:45 elements in the job description so they
0:48 usually have three four or five things
0:50 that they're trying to optimize for that
0:52 the hiring manager gave them about the
0:53 job description they may or may not even
0:55 always fully understand exactly what
0:57 these are the hiring manager said uh try
1:00 to bring me someone with regulatory and
1:01 compliance background they may not
1:03 really think a whole lot about what that
1:05 actually is and just try to match to the
1:07 text they're going to try to look at
1:09 exactly that or something extremely
1:11 similar so just simplify their life and
1:13 really try to make it easy for them to
1:15 give you a call back focus on their
1:16 needs and not yours this brings us to
1:19 point number three which is brevity
1:22 again your audience is either a
1:24 recruiter or a hiring manager they get
1:26 dozens or hundreds of resumés every day
1:27 and no one has time to read all that
1:30 rums are always scanned and not read
1:32 because of that I usually recommend to
1:34 make the resume as short as possible
1:35 usually one page or no more than two
1:37 pages if you've got more than 10 years
1:38 experience and optimize it for the
1:41 perspective of top down scanning that is
1:43 to say you should spend the most time
1:44 optimizing the top portion of your
1:46 resume to give the recruiter who's going
1:47 to realistically spend 7 to 10 seconds
1:50 on your resume the best chance to
1:51 actually notice something that they can
1:52 grab on to right away Point number four
1:55 make it clear simple formatting no fancy
1:58 flashy anything make it super readable
2:00 legible font only bold a few things that
2:02 are relevant to the job description
2:04 again your job with the resume is to
2:06 allow the recruiter or hiring manager to
2:07 scan your resume effectively so just
2:09 make it easy for them don't create super
2:12 long bullet points that no one's going
2:13 to read two three line bullet points if
2:15 your bullet doesn't get red it doesn't
2:17 really contribute anything to your
2:18 resume I'm sure you got a lot of
2:20 interesting and important details you
2:21 want to share you want to explain all
2:23 the Nuance but unfortunately it doesn't
2:25 actually increase the likelihood that
2:26 you're going to get a call back so just
2:28 focus on that that means some details
2:30 you're going to have to Omit and just
2:32 kind of keep it at a high level focus on
2:34 the impact get rid of all those half a
2:36 page summaries three line explanations
2:38 about your educations and GPA and how
2:40 you got a black belt in karate all those
2:42 fun things you can talk about when you
2:43 actually get a call back once again
2:45 resume is only about the call back
2:46 nothing else inside product career sare
2:49 we use a simple template that you can
2:50 find below it's like one of the first
2:52 things that we're going to go right
2:53 after your onboarding call is we're
2:55 going to go through the resume with a
2:56 fine- tooth comb make sure that
2:57 everything's optimized for callbacks and
2:59 we tend to use use the most simple
3:01 format that just has your contact info
3:03 on top one or two lines of your biggest
3:05 hits like 6 years experience at Google
3:07 or this company Tesla this many clients
3:09 on boarded and so on whatever expertise
3:12 or vertical that you've got then below
3:14 that your job experiences with three to
3:16 seven bullet points per job you can have
3:18 fewer and fewer bullets for each
3:19 successive jobs and finish off with
3:21 education and that's pretty much it and
3:24 quick note on education Awards
3:26 coursework I'm sure by now you can guess
3:28 what I'm going to say keep it brief just
3:30 keep it all in one line no need to
3:31 mention GPA if you've been out of school
3:33 for a couple of years already and are
3:34 working no need to mention years of
3:36 attendance just
3:38 NYU BS in business or Berkeley Ms in
3:40 engineering or whatever you've got if
3:42 you've earned awards that make sure that
3:44 they actually make sense and sound
3:46 impressive recruiter would want to know
3:48 how many of these awards are given per
3:49 unit of time and then how many people
3:51 actually get that award as an example we
3:53 have a client at PCA who got something
3:54 like a double Sigma award for Innovation
3:57 and that really doesn't tell to too much
4:00 information no one outside that company
4:02 would actually know what that even is
4:03 instead if you say you're one of 5,000
4:06 people over 2 years who got this award
4:08 then suddenly that becomes quite
4:09 impressive so don't forget put your best
4:12 foot forward which brings us to point
4:14 number five anchors these are elements
4:17 that raise your perceived standing or
4:19 Prestige with the reader and this goes
4:21 hand inand with keeping things brief and
4:22 clear just put the most important most
4:24 eye-catching elements of your experience
4:26 or expertise in your resume in the past
4:29 this might have been your fancy college
