For someone looking to break into their first PMM role, what advise do you have for landing that first interview? How can one set themselves apart from other candidates who have held PMM titles before?

I think landing your first interview and subsequently your first job as a PMM is made easier if you target some level of specialization either within the role or the company.

Many PMM roles, especially more junior ones, are specialized or weighted towards particular areas like sales enablement or pricing for example. For someone with a sales or finance background in those cases, that can be a way in. Practically everyone in product marketing started their career in something else because there are very few product marketing specialist and that intersection of skills between their past work experience and PMM is often their superpower once in the role.

It's critical that product marketers know their customers and know them well. If you work in an industry or a role today that is the industry or buyer persona for another company that is hiring a product marketer, then you have a big advantage in getting that role. You have unique value that other, even experienced PMMs don't. Make sure the recruiter or hiring manager knows about it. Spell it out in the intro section of your resume and your cover letter if you use one.

Don't be shy about leveraging your network to reach out to people in that PMM team, a hiring manager, or someone else at the company, but you need to rely on more than just knowing someone to have an "in." In addition to making you a better candidate, specialized skills and industry background give that person within the company a tangible reason to reach out to the hiring manager and raise your name as a candidate.

My advice would be to talk to a lot of people in PMM roles at the companies you're interested in. Even if there aren't open jobs now, this helps keep yourself top of mind for the future. I'd also be open to taking other roles within Marketing or Product, then transitioning internally into PMM. That's what I did: 

• I got my first job at Slack as a "Business Marketing Manager" by reaching out to someone who went to my college. That got me the first interview. 
• For the interview, I carefully looked at the job description and made sure I had a relevent story for each item on the job description. My background was in Consulting, so I positioned myself as someone who could take on various projects and flex to changing business needs. 
• Throughout the interview proecess, I followed through and followed up constantly with the recruiter and folks I was interviewing to make sure I was top of mind + to express interest. I nailed the presentation and showed the panel I could do the job (w/o any formal Marketing experience)
• After one year in the "Business Marketing" team, I started talking to other PMMs, shadowed them, took on small projects, and networked my way into a PMM role!

To set yourself apart, go above and beyond. Send thank you notes after every interview. Follow up with the recruiter. Find your unique skillsets and map them to the job description. Finally, nail the presentation by over-preparing. 

To try to break into PMM from a cold start, have a body of content already published (on LinkedIn or another platform) to serve as your portfolio. Early career PMM's do a ton of writing - customer-facing, sales-facing, launch planning, campaign briefs, etc. - so having things that show your capacity for writing, at both high level and in detail where appropriate, will help you stand out. Once you target an industry or category, start writing in depth there. You can discuss launch events, industry news, summarize keynotes or even delve into product reviews if you can. How you carry yourself in an interview and verbally communicate are of course important to landing that first PMM gig, but having a body of work ready to show covers both writing ability and industry knowledge.