How to Craft a Product Management Resume Without Previous Experience: Part 2

In Part 1 of our resume series, we talked about how to find your personal brand. It's almost impossible to create a great resume without knowing what makes you unique. Once you've looked through your work history and asked what you're proud of, you are likely to see that you do have previous Product Management experience, it just wasn't called this.

Now let's talk about how to show off your brand and experience in your resume. Here are the top recommendations for crafting a Product Management resume that will land you interviews

Create a Product Management Portfolio

I know we are talking about resumes here, but one of the most important things you can do to show people your skills and experience is to create a portfolio. This portfolio needs to be linked on your resume and your LinkedIn.

People don't want to be told what you've done. They want to SEE what you've done. You know the old saying "seeing is believing"? Well, the same goes for resumes. We can say that worked on a product, or we can show the product, what it looks like, how it functioned. We can say that we are experts at something, or we can write blogs to SHOW that we are experts.

So this is #1. And it doesn't have to be difficult. Just a few screenshots of anything you've worked on with a brief description of what the problem was, what you did, and what the results were will suffice.

Here’s an example from my portfolio that landed me a Product Management job after working in marketing. I spent 3 hours on this and it landed me my dream job! Don't overthink it.

I included the 3 projects I was most proud of from my marketing career and made a quick portfolio in wix. Very few people have portfolios, so if you have one you will instantly stand out.

Treat Your Product Management Resume Like Your Product Packaging

Product Managers are expected to build products that sell. Your resume and online brand are the first indications of your ability to sell products. After all, if you can't sell or market your skills, how are you expected to sell and market a product?

So give yourself the Product Management treatment and show off in your resume! This means no more boring bullet points. Tell a story and make it appealing. There are many ways to do this:

Use an Appealing Template

The use of AI and Applicant Tracking Systems has made resumes look and read the same. To "beat the ATS" folks are using easily machine-readable formats and boring bullet points packed with keywords. This style of resume is important, but we cannot forget that many jobs are filled through networking and that a human makes the final call of who to hire.

So we need a balanced approach. By using appealing templates from websites like Canva, and running our resumes through ATS testers, we can create resumes that are appealing to humans and machines. Or we can have two versions - one to get through screening and one to show to humans. We recommend starting humans first, machines second. Some examples of these resumes can be seen here.

Describe Context and Results

We have been trained to create resumes with bullet points like the ones below:

• Supervised project delivery from initiation to completion, guaranteeing adherence to timelines, budgets, risk management, and quality standards.

• Managed project workflow between team members and delivery departments.

• Defined and documented business requirements and business processes.

After reading these bullet points, what do you know about this person's experience and what they brought to their company? It definitely sounds like they are a Project Manager and are trying to manage timelines and budget. But what was the result of this effort? Who was impacted? These buzzwords may help this person pass an applicant tracking system, but what about the person reading this? It's so generic and sanitized to the point where we don't really have any idea of the impact this person had.

Image: Nicholas highlighted results in his resume and landed a Product Management job in education.

Instead, bring the context back into your resume. To do this, try using the Google bullet point format: Accomplished [X] as measured by [Y], by doing [Z].

Accomplished [X] as measured by [Y] can even be combined into one. Let's look at an example. Instead of "Managed project workflow between team members and delivery departments" the bullet point may be "Reduced wasted development spend by 30% by creating project workflows between development teams and users." This still isn't perfect, but it has much more context than before! And it speaks to RESULTS.

So for every bullet point or role that you are describing, ask yourself what the result were. If you don't know what it was, try to find out! If the results were part of a team effort, own it! No results are achieved by a single person.

It's also great to provide context about the company you worked for. Who do they serve? What do they specialize in? This helps the reader visualize what you did. Here's a example below.

Image: This person provided context about the company they worked for. In 3 bullet points, we know this person made a big impact!

Show Don't Tell

Similar to the portfolio, provide links to anything you can! Have a link to a company's website? Add it to your resume! Have a blog a website or portfolio? Link it! Awards received? Newsletters written? Press releases? Link them all!!

Including links shows that you are credible and provides even more context to the work you did. It's one thing to write down that you worked for a company that built 4000 houses in developing nations. It's a whole other to link to this company and allow your resume reader to SEE this work.

Lead on LinkedIn

Now that you have your beautiful resume with clear and impactful bullet points, take these stories and experiences and share them on your LinkedIn. Make sure you have a welcoming image, an about line that uniquely describes your brand, and similar bullet points in each experience to your resume.

Image: Our recent graduate Rubesh honed his LinkedIn and landed a Product Marketing role with Userful!

Also start posting and interacting on LinkedIn. Many of our students have posted weekly blogs or contributed to LinkedIn articles. You don't have to be an expert in anything yet! Even sharing your observations, articles you found interesting, or images of events you've attended can show people that you are an interesting and credible person.

And remember your bio? Add it to your LinkedIn! It's the perfect spot to tell people more about yourself. Your resume has limited space, but LinkedIn allows you to tell more stories, share more experiences, and create your brand.

Bring it All Together

If you follow all of the advice in this blog series, you will be well on your way to landing your dream Product Management job. But resumes, portfolios, and LinkedIn presence won't help if you don't know the basics of Product Management.

So if you want to fast-track your pivot into Product Management, check out our programs!

Become a Product Manager: The Tacit Edge Advantage in Training and Education

Ready to take the next step in your product management career? Explore Tacit Edge's product management training & certification programs!

Our programs give you everything you need to become a product manager, including skill development, your first product job, networking opportunities, career support, and an industry-recognized micro-credential. Everyone should be able to build great products. Let’s fast-track your journey to success together!