Product Management

The only thing you will need to know is staying consistent and maintaining a high level of discipline when it comes to applications and interviews. That's it. Everything else is secondary. If you lose focus of this you can go down a rabbit hole that is hard to come out of. 

Pros:

They are very focused here on numbers. I mean I can't say that I am surprised. Rich comes from a boiler room, aggressive cold call background. So, you come in here thinking that you are learning about PM, but then you end up getting so much more. You get to learn how to generate momentum. Rich loves that word. Its that special thing that makes you unstoppable.

Cons: 

Go get it. Don't complain about it. I love this team here, I feel really good sleeping at night knowing that I have a whole coaching staff ready to help me.

I was sending out the wrong resume to the right job. I am coming from finance and I kept you using a finance resume to apply to PM roles, it was clearly not working. Rich helped me tune it up and boom I average right now 4 to 7 interviews a week. 

Pros: 

Trust what they tell you to do about the resume. The resume defines everything. It defines your pitch, the scale that you can apply on, and everything else that is necessary. 

Cons:

Don't spend too much time being fixated on the resume. At some point you have to go.

Would you believe me if I told you I was so damn passionate about being a product manager that I took a class from Product School and GA? That’s right, that’s me! I did it all, so I can tell you that Product School and General Assembly only focuses on your job after the offer. But how are we going to get there? I had great instructors from campuses, but you have ask yourself; does the instructor have the same challenges as you? It doesn’t matter that your instructor is working at Facebook, you are not working at facebook. Your instructor is not interviewing for you. Your instructor won’t interview for you. If your instructor has never experienced the challenges you have, then they can never really help you. 

The instructors here and you get a freaking team of 10+ instructors, half of them were former students that are working PM’s right now that transitioned into Product with no Product experience. They know the pain you are going through right now. My facebook instructor was very good; but I don’t need to know how to facilitate design sprints, wireframe, or try to reach a group consensus. I need interviews right now. Within 3 weeks, I had more interviews than I could handle in less than a month. 

Pros: Everything 

Cons: Nothing 

These guys are awesome thinking about this. I don’t come from the traditional background. Well, most of my classmates didn’t either; but I do learn better at my own pace. Product Gym provided me with 12 months of access to the classes and workshops, which was great. After hearing the data science portion for the third time; I get it now better than most. It was something that I was really interested in. 

Now that I have landed the job; this information is even more pertinent to me than ever. 

Pros: Like I said 12 months of access. 

Cons: Honestly, I can’t think of any and I will tell whoever is reading this why. IT IS MANDATORY TO GIVE FEEDBACK HERE AFTER EVERY SESSION. Lol!!! Seriously. The founders here Rich and Cody immediately implement all the valid feedback; so even though this class is not perfect - these boys continuously improve upon it. They want to hear your feedback. I guess the only sad part is that some students don’t write that feedback. 

As a management consultant that just graduated school a few years ago. My schedule is hectic enough as it is. I never have anytime to myself. Thankfully, Product Gym holds class both during the week for practical interview training and weekends where you can learn the fundamentals. 
 
Pros: I want to give a big thanks to Rich! Coming in from Accenture, the travel schedule is unforgivable and I could tell that Rich was truly vested in me to succeed. Many of my phone calls with him were just me venting, but he is a GREAT LISTENER! 
 
Cons: I wish this course was like a 24 hour gym, but that’s not going to happen. Keep it up PG! 

Before I found ProductGym I was lost in a hopeless cycle of applying for jobs. Maybe it was my lack of confidence, but I wasn't getting anywhere, despite having previous experience in Product Management. I reached out to PG and slowly started seeing a change. Using Rich's methodologies, I was able to increase my reach, improve my main selling point (my resume and LinkedIn) and get my name in front of recruiters and generate interviews! A few weeks back, I felt as if there was no way out and maybe I wasn't cut out for another PM job. Rich told me to cut the BS, gain some confidence and showed me the way. If it weren't for PG, I would still be stuck in that dark cycle. I would HIGHLY recommend PG and its team!

