What are some of the most common red flags that product marketing candidates make?

I'm a huge fan of shorter, concise resumes. If you can articulate your journey and experience on one page, it will help me to process your resume well. Some red flags I've observed: Typos/grammatical errors - Attention to detail is a core skill for a PMM, so it is a big turn-off for me if your resume has these errors. Lack of customer narrative - Customer conversations are integral to a PMM role, so if it's not mentioned in your resume that's a flag for me.  Run-on sentences - As a PMM, you are ...Read More

Getting on my soapbox here for a second (though I suppose I've been on it this whole time) — make sure your resume is concise and clear. It should be 2 pages MAX, ideally 1 page. I don't care if you've been in the industry for 30 years, you should be able to distill down your experience into 1 or 2 pages.  I've passed on candidates who technically have strong experience because their resume is a long rambling mess that I tried to read and couldn't get through.  This sounds like a ridiculous and ...Read More

A few flags that I look out for are outlined below that separates a good candidate from a great one.  Failure to be concise. As a product marketer, one of the key characteristics of our role is being able to tell a compelling story, that resonates with our audience. The best way to showcase this capability is in your interview as you tell your own story. Avoid long, wordy answers or rambling and focus on being clear and concise.  Failure to do basic homework on the company/product. There isn't a ...Read More

In initial PMM interview screens I always ask the same question (partially because it just works and partially because it sets a nice running baseline for me); 'Describe to me your favourite product to me. Tell me what is it, why you like it, and what sets it apart.' This gets to the fundimental heart of what a good PMM should be able to do... articulate value, distill a product description in a few moments, and tell a story to get someone interested. Very strong PMMs will not only be able to do ...Read More

I had a PMM candidate tell me that he was not comfortable presenting to audiences. Obviously a deal-breaker there. Every PMM needs to present. I've reviewed resumes or LinkedIn pages which were poorly written. Not someone I am going to call, as every PMM needs to write well. If writing isn't your strength, make sure that you have a friend review your personal materials so you get the chance to impress with your other qualities. More generally, I always want to be sure that a PMM can "get their h ...Read More

There seems to be a common thread among talented marketers who don’t do well in their interviews - responses sound generic, answers are often way too long and provide too much background information, and there is little to no focus on outcomes.  For product marketers, outcomes are the number one priority of their job so, in an interview, you must also be able to clearly articulate your own value and the outcomes you’ve achieved. Be specific. That signals to me that you get the strategic nature o ...Read More

A lot of these “red flags” are real, but they’re also what you see on the surface. They’re not the actual problem. Clunky CVs, vague answers, too much fluff – they usually show up when someone hasn’t done the harder work: being clear on what problem they actually solved and why it mattered. In product marketing, I don’t care how polished your resume is if I can’t quickly understand three things: what job the customer was trying to get done what pain was getting in the way what changed because of ...Read More