Project Manager Interview Pitfalls - What NOT to Do - from a former Google Program Mgr

[@GREATLFG]

This is such an informative, helpful, and well-summarized coaching video. I feel lucky to be the first one to give a thumb up and leave a comment. Subscribed and shared for sure. I am preparing for a TPM position for data centers with a leading tech company. I have three questions: 1. During my preparation, how much should I focus on the PM side, how much should I focus on the Technical Side. 2. How do I stand out from other candidates. 3. It the position has two tiers (e.g. lvl 5 - 6), what should I do or do not, in order to get the higher tier of the position? Thank you!

[@GREATLFG]

If you feel that my questions could be a good topic for a whole video, please feel free to do it. But I still appreciate some quick advice here because my first interview will be in about a week.

[@CoachErika]

Really really appreciate your comment! It makes me happy to hear that you are getting a lot of value from the videos. Great questions! My thoughts: (1) you will have 1-2 technical interviews in your onsite and the remaining 3-4 onsite interviews will be program management focused. Your phone screen will be culture fit + program management skills focused as well (not highly technical). (2) stand out by having your own approaches/practice of program management, avoid giving generic answers that are vanilla PMBOK. Show that your experience has taught you some tricks to getting things done, which others wouldn't know if they aren't creative and growth minded thinkers always looking to improve and be more effective. (3) You can also stand out and get leveled higher by showing your strategic thinking. It's harder to explain how to do this in text, because there are many subtle ways to signal higher levels, but I do coach people on this topic. At a high level, it starts with zooming out in your answers, not being myopic about cost, schedule, resources, showing that you see the bigger picture. I hope this helps! Feel free to ask clarifying questions if my responses invited more questions from you.

[@CoachErika]

Ps I do plan to do a TPM video at some point!

[@practicaltheory]

I love how you can get all the way to the interview and then use proper English grammar and assign a gender to a real life person you knew and this is a "big no no". Coo Coo!

[@CoachErika]

It's only an issue if you use any loaded terms in describing that person. Going gender neutral avoids bias on both sides. It's just a suggestion!

[@stella5867]

For people with 10 years of work experience but not from a project management background, what is the first project management certificate to get when targeting program manager jobs at FAANG companies?

[@CoachErika]

No certification needed; get some project management experience in your current role before applying to Program Manager roles at FAANG. Don't have a job? Volunteer and get some Project Management experience at a non-profit or as an unpaid internship. The key is experience, not certifications.

[@linliujing]

Watching this in 2024 and I want to say it's really informative but I wish you didn't use stock photos/videos because it doesn't in any way help to deliver the message you are sharing in a more impactful manner. In fact, I would argue that the stock videos / photos were actually devaluing your content. I would love to see you create more content and if possible, just your face and a nice background with occasional call outs would work. Thank you!

[@CoachErika]

Thank you for your thoughts! I hope to be creating more content this year!