Top 10 most-asked questions - from consulting to product management [Part 1]
If you are currently a management consultant and have been thinking about pivoting to PM but not sure where to start - this is the first article you should read!
Over the past 6 months, I have been in the two sides of the table of product management recruiting. I was reached out by folks who wanted to transition to product managers (from various backgrounds) during my PM externship at Cresta. In the meantime, as I was exploring PM full time opportunities, I connected with peers and seniors who got into the industry for their advice on career pivot.
I decided to summarize this list of Top 10 Questions because really these were the things that I had most questions about during my recruiting and also were the top questions asked by folks who reached out to me.
This question list is written mostly tailored to a pivot from management consulting to product management - based on my personal experience. I highly recommend reading them as this is the key takeaways from conversations with more than 50 product managers across industry verticals and product types.
Note - some of the answers may feel too straightforward or sometimes discouraging. I don't intentionally make it overwhelming. It is a pure reflection of the current market condition - but l believe, every problem will have a solution, and that’s why you should start reading now.
Question 1: Is it still possible to pivot to a product manager from a management consultant in the current market?
Answer:
“In the current market” is the keyword, because if you asked people 3 years ago during the tech boom, you’d see so many ex-MBBs got hired by big techs as PMs directly, or lateraled from strategy & operations roles to PMs internally. However, as the tech market continues to shrink - unfortunately over the last 2 years, while we are seeing some small signs of recovery - the transition is not as easy and straightforward as it used to be.
First of all, tech companies reduced PM headcounts due to limited budget and simplified product lines. Big techs conducted a couple of rounds of layoffs and reorganizations to improve spend efficiency recently; as a result, not only will those teams hire fewer PMs, those more experienced PMs have become available in the market, making competition even more fierce.
Second, consultants may not be favored by tech employers as their future PMs (don’t worry, some other employers think differently.) Consultants sometimes are perceived as strategic thinkers who can only do high level blueprinting, and never care to learn the technical details. These biases (sometimes are true) have created strong barriers for consultants to pass the initial resume screening.
Third, the internal lateral path has also gotten tougher. Due to headcount reduction, internal transfer is taking longer. My LinkedIn friend shared there was only one PM spot for internal transfer and literally hundreds of people applied.
As I said, these facts are not here to discourage you - the point I want to bring about is that it is more difficult to transition directly from consultants to PMs now, with reasons behind. However, I have networked with consultants who pivoted to PM in their second year in consulting to a well-known APM program only recently and got selected as one out of ten from thousands of applicants; I’ve also seen one lady (also an ex-MBBer) joined a startup as a PM from growth stage investing (tech focused), by grasping opportunities in her strong network. It is still possible, but you need a bit of luck and patience at this moment.
Question 2: What consultant profiles / experiences do tech companies prefer?
Answer:
Now, I want to further deep dive into consultant profiles that tech companies prefer, aka what should be highlighted in your consulting to PM resume.
For those who have been on tech related projects - product management, pricing, go-to-market, product strategy, business strategy, problem diagnostics, GenAI strategy, implementation, or even IT transformation - it is helpful to highlight and elaborate these projects from a product perspective. Project type preference ranking below:
Tier 1: product management: most consulting firms have a product management function that helps develop tools for internal and external client uses. This is essentially a PM role (albeit not in a tech company) that requires very similar skill sets and showcases your ability to work with different stakeholders.
Tier 2: product strategy, GenAI strategy, go-to-market: These responsibilities may fall under the scope of a PM depending on the company size and type. Highlight user research / interview, market study and gtm impact, which may resonate with hiring teams
Tier 3: others listed above: These are not directly related to tech PM, but still demonstrates your familiarity with tech industry, which is a must-have in the current market
For those who don’t have any prior tech case experience - if you have worked on personal tech projects, led tech startups (could be as early as demo stage), listing those experiences would give you extra bonus. What if I don’t have any tech related background or experience? First, I suggest you ask yourself… why I want to be a PM, without any relevant experience? Is it to follow the crowd? Or because of things other people have shared with me? If you’ve made up your mind this is the right path, the first step is to gain relevant tech experience, whether it is through a side project, or joining a tech focused case, or transitioning to an internal PM group, etc.
Question 3: How long is the recruiting timeline on average?
Answer:
Recruiting timeline varies from person to person, because of all the uncertainty factors we talked about earlier, with luck being the biggest one…
If you happen to know a close friend’s company is hiring a PM, and you are fully prepared for the PM interview, it is very likely this is a one-month effort. It occurred to me once when I knew my former case team member who led the PM team had a headcount on their team. They were interested in having me join but it didn't happen due to other logistic reasons.
A more reasonable timeline should be somewhere around 3-9 months, to find a PM or strategy and/or operations role. Unless you are absolutely not interested in strategy & operations, I encourage you to put eggs in different baskets. This is because there’s almost no guarantee in finding a PM job without prior experience currently. Landing a strategy / ops role as a steppingstone is still a decent alternative.
Question 4: Do all PM roles require prior PM experience?
Answer:
The ultimate chicken and egg problem…All my PM friends told me, getting your first PM job is the most difficult, as you need to break the cycle.
There are two types of entry level PM positions - associate PM (some would call rotational PM), regular PM
APM/TPM usually requires some form of prior PM experience - could be through internship, school project, not requiring in a formal job setting; for folks who only join consulting in less than 2 years, this could be a good program. However, only a small set of big tech companies offer APM programs, and because they welcome candidates from any field to apply, the offer ratio is probably even lower than consulting.
Regular PM positions do require some years of experience as PM (or adjacent positions). Some consulting friendly tech firms will count consulting YOE as relevant experience, while others don’t. More business focused product groups tend to value consulting background more compared to technical projects (e.g., search optimization). There is no easy yes / no. The more you research and talk to insiders, the more you know how to play the game.
Question 5: What other roles I should try, if breaking into PM isn’t as straightforward?
Answer:
Strategy, Operations, Product Marketing, Customer Success, Data Science, Chief of Staff…
Depending on your case experience, prior work and education experience, the above functions could take you to PM possibly (no guarantee though)
Rule of thumb - the more closely this function collaborates with PM, the higher the chance the lateral transfer becomes.
Product Strategy, Product Marketing, Product Operations, Customer Success, and Data Science (product focused) work closely with customers, internal product team, and other stakeholders to design / deliver / market products. Usually they have a high visibility of product priority.
Business Strategy, Business Operations, on the other hand, are more high-level business oriented and may not need to collaborate with product teams directly. Lateral may take longer time and more effort
Chief of Staff in startups usually wear multiple hats. Be careful about what scope of responsibility you’ll take - whether it is admin / recruiting, or customer voice, or product management. As long as the scope is somewhat related to the product, it is easier to specialize in PM later.
Finally, a call out in internal transfer. Like companies that would prefer or avoid consultants, there are companies that have more flexible internal transfer policies than others. When networking with insiders, feel free to ask about the internal transfer policy and that will guide you on the overall application strategy.
In the next article, I’ll cover topics on networking, types of PM roles, similarities and differences between consulting and product management. Stay tuned!
P.S. Please comment below on any recommended topics for the next article!