How can I distinguish myself as a great candidate in the interview from the rest of the candidates? What makes a hiring manager bet on a candidate?

Bring structured thinking to your communication and approach: Become effective at breaking down problems using structured thinking. For Behavioral questions, look into the STAR method. For other product sense questions, look at case study books such as Case in Point and PM interview practice. This is a critical skill set that will serve you well as you take on different types of PM challenges on the job - from developing a new PRD, doing a competitor analysis, to building an execution plan. 

Have a good pulse on market, products, & design trends in the industries you are passionate about: Read, observe, podcast, leverage Gemini & ChatGPT to constantly stay up to date on trends in your relevant markets. Bonus if you can keep trying new products in your space and be able to articulate the user journeys and pain points. 

Showcase your leadership in various aspects of your personal and professional; journey: Whether it was leading an effort in a nonprofit group, or in an extracurricular, or work - reflect on leadership journey and be able to articulate how you would bring that to the organization you are interviewing for. 

Demonstrate your passion to learn & be open to feedback: With the fast changing technology and world landscape, hiring managers want candidates who will go above and beyond to learn. Demonstrate your approach to learning new skills and how you would continue incorporating learning in your day to day. 

Get effective at using data & metrics: Critical in today’s PM role is leveraging data to augment key decisions. Be able to illustrate how you leveraged data in your past roles / projects. Think of building your data skillset just as you would build your technical and domain skill set - learn different tools for data analysis, dashboards, and best practices for metrics that matter in your domain.