What story should I try to tell with my resume when trying to break into product marketing? Are there any must have factors in landing that first PMM role?
Great question! This highly depends on the role, what stage the company is at and what the requirements are in the job description - Product marketing can be so different at different companies
With that said my recommendation is to think about your resume as an opportunity to product market yourself and your experience! Think of it less as a list of everything you’ve done, and instead use it as an opportunity to tell the story of how your experience makes you an excellent candidate to take on the role you’re applying for. Identify what matters to your customer, the hiring manager (look at the job description & market landscape), then identify and focus on your best attributes (see below) to convince them that you’re the best candidate for the role. A great way to do this is to:
- Write a list of all the past project you have worked on (your calendar can be a helpful reminder)
- Seek feedback from your past/current co-workers on what they think your superpowers are to help you see skills that come so natural to you that you don’t even consider them valuable (they are!)
- Identify what projects, tactics or skills are the most relevant to the job description
- Quantify how each one drove impact on what you set out to do is possible
- Consider adding a section to highlight soft skills, tools, or interests that are relevant and help highlight why you would be a good PMM candidate
Crafting messaging/positioning, identifying user insights and translating them into strategy, influencing product/technical roadmaps, understanding market behaviors and trends, project managing projects from start to finish, Go-to-market campaigns (integrated or channel based), product development & packaging is all experience that is super valuable for consumer product marketing.
If your past roles and titles are pretty far away from product marketing, you can add a very brief about/objective section at the top where you help make the connection of why you would be great for the role.