One of my biggest challenges was feeling that I didn’t have enough experience. Rich and Cody helped me through that tremendously. I was always feeling worried about not having enough experience, but what Product Gym helped me understand was its not my fault. Not having ALL the experience is okay. It’s not my fault I work for a company that chooses to stay with waterfall. There was nothing I could have done about that. You are only going to develop the experience on the job and that was what they helped me do, LAND the job. Everything else was just so theoretical. 

Pros:

Focuses on interviewing a lot. This place is all about interviewing here. More phone screens, more onsites, more offers. I landed 2 offers, both of which I am very happy about. 

Cons: 

The rates are going up folks! So, get in while you still can. 

The thing that is really cool about Rich and Cody’s program is they make a big emphasis on the psychological obstacles one goes through during the interview. Interviewing is never fun regardless who you are, but it can be less painful. With Product Gym they make fun. Its hard work, but its worth it. 
 
Pros
 
These guys stress a lot about interviewing and I have seen with my own eyes the number of people that get offers here. These people MEAN business. 
 
Cons 
 
For me, there was no. They were extremely professional and courteous. 

I really want to thank Product Gym for helping me improve the confidence of my interview game. I am already a Product Manager right now and even though I have the skills required to succeed on the job, I completely agreed with Rich that one’s ability to do any job well has no relation to interviewing for that very job. This is definitely the case for me. The mock interviewing that Product Gym hosts is out of this world. They taught me how to gauge, lead, and dictate the entire interview process. The argument that Rich and Cody makes is that the hiring team has no clear direction on how to hire people, because if they did have a plan; there really isn’t a reason for them to speak with you at all. There is so much talent out there competing for the same jobs. 
 
This is why you have to generate your interviews like a salesperson, like a hunter as Rich says. Interview for the role like you are an investor (you really are, because you are investing your time), and once you land the job .. treat the product as if you are the owner. 
 
I have had a lot of ups and downs during this period and the entire team at PG got me through it. Thank you so very much. 
 
Pros 
 
Keep doing what you guys are doing. 
 
Cons
 
Wish I had more time to party with Rich. This guy is a beast! 
 
 
I Developed My PM Skills by Interviewing 

I was fortunate enough to meet Rich during one of the meet ups organized by Product Gym. To say he’s been an instrumental help in upgrading my resume, recommending me for product manager jobs, coaching me through every step of the way would be an understatement.

Within meeting him for the first time, I had already gotten interviews to 2 companies (within 2 days) which weren’t even happening for me before.  I also met a few people who he connected me with who have helped immensely to sharpen my focus on landing a PM job. They really do know what they are doing and I have also spoken with a few of the alumni who sing praises for Product Gym and how they have really helped them land the PM job they really wanted.

They focus on applying for jobs and generating interviews as much as possible because in the end, that’s what you really want right? To get a PM job as soon as you can. They value your time and teach you the essentials of what you will incur in your experience as a PM. I would really recommend them if your looking for a PM job. It will definitely shorten the time that you spend because the advice that they give you is gold and works out here in the world.

Just go for it! Don’t waste time cause you’ve already missed a few opportunities reading my review! 

Rich never gave up on me even when I wanted to give up on myself. I am a foreign national from China and desperately needed a company to provide me with work sponsorship. I am also in banking, so it was doubly hard. Most of my interviews lasted 30 seconds. You know the ones where they ask, ‘what’s your current work authorization status’ Oh H1B? No thank you.’

This was so depressing! It took me a few tries but I finally landed 5 offers. It was crazy. When it rains it pours. I think what I like most about Product Gym is Rich’s approach to life. He views it as a number’s game and he is right. There is a lot that is outside your control; so stop trying to force yourself to please everyone. It's not going to work out.

It took 7 months and it happened to me. If I was to do this on my own; I would have just given up.

Can’t believe I am actually giving a review right now to this company, because it seemed not too long ago being a PM was just a dream. I made it now.

The journey was short and gruesome. This is bonkers painful, but we made it. My biggest challenge is that I am a control freak that analyzes every meticulous detail. That didn’t work for me because of my timeline. This was a struggle, but with some kind hearted support from the best COACHING STAFF IN THE WORLD we made it through. Much love fam!

