Unlock the Opportunity of Education

Week 6: Turn a no into a lesson

The best follow-up turns a no into a learning experience. Most outreach gets silence, so treat silence as an unstated no and change your approach instead of repeating it. After an interview, thank the person and ask one honest question about how they saw your fit, so you can learn and adjust. Keep the relationships you build during your search, and reach out when you don't need anything.

Week 5: Tell a story, not a label

Job titles and phrases like 'customer obsessed' are labels. They sound meaningful but are ambiguous, and a product manager can do very different work at different companies. Don't answer interview questions with a label. Tell a story, and use a formula like STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) if you're not sure how. Treat each application and interview as an experiment: notice what worked, change one thing, and try again.

Week 4: Work Out Loud

Networking is one-on-one conversations at scale. Find the right people and contribute to them in small ways: connect, like a post, set up an informational interview. Share what you're doing out loud, like the job you applied for and why it excited you, or one thing you learned from a recent informational. When you work out loud, you start a conversation someone else can continue.