5 ways to become a product manager when making a career change

Beyond commanding an impressive salary—Glassdoor, for example, currently lists the income range for a product manager in the United States between $121,000 and $204,000 a year—the job offers ample opportunities to lead, innovate, and get involved in revolutionary tech.

If that sounds exciting to you, here’s how to break into product management—with or without previous experience.

1. Identify your transferable skills

Like many types of career pivots, the switch to product management doesn’t require starting from scratch. In fact, your unique background and expertise can be an asset for tech teams.

“When I was a fundraiser, I was the person that was looking at ZIP codes, seeing which of them best performed,” says Tami Reiss, a coach for product managers who’s worked in the field of product management for almost 20 years. “I was the one who was AB testing, calling scripts for cold calling to see how we could have a better conversion rate, and things like that. I didn’t know that was product management or related to product management, but it was.”

Another example of seemingly unrelated experience being relevant to product management is customer service. “You understand the customer, you understand their problems, you know how to advocate for the customer,” she adds.

Even roles completely out of left field come with transferable skills that appeal to hiring managers. Andrew Breen, a professor of technology product management at NYU Stern School of Business, loves to see anthropologists move into product management because they’re highly attuned to human behavior and how it can be influenced through products.

The point is, rather than scrap what you know, find ways to market it in your job search. Breen is a fan of the objective or summary statement at the top of your resume to draw recruiters to your sales pitch. “Tell me who you are and what you are,” he says. “Because that’s at least a good early leading indicator of, can you communicate effectively and convince me of something in two to three sentences?” 

Both Reiss and Breen also emphasized the importance of using action verbs on your resume to showcase not just what you did but the business impact you had.

Consider, too, how your management skills can be of value and also supercharge your climb up the product management ladder. “If you’re a head nurse of a ward, that’s management skills and project management skills that will be helpful for a group PM or a director of product,” Reiss says. “You might still have to start at the individual contributor level, but you don’t necessarily have to stay there for five years the way somebody fresh out of college would.”

2. Fill in skills gaps with courses, bootcamps, or certifications 

Of course, just because you bring diverse skills to the table doesn’t mean you can become a product manager without any training. While knowing how to code isn’t a requirement for many product management jobs, Reiss says you do have to be “technically literate,” which means you understand how technology is built, functions, and is used.

If you can’t afford the time and money to go back to school full-time for a program, bootcamps or online courses are great options for getting exposure to key skills and systems in product management, as well as building a portfolio to showcase to employers.

While an advanced degree in product management isn’t a prerequisite for the job for those who are making a significant career change, upskilling through a bootcamp or similar program helps. “Having one of these certifications is an objective way of saying, ‘I invested my time and energy in learning the core fundamentals of product management, which means I’m not starting at zero,’” Reiss says.

Reiss recommends exploring LinkedIn Learning or Cole Mercer’s product management classes. Alternatively, you can check out Fortune’s list of best product management bootcamps for all types of learners.

3. Teach yourself with books or projects

Some people prefer to learn on their own to save on startup costs or dip their toes into product management before making a bigger investment. Both Breen and Reiss have seen aspiring product managers find success in this route, particularly if they start their own app or website. “Get yourself a side project,” Breen says. “It’s really important that you can go and act as the product manager on your own.”

And when you interview for jobs, Reiss adds, “It’s a way of showing that you’re really invested in this being your new career path.”

Books, too, can be a valuable resource. Breen and Reiss recommend checking out the following reads:

Self-teaching isn’t for everyone, and for some, it could be a time-suck or hindrance to their job search. Ultimately, Reiss says, “know how you learn best.”

4. Consider a rotational program or internship 

Some companies offer temporary gigs where beginner product managers can get real-world experience in the craft—and possibly a more permanent job if they perform well. The benefits go both ways: Through these training programs, organizations such as Walmart, Google, and Meta can mold their talent to best suit their needs and invest in future leaders. 

However, Reiss warns, expect to face a decent amount of competition for these positions.

5. Apply to adjacent roles

Landing a product management job isn’t the only way in, and waiting for one to fall into your lap may take a while. Reiss suggests instead getting your foot in the door with another tech or tech-related job and working your way toward an internal transfer.

For example, if you’re currently a nurse, apply to roles in healthcare tech where you can leverage your medical background to serve as a customer service representative or account manager. “If you’re already an employee, you can raise your hand and talk to your manager and say, ‘I’m interested in product management. Can I volunteer for certain additional work projects?’” Reiss says.

Once inside a company, build relationships with the product team as soon as possible to find mentors and advocates. “I’ve been lucky enough to do that for certain people, and they become fantastic product managers often because they’re really passionate about the craft,” Reiss says.

If you join a startup with limited budget or available hands, leaders might be grateful to have someone outside the team assist with product management. “A marketer might say, ‘Hey, we’re not doing a lot of customer interviews, that’s probably something we should do,” Breen says. “If you’re an engineer, it might be like, ‘Hey, we’re designing architectures, writing code, and everything, but the last couple things we’ve released, no one really liked them. No one really used them. So can I do some usability testing on our next UI?’”

Skills you’ll need to be a product manager

Product and software development is fast-paced and complex. For this reason, product managers need these skills:

• Comfort with ambiguity: Product managers need to be good at making decisions quickly and efficiently. “And if you are not good at making decisions when you don’t have all the information, that is also not going to make you a good product person,” Reiss says.
• Problem solving: Breen says analytical thinking is key for product managers to break down big problems into smaller pieces so they can more easily solve them—a skill many engineers already have experience in, he adds.
• Time and project management: Reiss says PMs who know what to focus on at any given time and can prioritize on a dime will succeed.
• Communication: Product managers are good listeners—to internal stakeholders and customers—as well as able to communicate their vision clearly and convincingly to various parties to get buy-in.
• Collaboration: PMs love and thrive in team environments—in other words, you can’t be a “lone cowboy,” as Reiss puts it: “As a product manager, you cannot do anything on your own and you cannot produce features and products without the help of lots of other people,” she says.

The takeaway 

To become a product manager, find ways to further hone and market the transferable skills in your career toolbelt while also getting training in the hard and soft skills needed to do the job—whether you take a course, sign up for a bootcamp or internship, or read books and blogs. 

Another option is to take on projects within your current company where you’re able to exercise your product management expertise, with the goal of setting yourself up for a new job down the line.

More than anything—be it natural ability, formal training, or a fancy certification—product management requires grit and dedication. “There’s a lot of pressure, stress, time you need to put in, things like that,” Breen says. “So if you don’t have that extra level of commitment, it’s going to be hard and frustrating.”