Until the next.

Rich is a magician! OMG, this bad@$$ made it happen for me and I will forever be in his debt. His team put together a plan for me (coming from a finance background) to land 3 offers in 2 months. Quite possibly, the best experience I never EVER want to have again.

Play the numbers game folks! Stop analyzing everything and wonderful results will pour in. 

I really want to thank PG for supporting me throughout my journey. I just became a father and balancing my job hunt, along with a full-time job, and a new born is NOT EASY. These staff at PG were phenomenal. I was about to attend as many sessions as I needed and the coaches here are very accessible. I couldn’t imagine being able to land the job I had now without them. 

They made it happen for me. I am very happy with how things turned out for me and I would recommend this program to anyone that is serious about making a transition. 

There were definitely times when I was frustrated, but the is to be expected. Keep your head down and do the work. The rest will work itself out. 

When you enroll with Product Gym; the feeling is that you are a professional athlete and they are going to take your game to the next level. The sure as heck did! 

When I took a class at Product School there was only one instructor per class; and it was difficult for me to develop my technical skills from a PM that was not technical herself. This is a classic case of blind leading the blinder. 

With Product Gym you get 6 subject matter experts that just know their stuff. I had a data scientist for the data questions, a UX designer for all the design questions, a Google engineer for the engineering questions, and just about every subject matter expert you can think. 

They are solely focused on keeping your job hunt simple; more phone screens, more onsites, more offers. It’s just that simple. 

Yup, its doable! I averaged 15 interviews a week and I did a GA class before them, so let me save you some money. Richard is right! Without interviews you will never land this job, no matter how much experience you have or don’t have. 

With Product Product Gym, my resume was revamped before the next class officially started, I was able to sit in on the current class that week, and started applying in 4 days. I was very nervous about interviewing at first, but Richard and his coaching staff are right about one thing; this is a numbers game. You have no control when these companies will contact you, so you might as well start generating activity into the funnel ASAP rocky! Treat yourself like a product that needs to be shipped and go for it. 

I was able to score 15 interviews per week and on the high side I did 27 interviews. They showed me ways to game the system, I even asked my boss to work Fridays from home to handle the interview volume. This was hard work and it was all worth it because in the end I was able to land 6 offers. Rich and the team helped me choose the right one for me. 

Just trust these guys and do the work. Right now, I bought something worth way more than $3,500; my freedom! I don’t ever have to feel like I am held hostage ever again in my life. 

Thank you Product Gym!

This is where I was feeling very stuck. Case studies, take-home assignments, coding challenges, and whatever else you want to call be used as free labor. Case studies were killing my week. It was insane the amount of time it takes and still no guarantee for the next round. 

Thank you Product Gym. Rich and Cody had a vault of case studies and provided me with a no-nonsense guide to how to crack it myself even when they did not have them (and they have a huge vault from most major companies). 

I remember the medieval days when I had to reschedule, cancel, or postpone interviews because I had to spend all my free time working on these case studies. 

Thanks for the support team. We did it fam! 

Boy when it rains it pours. If you really want a PM job, contact these fellas. They know what they are doing and I love, love, love the fact that they only focus on the interviews. I kept on focusing on the skills portion and it got me nowhere. I was constantly stuck all the time. 

These boys provide you with the feedback you wish those people that interviewed you did. 

This was very hard. There were many times that I wanted to quit, but thankfully Cody and Richard never allowed that to happen. 

I want to preface this review by first saying that this was the hardest thing I had ever had to do. Some of you reading right now may be struggling in the process; but I implore to come and sign up with these guys. They know what they are doing. Within 22 days after signing up with them I had more phone screens than I could handle. There were a lot of ups and downs, but the support is phenomenal here. 

I heard about this program in January through a friend that got a PM job after taking their course. I was really skeptical. They only had one or two reviews. Now, half a year later and more money (they raised their prices since). I wish I had just bit the bullet then because I had more time to go through Product Gym’s process.