What advice do you have for recent graduates that want to go straight into product marketing?

You should seek out product marketing specialist roles. In such a role you'll get to help product marketing managers conduct market, customer and competitive research, analyze data on product adoption and new customer acquisition, and develop marketing content and sales collateral. You'll have opportunities to learn from the PMMs the more strategic aspects of product marketing, i.e. customer segmentation, positioning and messaging, while you deliver tactical and tangible assets like drafting blo ...Read More

I've hired people straight out of undergrad, it's possible. Look for entry level titles like product marketing analyst, or specialist...they are out there. BUT, I will say don't despair if you don't see a lot of entry level PMM roles, and instead just try and land a marketing role in a company where you care about the product. There will be plenty of time for you to transition into a PMM role when opportunities come up, and there's no downside to starting on a different team. Your early career m ...Read More

Product Marketing Specialists, Associates or General Marketing Specialist roles are good roles to kick-off your career in Product Marketing. They all will require you to develop Product Marketing skillsets and eventually become proficient in them -- including areas like working with Product/Tech teams to define product strategy, defining and understanding your target audience, launching a new product, feature, or service, running end-to-end marketing campaigns, etc. The difference is typically t ...Read More

I started my career in editorial, and didn’t transition over to marketing until about six years ago. I can’t stress enough how important sharp communication and collaboration skills are when it comes to product marketing. So I’m incredibly grateful I first had the opportunity to focus on my writing and messaging before I switched to product marketing because it helped me develop the core components of communication, collaborating, and clarity. But since product marketing incorporates skills util ...Read More

It's a hard discipline to enter right out of college but it's absolutely doable. I say that because it's a high visibility function that is extremely cross-functional and requires attention to detail but also the ability to think bigger and strategically. Many of these skills are learned with working experience -- how to engage with executives, how to turn research into concise talking points for sales, how to influence a large group of stakeholders etc. My advice is to talk to as many folks in ...Read More

I agree with a lot of Savita's points above. I see a lot of new grads who are interested in product marketing and recommend most new grads to try to build up general marketing skills before they try to move into product marketing roles which are often more senior or more specialized.  I like seeing people who have expereince as marketing coordinators or marketing specialists - it means they've got the general experience to understand how lots of different marketing disciplines work, and probably ...Read More

I believe there is no hard / fast rule about requiring an MBA. I have seen plenty of young graduates make the transition to product marketing. The first year or two is critical in terms of the kind of experience you gather that would help you to position yourself in product marketing.  - pick a industry / segment where you can acquire deep domain knowledge, have an opinion and understanding  - build a portfolio of content you can create either via your personal blog or helping an industry group ...Read More

Written and oral communication are probably the most important skills you can develop, as they will help you get a foot in the door early in your career and also will continue to be useful throughout your whole career. Going straight into product marketing without any background in it is difficult, but not impossible. You’d want to look for an associate product marketing position or if you have technical skills, look for a technical product marketer. I’ve seen others go through the content or do ...Read More

It is possible to start a junior product marketing role straight out of college, but a true PMM role requires some real world skills. As a hiring managers, these are some of the things I look for: 1. High maturity and tact: Product Marketing roles are intensely cross functional with the need to work with about a dozen people in different teams, on a daily basis. This is definitely a job for folks with above average emotional intelligence. 2. Strong analytical chops: Can you break down a product ...Read More