Ever since I updated my LinkedIn to say senior PM, I have had many people reach out to understand how to prepare for the loop. Given that I have recently gone through it, I am sharing my experience and the questions I actually got, without naming the company that hired me.
My process began when a recruiter pinged me about a PM role and we spent twenty minutes on what I had been upto. She gave me an overview of the team and explained me the loop. She set expectations around 6 to 8 weeks. This was followed by one phone screen with the hiring manager, following which I was called for the take home, and then a final round.
My final round was broken into 2 different days. Between each round there was an average gap of 4 to 5 days, stretching the whole loop to almost 3 months. Once all the rounds were done and all the interviewers had submitted feedback in the tool, I went through a team match. At this step, the manager spoke with me, trying to match my expectations with what they had to offer.
Note, sometimes one does the team match after the committee has reviewed the packet and given a hire decision, at other times the team match is done first. I am not sure when does each company follow which process. Post team match, the committee asked for one extra deep dive interview on a specific bullet from my resume. References were also collected.
But wait, I still did not have an offer. Post the committee, an executive review sign off was needed. And finally, the packet went to compensation and the offer was rolled out. One thing worth flagging from that whole stretch, the rounds were all independent evaluations, no one sees another interviewer's notes before writing their own, and the hiring manager does not have the final word, if they like you it does not guarantee an offer and if they don't a recruiter will quietly try matching you with another team.
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Try InterviewMan FreeThe recruiter shared with me the types of questions I should expect. This ranged from the typical product design, strategy questions to analytical, estimation, behavioural and a softer technical (more like conceptual system design for non engineering PMs). I scraped the internet making a list of diverse questions in each of these categories. Glassdoor helped quite a lot. Out of this list, I started practising a sample of each type.
I would have spent close to 1.5 hours a day on an average for six weeks. In hindsight, I can say, the rounds were not as difficult as I had read about (but then, this is hindsight). I used 'Cracking the PM Interview' to nail the basics, then rehearsed live with InterviewMan for the last fortnight. None of the rounds tested me on fintech specifics either, I came from e-commerce and they tested how I think.
The one I want to dig into is product design, because that is where I bled. My prompt the day I lost my fourth in a row was, design a better airport experience for an elderly traveller connecting alone. I was in a borrowed bedroom in my sister's flat with a ring light clipped to the laptop and a thirty minute timer running.
I spent the first nine minutes on clarifying questions. I had a list, I was working the list, I felt like a professional. Around minute eight the interviewer's face did the polite look you give a child who has been telling a story for too long. She said ok, let's hear an idea.
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