UWPM Newsletter: Making The Most Of Your PM Internship
Edition 14
As we find ourselves over halfway through the W24 term, it’s time to reflect on our co-op or academic journey so far and look forward to exciting opportunities ahead. In this edition, we’ll share tips on how to make the most of your PM internship whether you’re nearing the end of your co-op term or preparing for your next co-op this spring.
🗓 Upcoming Events:
Resume Revamp Session 🧑💻 — Thursday March 21st:
Trying to transition into PM from SWE? Join our Resume Revamp Session! This event will walk you through how to transform your SWE resume into a Product resume with a real example of how a student successfully did so. We’ll also share valuable tips on creating a Product resume that will stand out. Follow our Instagram for more details!
📰 Tech News:
The Facebook and Instagram outage on March 5th was due to a backend issue according to Cisco’s ThousandEyes Internet Intelligence team.
Apple releases the M3 Macbook Air with the new M3 chip and iOS 17.4.
📙 Resource of the Week:
UW PM events are a great resource for all students looking to work in PM. Most notably, our bi-weekly Live Case Studies event provides you with the opportunity to dive deep into real-world product management scenarios and interview situations, designed to immerse participants in small engaging group discussions and unveil cutting-edge topics and strategies in product management.
We introduced a competitive version of our Live Case Studies event yesterday March 14th.
The RISE (Revolutionary Ideas, Strategy, and Execution) Product Challenge provides you with the chance to practice a REAL PM interview case question and win prizes!
💬 First Phase (6-7 PM): Dive into the heart of innovation with our Live Case Studies. This hour will introduce the case question and help you think about and prepare your answer. This is offered both online and in person.
📸 Second Phase (7 PM - 11:59 PM): Step into the spotlight and let your ideas soar. Record a compelling 3-5 minute video, presenting your innovative case solution. This is where your creativity, strategy, and execution skills come to life. Remember, brevity and impact are your best allies — make every second count!
🔍 Product Opportunities:
Product opportunities for Spring 2024 are still rolling out! Check out some of the top opportunities on our radar:
Interac Product Management Internship
H&R Block Product Management Internship
AMAROK Security Product Manager Internship
Unite Us Product Manager Internship
Docker Product Analytics Internship
Wayfair Product Design Internship
Keep checking your target companies for info-sessions and opportunities. Good luck!
🚨 Making The Most Out of Your PM Internship
Make sure to document everything. Not only is it easy to miss small requests, tasks, and advice, but this can also be a great reference for your resume and interview notes.
Take initiative and try to own something, even if it’s just writing a simple block of code to help automate a task or an Excel formula that saves you 10 minutes a day. These contributions are significant and can help your team in the long run too!
Specifically ask for work in your areas of interest like data analytics, UX design, or A/B testing etc. It doesn’t hurt to ask, and more often than not, your manager would be happy to help include you in those meetings and give you work that you’re interested in.
Schedule coffee chats to connect with all team members (even those who you don’t work directly with) and other PMs from different teams.
Try to speak up in meetings so people can remember you.
With most jobs being remote and hybrid, it’s easy to miss opportunities to go in office or attend any in-person company events. Nonetheless, building connections in person is more effective (in my opinion).
🧑💻 Thinking Like a PM:
In this last segment, we will leave you off with an activity to practice your analytical minds. In a Product Interview, you’ll often be asked estimation questions. One way to approach these questions is to ask clarifying questions and ask for any key facts/numbers that can help you with the estimation; also, make sure to state the facts/numbers that you already know that will help you answer the question even if they are a ballpark (there are many cheat sheets online for common numbers/data you should know like the US population!). State any assumptions you’ve made especially with regard to edge cases, and do the math.
Feel free to reply with your answers!
📌 Join our Discord Community
Want to connect with other students such as yourself interested in Product? Join our Discord Community, Invite Link Here. Use our Discord Community to connect with other students and alumni to learn more about different opportunities in Product, practice mock interviews + resume critiques and more!
👋 Feel free to reach out
Thanks for following us along this journey! We hope you learned something from this edition of the newsletter. Feel free to drop a line to introduce yourself and reach out if you have any questions.
Until next time,
- UWPM Team