4:30 name and that still carries some weight
4:32 also but if you're applying for product
4:34 management roles in tech companies and
4:36 the big tech companies then the biggest
4:38 proxy or statement of value is going to
4:39 be other companies other big companies
4:41 and institutions that you've worked for
4:43 after that is going to be impact dollars
4:45 number of users growth team size and
4:47 after that it might be specific areas of
4:49 expertise or verticals or environments
4:51 in which you've been successful and of
4:53 course recognizable companies are better
4:54 than non-recognizable companies big
4:56 numbers are better than small numbers
4:57 lots of different types of impact might
4:59 be better than just one but at the end
5:01 of the day just use what you've got if
5:03 you've been working for some time just
5:04 try to put the most recognizable
5:05 elements of the things that you've done
5:07 or the things that you've accomplished
5:09 and bring that to the top next number
5:11 six customize but don't rewrite your
5:13 resume when applying to jobs fully again
5:16 let's remind ourselves what we're trying
5:17 to do we're trying to get call backs
5:19 from a recruiter who needs to find
5:20 someone with a specific skill set which
5:22 means our resume should ideally include
5:25 some of the elements that are listed in
5:26 the job description but often times the
5:28 product job description tend to be
5:30 generic they don't list any remarkable
5:31 detail they just sort of go over common
5:33 product management stuff you got to do
5:34 stakeholder management leadership
5:36 alignment strategy Vision
5:38 Etc so when you see those job
5:40 descriptions don't try to optimize for
5:41 20 of those generic things that they say
5:43 there instead look for little hints such
5:45 as bonus points if you're on an
5:47 advertising team in the past or
5:48 preferred qualifications must no sequel
5:50 or if those things are missing try to
5:52 pick three four five elements that are
5:54 less generic and really stand out to you
5:56 or you can highlight and match from your
5:58 own experience those are the actual
6:01 elements on the hiring manager list and
6:03 you've got to do your best to find them
6:05 and put them on the top of your resume
6:07 number seven geography we'll go over the
6:09 best locations for product management
6:11 jobs in a separate video but needless to
6:13 say these are primary Tech hubs like San
6:15 Francisco Bay area or Seattle in terms
6:18 of resumés if you're trying to apply for
6:19 jobs in a different location and if
6:21 you're truly committed to moving from
6:22 where you live over there just put the
6:24 goo of where the job is located or where
6:26 you're headed or just leave it blank if
6:28 you live in Arizona trying to move to
6:30 California just put California because
6:31 again we're trying to make it easy for
6:33 the recruiter and hiring manager to call
6:34 you back any negative signals are a
6:36 chance that they're going to reject or
6:38 pass over the resume so just make it
6:40 easy for them to call you back lastly
6:42 number eight which seems like a
6:43 no-brainer but it comes up enough that
6:44 it needs to be said make sure the role
6:46 you're applying for is actually at the
6:48 top of your resume if you're trying to
6:50 go for senior product manager your
6:51 resume should say at the top senior
6:53 product manager if you're applying for a
6:55 product management role but you also
6:56 have a background in program management
6:58 just say product management don't let
7:00 the recruiter hiring manager sit there
7:01 and try to figure out okay 10 years of
7:03 this experience did they mean that it's
7:05 10 years means 5 years in product 5
7:06 years in program no you're a product
7:08 manager trying to land a product
7:09 management job just say it and before we
7:13 close out here I want to set some
7:15 expectations at PCA we always take a
7:17 pragmatic approach and setting
7:18 expectations is important and
7:20 unfortunately if you don't have
7:22 recognizable names if you don't have any
7:23 significant impact behind your belt and
7:26 if your top third of the resume is not
7:28 strong and not calibrated to the job
7:29 description you can expect to get very
7:31 few call backs less than 1% often the
7:33 stronger your resume the more perceived
7:35 Prestige and job alignment you can show
7:37 you can go from 3 to 5 to 7 even 10%
7:40 call backs one of our clients had 15%
7:42 call backs since her background is all
7:44 big Tech and she has some experiences
7:45 with AI which is all the rage right now
7:47 so she has a very very high call back
7:49 rate this is not to discourage you just
7:51 to set expectations to let you know to
7:53 prepare with a marathon mindset we're
7:55 going to talk more about that in our
7:56 next video where we will cover applying
7:58 for jobs and Network working since
8:00 resume is just the first piece of the
8:01 puzzle see you there good luck
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