AMA: Unity Vice President Product Marketing, Jon Rooney on Product Marketing Interviews

The most common mistake I've seen from product marketers during job interviews is mistaking information for messaging. Especially for more senior roles, your main job as a product marketer is to synthesize all sorts of data and information into a story. So in an interview, weave together a logical, compelling story, don't just rattle off facts, stats, speeds and feeds. Make database management or end-point-security or lead contact enrichment or AI agent-powered whatever interesting in the 30 min ...Read More

If you're landing 1st round interviews, that means your LinkedIn profile/resume looks good and covers the experience/skills/work experience needed for your targeted roles. That's great, especially when hiring environments are tight like they are now. If you're consistently not moving forward in the process, I'd do an honest self-assessment in 3 main areas: How am I coming off to interviewers? If you look good on paper (which you presumably do if you get past resume screens to a first call), are ...Read More

If someone has at least some work experience, the most important questions I ask are along the lines of "tell me about your previous/current company - what do they do? What problems do they solve and for whom? When they win against competitors, why do they win? When they lose, why do they lose?." Almost everything I'm looking for, especially in an early conversation, can be derived from how a candidate answers that line of questioning. Candidates who go off track either dive deep into the techno ...Read More

I hadn't asked candidates to do case studies or homework as part of the application process until recently, and it's only for final round interviews when we get down to the final 2-3 candidates for more senior roles. I generally feel like a lot of companies overdue the assignments and ask way too much of people. For assignments, I look for something pretty universal (a high-level GTM plan, feedback on a website, etc.) that shouldn't take more than an hour or so to prepare. What I look for is mor ...Read More

If you're pivoting from another function into product marketing, map out tasks or responsibilities that you've done in your current and recent roles directly to a PMM's core charter. The good news is that PMM roles can span in so many directions such that almost any other adjacent function (PM, engineering, sales, technical pre/post sales, campaign management) can make a case that they've been doing some part of PMM work. Partner marketing and content marketing are super closely related, so be s ...Read More

For a Director-level role, I'd ask a candidate questions probing their ability to lead through influence, handle interpersonal conflict, problem solve the random issues that find you as a PMM leader and manage teams of varying level and capabilities. Questions like: Have you ever had to lead a project involving co-workers who didn't report into you? This is PMM execution 101 - the cat herding, diplomacy and force of personality needed to get projects like a big launch, keynote or mission-critica ...Read More