If you’re looking to transition into product management, there’s good news and bad news.
The good news is that tech companies are continuing to hire product managers at a solid rate, and it doesn’t look like that’s going to change any time soon.
The bad news is that getting into product management is extremely competitive, especially if you want to end up at one of the FAANG companies.
To complicate things further, there is an overload of information online about how to become a product manager (PM), and not all of it is accurate.
To cut through the noise, we looked at the DATA. We analyzed the career trajectories of 150 PMs currently at Meta, Google, and Amazon, and we found that they had all followed one of FOUR distinct paths into product management.
Below, we’ll reveal which path is the most common (and which is the hardest) and the next steps you can take.
1. About product management
2. Transitioning into product management: The 4 paths
3. Can an MBA help you get into product management?
4. Do you need a technical degree to become a PM?
5. Do you need a PM certification to be a product manager?
6. Common role transitions to product manager
7. How to optimize your resume for product management
8. We can help you get a product management job in big tech
Get inside advice from a FAANG product manager coach
1. About Product Management↑
If you’re considering transitioning into product management, you probably already know what a PM does, so feel free to skip straight to section two.
1.1 What is product management?
Product management is the process of guiding a product's lifecycle from concept to launch and beyond. It involves defining the product's vision, aligning it with business goals, and ensuring it meets customer needs. Product managers often act as the bridge between technical teams, stakeholders, and users to deliver successful products.
1.2 What do product managers do?
You could say, a bit of everything. Product managers are responsible for setting the product strategy, gathering and prioritizing requirements, and working with engineering, design, and marketing teams to build and launch the product. They monitor performance, gather user feedback, and continuously improve the product.
When asked what they like about their jobs, the PMs we talk to often cite enjoying the flexibility and variety of their role, solving ambiguous problems, collaborating with different types of people, and the high degree of ownership they're often given. Not to mention the great salary and growth opportunities.
1.3 What skills do you need to be a PM?
To be a successful product manager, you need a mix of strategy, design, engineering, marketing, and data skills. But equally important are soft skills like leadership, the ability to influence teams without direct authority, communication skills to work with diverse stakeholders, and organizational skills to manage complex projects—especially in agile environments.
2. Transitioning into product management: 4 possible paths↑
We did some painstaking research on LinkedIn to find out the most common paths to becoming a PM.
We analyzed the career trajectory of 150 product managers currently working in the USA at Meta, Google, and Amazon. How did they land their very first product manager position?
The data showed 4 clear paths:
- Changed company and switched to PM at the same time (42%)
- Moved into PM internally (28%)
- Got hired as a PM directly after MBA or other postgrad studies (23%)
- Got hired as a PM directly after undergrad studies with no prior professional experience (7%)
Let’s look further into each path so that you can work out which one you should follow.
Path #1 Change company and switch to PM at the same time (42%)
The most common route into product management is to gain work experience in another role, and then transition to a PM role at another company.
Among the 150 FAANG product managers we analyzed, 63 followed this path.
Some were working in a “product-adjacent” role such as product analyst or program manager, but many were software engineers, or working outside tech in industries like consulting or finance.
You might assume that to transition from non-PM to PM, you’d need to make a backward move in terms of employer.
But as our data shows, that’s not necessarily the case. We saw that plenty of prestigious corporations are willing to accept candidates without product management experience.
In fact, of the 63 people who moved into product management by changing companies, 18 (28%) of them landed jobs at Google, Meta, or Amazon, despite not having prior PM experience.
So, while FAANG job descriptions tend to stipulate 3+ years of product management experience, you CAN get in without it, especially if you have relevant experience at a well-known company.
For more help on breaking into FAANG, read how to get into big tech companies.
Path #2 Move into product management internally (28%)
If you work at a company that has product managers, getting an internal move is a great way into product management.
28% of the product managers we sampled got into their first PM role via an internal move.
Some of them made the internal move to PM when they were already at Google, Meta, or Amazon. Others made the internal switch at a previous company (e.g. Autodesk, Bird, Thumbtack).
And the good news is, they did it from a wide variety of roles and areas::
- Engineer (25%)
- Software engineer
- Analytics engineer
- QA team
- Product architect
- Business intelligence engineer
- Geological software expert
- Program manager (23%)
- Business and operations (17%)
- Business analyst
- Business operations associate
- Finance analyst
- Finance manager
- Marketing (14%)
- Product marketing manager
- Marketing associate
- Marketing analyst
- Brand specialist
- Growth & analytics
- Design (7%)
- Interaction designer
- Product designer
- Product design strategist
- Other (14%)
- Category manager
- City launcher
- Customer insights manager
- Founder
- In-stock manager
- Implementation analyst
What can we take away from this data? That you don’t need to be in a product-adjacent role to make an internal switch to PM. Product management is a generalist position so your current role likely has some relevance to it.
