r/APMprograms

I graduated in 2025 with a CS/Data Science degree and have been working full-time as a Data Engineer for the past year here in Chicago.

I’m actively prepping to pivot into Product Management, but I’m seeing a weird gap:

**New-grad APM roles** often filter strictly for current students/immediate grads.

**Standard PM roles** often ask for 3+ years of prior PM title experience.

To bridge this gap, I’ve put together a product portfolio with case studies that translate backend technical pipelines into business impact and user outcomes.

**For Chicago recruiters, hiring managers, or PMs open to connecting:**
If you're hiring for entry-level/associate product roles (hybrid or on-site in Chicago), shoot me a DM - I’d be happy to share my portfolio and resume directly!

For PMs who made a similar early jump: what was the single most convincing way you proved product thinking before having the official title?

Drop a comment or send a DM. I would love to hear your thoughts!

I graduated in 2025 with a CS/Data Science degree and have been working full-time as a Data Engineer for the past year here in Chicago.

I’m actively prepping to pivot into Product Management, but I’m seeing a weird gap:

New-grad APM roles often filter strictly for current students/immediate grads.

Standard PM roles often ask for 3+ years of prior PM title experience.

To bridge this gap, I’ve put together a product portfolio with case studies that translate backend technical pipelines into business impact and user outcomes.

For Chicago recruiters, hiring managers, or PMs open to connecting:
If you're hiring for entry-level/associate product roles (hybrid or on-site in Chicago), shoot me a DM - I’d be happy to share my portfolio and resume directly!

For PMs who made a similar early jump: what was the single most convincing way you proved product thinking before having the official title?

Drop a comment or send a DM. I would love to hear your thoughts!

Hey Everyone, it’s that time of year for recruiting for PM roles. I always feel like breaking into PM is gatekept, so I'm breaking down what has helped me in my career. Here's exactly 5 resources I wish someone told me about when preparing for PM interviews.

1. apmlist.com: if you’re trying to break into the industry and looking for your first PM role, here’s a list of companies offering early-in-career PM jobs
2. Decode & Conquer by Lewis C. Lin, and Cracking the PM Interview by McDowell: great books that break down approaching PM interview questions
3. Youtube: search for ‘Product Manager Mock Interviews’ to see real PM mocks being done by experts. Channels like Diana Yau and RocketBlocks are awesome.
4. Lenny’s Podcast: one of the best Product Manager podcasts out there. Great for industry trends and PM fundamentals
5. Practice, practice, practice: so important to do real practice mock interviews. Don’t have someone who can do that? There's lot of great tools out there, some stand outs are sharpn.ai to do simulated interviews with feedback and going on TryExponent and finding some peers to practice with.

Another way to practice is to write down example questions (like the ones you see on Youtube) and pull a random one and record yourself talking and watch yourself back.

Feel free to ask questions, happy to help where I can!

I just want to vent a little because I’m honestly getting frustrated with the PM internship job search.

My goal is to break into Product Management, so over the past few months I’ve applied to 100s of PM internships and entry-level roles.

Out of all those applications, I got callbacks/emails from around 10–12 companies. I was obviously happy because at least something was moving.

But then almost every company gave me a similar assignment:

“Use our product/app and identify improvements or features that could help our users.”

I actually spent a lot of time on these assignments—using the product, identifying problems, thinking about user pain points, suggesting features, explaining the reasoning, and submitting everything within the deadline.

And then…

Nothing.

1 week passed — no response.

2 weeks passed — nothing.

1 month passed — still nothing.

In some cases, even months have passed.

Not even a simple:

“We’ve decided not to move forward with your application.”

I completely understand that companies receive a lot of applications and that not everyone can be selected. Rejection is fine.

What’s frustrating is putting several hours into an assignment that is essentially free product work and then not even getting closure.

I’m still trying to become a PM and I genuinely enjoy doing these product exercises. But experiences like this make me wonder whether I’m approaching the job search the wrong way.

For people trying to break into PM: have you experienced this too?

And for PMs/hiring managers here

what actually happens to these assignments after we submit them? Do candidates usually get reviewed and rejected, or do applications sometimes just disappear in the process?

Did anybody get hackerranks?? Let’s keep updated!