WHAT’S YOUR STORY ?
So I was in conversation with a girl and suddenly she asked “What’s Your Story?“
So being a storyteller I started off with my usual and later on started telling her about my job as a product manager and how I landed up being a product manager after being a
Java Developer → Digital marketing/ Growth/ Product Marketing Manager → Finally Product Manager.
It All started in 2015 when I joined a Healthcare tech/ health Tech Startup as a Java developer, few months into the job I started noticing people who are having 10+ year’s of experience and started finding patterns and connecting the dots for what I really wanted to do going forward.
I know most of the folks would say “it’s Fake no one really thinks that early what they actually wanted to do ”
So here you go
1) I wrote a blog in 2016 about the future, after careful introspection that I wanted to/ Gravitate/ Inclined more towards Product management Roles with the skillset
https://prateekgangwal.wordpress.com/2016/12/12/mba/
Snippet from the post
Rest anyone still skeptical can browse my Linkedin past articles from 2016 to 2018
Hurdles Of Getting a PM (Product manager) job if you are Not from IIM /IIT
Back in 2015 -2016, Product manager jobs were mostly reserved for IIMs and IIT folks, there was a HUGEEE entry barrier .
As of 2023 it has become significantly easier to get into PM jobs comparatively .
So how did I plan to get Product manager Job with no elite colleges under my belt
The conventional way of getting into PM /APM Roles were mostly from IIM grads getting jobs on campus.
So I started searching for people who are product leaders at that point in time and started seeing patterns.
So folks in PM roles were having both technical, business acumen. Technical Skills were still Tangible /quantifiable as a Skillset but for business acumen most of I mean 99.99999 % Recruiters were gauging the business acumen of a person from the college he did his MBA from .
and to prove that you are having good business sense or business /revenue generating skills, one had to wait for years in a company and get to manage the PnL of a product line or just reach at that level after staying in a company for 10-15 years . or just have a good b school and great designation from the start of your careers .
I clearly neither had patience of that kind nor the money or intellect to get into top B schools in the world or even India
I was searching for ways , skills via which I can demonstrate that I can generate revenues for any business .
Technology entered Marketing and hence created roles like Growth marketing , Digital marketing , Product Marketing
I Instantly saw a huge potential and the best way to prove my business/revenue generation skills via MarK-Tech enabled roles like digital Marketing /Growth Marketing /Product Marketing .
In 2016 I was living in a PG and the PG owner wanted to attract more tenants in his PG . I got into agreement with him that i will only pay 3000 INR out of 6000 and with the 3000 extra money I would run ads , create google business listing , Google website with his Phone number, tracking phone number clicked, getting leads . I ran this process for 2-3 months and he saw surge in inquiry and ultimately conversions.
It served two purpose for me , 1st I was only paying half amount and with other 3000 INR I was building a portfolio , real life client Ads Results and finally showcasing it in interview .
I left Job as a developer in 2017 and got into Marketing . Most of the folks laughed at Me saying you are doing blunder with your career . I was really difficult for me to make my parents understand the whole reason and bigger picture .
Thanks to one of my parent’s contact in Mumbai who was head of digital marketing in a Mumbai based company parent’s got a sigh of relief that I am going on a good path
I climbed the ladder in digital marketing Space quite quickly because it was easier for me to understand the technical side of the tools and curiosity for the new technology in marketing Mark Tech Space shaped me into a 360 degree Digital marketing professional (consider it as a full stack developer but in Marketing Domain )
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
After Spending few months in MNC, I got into an Agency where I got to learn end to end systems of running an Agency , handling different teams , different clients .
In parallel I was building my clientele and was just waiting for the threshold and little bit stability in payments from freelancing work . Once I got it I left the Job and started my own company Marklytiks.com Ran it for over an year .
This 1 year I got to learn about finance, Client management , Contract Management, Automation for departments, Networking , partnering up with similar Industry to generate revenues, and most important was to letting go and delegate the work and keeping less bucks but more time in hand
PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
I would not lie that for me getting into actual product Management role was a combination of these three.
1) Genuine Curiosity and prepping for this Role
2) Creating Skillset applicable for PM, PMM roles., roles closer to PM roles
3) Miracle, Work of God 🙏.
1st and 2nd point are self explanatory and obvious choices . but 3rd purely luck/God let me explain.
Sometimes in life at first you will think the activities happening in your life is not fair but wait for some time and you will realize God had a special Plan for you .
So I was applying for product marketing roles , marketing manager roles as well was prepping for PM roles but no one was entertaining me as PM because of experience and no IIT /IIM tag.
I got a call from a company for Marketing Manager role –> Cleared all rounds –> got offer letter —> Told my parents and few closed ones about the offer
NEXT DAY …….. HR called me and said “Prateek we have to revoke the offer as someone in Dubai is hired for the same role ” I was like WTF …
but then he added “Your profile seem suitable for Pm role as well so tomorrow is your interview for Pm role with CPO and VP of product and if you cleared , then you will be hired else we have to drop you from there”
and that’s how I entered PM role and It was one of the best Pm role one can get for a start with full authority and what actual PM is I learned in that company .
I have been in this industry for for almost 4 -5 years now and have seen various changes across this role as well I have now fair amount of understanding the nuances of PM role in each company . This helps me to stay away from the PM roles which are not inline with my career aspirations at this point in time (More on this in upcoming blogs)
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