If you have the chance to make an internal switch, take it. This article on internally transitioning to PM has some useful advice.
If there aren’t any product managers at your current company (and they’re not willing to create a position for you), you’ve got a choice to make: do you apply for a PM role somewhere else (Path 1) or boost your resume by doing an MBA or other postgraduate studies?
Path #3 Get hired as a PM directly after MBA or other postgrad studies (23%)
Doing an MBA or other postgraduate course can be a very effective route into product management - 23% of the product managers we analyzed took this route.
Most of these were people who studied at elite business schools in the United States such as Harvard Business School, Carnegie Mellion, and Duke Fuqua.
The large majority of this dataset did a product management internship during their MBA/postgrad course, often at a top company like Google. They were able to convert this into a permanent PM role or land a PM role elsewhere when they finished.
Given that many tech companies offer MBA internships and have close links with the top schools, Path 3 can be a very effective (albeit expensive) route into product management.
We’ll look at the MBA route in more detail in section 3 below.
Path #4 Get hired as a PM directly after undergrad studies with no prior professional experience (7%)
If you’re at the start of your career, you might be hoping to jump straight into product management.
Our data shows that it IS possible…but you’ll probably need to start in a temporary role.
Of the 150 FAANG PMs we analyzed, 10 landed product manager roles directly from their undergraduate studies.
Almost all of these were product management internships or rotational/associate programs at big tech companies (Meta, Microsoft, etc.)
This shows that a PM internship or rotational position can be a very effective route into product management if you’re fresh from graduating.
Big tech companies have a ‘jobs for grads’ page that you can apply through if you’re a recent graduate or still a student.
Also, check out our guides to the Google APM program and the Meta RPM program. These are very well paid. Therefore they're not just for people at the beginning of their careers, but also for those who want to transition to PM from another role.
These programs are highly competitive, but you can find plenty of other tech companies with APM programs. This site lets you stay up to date with APM application openings and deadlines across a lot of the main tech companies.
3. Can an MBA help you get into product management?↑
We explained in Path 3 that 23% of the PMs we analyzed got their first PM job directly after an MBA or another postgrad.
Zooming out, we found that 35% of our PMs received an MBA at some point in their career. That’s a lot when you consider that only 8% of the US population holds a master's degree of any sort.
An MBA from a reputable business school is a strong signal that the candidate is highly capable and highly motivated. Plus, the links between many of the top business schools and Silicon Valley are extremely close.
So MBAs not only teach candidates skills that are highly relevant to product management but also give them access to a valuable network of opportunities. You can even interview for product management student programs directly from campus.
With this in mind, perhaps it’s not surprising that business schools are the number one source of new hires for Amazon (interestingly, our data shows that Meta is less keen on hiring MBA students, probably due to the success of its RPM program that targets undergrads)
However, top business schools are extremely costly, in terms of time and money. Spending those two years doing impactful, “real-world” work could look just as impressive, or more so, on your resume.
After all, 35% of PMs sampled did not hold an MBA or any other postgraduate degree. So it’s by no means essential.
4. Do you need a technical degree to be a product manager?↑
Our research shows that holding a technical degree is not essential if you want to become a product manager, but it will be a great help.
64% of the FAANG product managers we researched graduated with a technical degree. Most were computer science or engineering-related.
You can see why companies like seeing applicants with technical degrees. Product managers need to be able to collaborate closely with the engineering team and understand occasionally complex technical problems.
However, companies vary in how much they value technical degrees. For Google, having technical backgrounds is considered very important, whereas Meta tends to be more relaxed about this.
Our data backs this up.
Percentage of PMs who hold a technical degree by company:
- Google: 74%
- Amazon: 66%
- Meta: 50%
5. Do you need a PM certification to be a product manager?↑
No, you don’t need a product management certification to get into product management, whatever role you’re transitioning from. Only 13% of the product managers listed any type of product manager certification on their LinkedIn profiles.
However, that’s not to say it can’t help. Product manager courses, certifications, and boot camps can be a useful way to fill in knowledge and skills gaps. Investing your time in these things will also help you discover whether the day-to-day of product management is actually for you.
6. Common role transitions to product manager↑
You can transition into product management from pretty much any role, but our data showed a few particularly popular transitions. Let’s take a look in more detail.
6.1 Engineering to product management
Of the product managers we analyzed, 11% were engineers before transitioning to PM.
This isn’t surprising, as moving from engineering to product management can be quite a natural shift, especially if you’re already familiar with how products are built. Product managers need to communicate effectively with engineering teams, and your technical background allows you to speak their language, anticipate roadblocks, and find practical solutions faster. You’re also likely skilled at problem-solving and thinking critically, which are key traits for product management.
However, soft skills like communication, leadership, and decision-making become more critical, as you'll be influencing teams you may not have direct authority over.
6.2 Consulting to product management
10% of the product managers we sampled started as consultants, making it one of the most common transitions there is. Most of these had done MBAs.
As a consultant, you're already adept at analyzing business problems, gathering insights, and recommending actionable solutions, which aligns closely with the skills required in a PM role. Product management involves similar responsibilities, like defining a product strategy, prioritizing features, and aligning the product vision with business objectives.
Many of the product manager career coaches on our platform started as consultants, and would love to help you make the transition (you can filter by consulting firm in the ‘company’ drop-down menu).
6.3 Finance to product management
Shifting from finance to product management is not as common as consulting but is still a relatively well-trodden path. 4% of the PMs in our dataset were in finance before turning PM.
A background in financial analysis, data-driven decision-making, and risk management can be extremely valuable in a PM role. Product managers are often tasked with making critical decisions based on market data, user feedback, and business metrics, and your ability to interpret complex financial information will come in very useful here.
Your experience in budgeting, forecasting, and understanding key performance indicators (KPIs) will also be highly transferable.
7. How to optimize your resume for product management↑
If you’re going to start applying for product manager roles, you’ll need to craft a resume that demonstrates the relevant skills.
Let’s take a look at the most important product manager skills that you should try to demonstrate on your resume. We’ve split them up into hard and soft skills.
7.1 Technical ("hard") skills
Product development follows a standard life cycle:
- Identifying and planning a product opportunity
- Designing the product
- Building it
- Launching it to market
- Assessing its success to be able to iterate
Product management recruiters will be looking for candidates who demonstrate skills relevant to these five life cycle phases. Of course, if you’ve never held a PM role, it might be hard to demonstrate many of these, but you should be able to cover some of them if you present your experience in the right way.
- Engineering skills are extremely valuable on a PM resume. List any computer science or coding experience, even if minor. Having worked with engineering teams in the past is also great to mention.
- Strategy skills show that you can think big-picture: set a vision, identify market opportunities, and make decisions that drive long-term success.
- Data analytics skills demonstrate that you’ll be able to track key performance metrics, assess product success, and identify areas for improvement based on real user behavior.
- Design skills will help you allow you to ensure the product offers a great user experience (UX) and meets customer expectations visually and functionally.
- Digital marketing skills are valuable because they enable you to understand how to position a product, target the right audience, and craft a go-to-market strategy is key to driving user adoption and product awareness.
7.2 Soft skills
You’ll also need excellent soft skills - and unlike the hard skills, there’s no excuse for not covering all of these.
The three most important are:
- Leadership skills, to influence without authority and rally your team around a common goal and plan. It’s therefore essential that you highlight any experience where you’ve led or managed groups of people. If you are at the beginning of your career this can include university clubs, sports teams, or any side projects.
- Communication skills needed to interface with multiple stakeholders: engineers, designers, senior management, etc. This means that your recruiter will pay very close attention to how you have communicated your skills and experience. A resume is a disguised communication exercise - treat it like one!
- Organization skills to organize and prioritize the work of your team. Mention any experience you've had in delivering complex projects involving multiple stakeholders.
Remember, while some of the technical skills may not apply to the role you’re targeting, the soft skills are essential for every product manager's resume.
For more help on writing your resume, plus a template and real examples, see our product manager resume guide or book a session with a product management resume coach.
8. We can help you become a PM at a big tech company↑
Navigating your path toward that product management job becomes a lot easier when you’ve picked the brains of someone on the inside.
We work with hundreds of coaches who were once in your position. They know what it takes to break into product management and how to make it into top companies like Google, Meta, and Amazon.
Browse the 100+ product manager coaches on our platform, book a coaching session with them, and learn exactly what you need to do to put yourself in the position of getting product management interviews and offers.
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