How to prepare for the Google APM interview
Advice from a Google Associate Product Manager
“Why are manhole covers round?”
Movies like “The Internship” will assure you that being able to answer questions like that — as well as hunting down fictitious professors and winning Quidditch matches — is your ticket to a job at Google.
But these brainteaser questions are more fable than fact and, well, the other things won’t help much either. So if you’re looking for a job at Google, you’ll have to take a more sensible approach. You’ll have to prepare for the actual interviews you’ll be getting.
I’m an incoming Google Associate Product Manager (APM), a two-year rotational product management role, and here I want to share some resources I used to prepare for the Google APM interviews. If you’re looking to become an APM, I hope this article will give you the tools you’ll need to succeed.
These same resources were helpful when I was interviewing for Facebook’s Rotational Product Manager (RPM) program and Microsoft’s Program Manager role, so the tips I share here should be useful no matter which PM role you’re interested in.
Step 1: Getting the Interview
Getting a PM job isn’t all about drilling interview questions — just getting the interview is half the battle.
First, you need a solid resume. I like Harvard’s bulleted resume template, which is clean, professional, and easily skimmed. Here are some strategies I used on my PM resume:
- Use numbers to quantify your successes. Tech companies love metrics-driven PMs. For instance, you can say “led a team of 40” or “increased video watches 15%.” Also, numbers pop out to anyone skimming a resume — and you have to assume recruiters will only give your resume a brief skim at the early stages of recruiting, when they’re flooded with thousands of resumes.
- Mention programming languages and technical skills. I like listing programming languages and tools (React, D3, NumPy, etc.) I know at the bottom of my resume.
- Emphasize the big companies you’ve worked for. Like numbers, these will pop out to recruiters skimming your resume.
Google holds APM info sessions at several colleges — I attended some at Harvard and MIT— and they’re worthwhile if you want to do some basic PM interview practice. They aren’t required though.
Finally, be sure to apply early! Full-time Google APM applications open in early August, and I believe internship applications open in September. Go to the Google Careers site and search for “Associate Product Manager.”
Step 2: PM Prep Books
I’ve found that hitting the books is the best way to start preparing for PM interviews.
In particular, I thought Cracking the PM Interview was the best first book to read. The whole book is worth skimming, but I’ll call out a few chapters you should focus on. Chapters 2 and 3 give solid background on the PM role and what major companies look for in PMs (essential reading before you decide which question types to focus on!) Chapter 7 on resumes is pretty good. Chapters 11–14 will give you the basic tools to answer the questions you’ll get at every PM interview. The seven-step process to answer product-design questions in Chapter 14 (the first step is “Ask questions to understand the problem”) is really, really good — I used it in all my interviews. Pay special attention to Chapter 13, which focuses on estimation questions — Google’s favorites.
Decode and Conquer covers interview questions in greater depth, providing dozens of useful practice questions. It proposes the CIRCLES method for answering the ubiquitous product design questions; personally, I prefer Cracking the PM Interview’s seven-step method, but CIRCLES is worth a look. At any rate, practice every question in Chapters 2–8 (design and estimation). They are awesome. Pricing, marketing, market entry, or vision questions are pretty rare for PM interviews in general, so chapters 9–15 (which focus on these topics) are worth a skim at best. Chapter 16 (behavioral) is solid.
Understanding the tech landscape
Just drilling interview questions isn’t enough — everyone does that. To get ahead of the competition, you need to know the tech industry: notable trends, major companies and competitors, rapidly-growing markets, etc. This industry knowledge will help you craft better answers and stand out as a subject-matter expert.
It’s much easier to propose a monetization strategy for a new app, for instance, if you know how popular apps make money — one example I like to cite is how the popular stock-trading app Robinhood makes money while letting users trade stocks with zero commission.
Also, if you can chat with an interviewer about the product they work on — including features, competitors, trends, and business decisions — you will leave an excellent impression. (Being able to do this was tremendously useful to me in my interviews.)
To really impress at the Google APM interviews, you must be able to talk intelligently about common technologies such as machine learning, the cloud, and big data. You also have to know Google’s products, strategies, and competitors. You can’t learn this by just drilling interview questions.
In short, you have to think like a techie. (This can be especially daunting if you’re coming from a non-tech-industry background.)
While preparing for PM interviews, I needed to gain a big-picture understanding of major technologies and business strategy trends — but I couldn’t find any resources to do this. So I decided to make one.
Swipe to Unlock: A Primer on Technology and Business Strategy
I authored this book along with Parth Detroja (a Facebook PM) and Adi Agashe (a Microsoft PM) to give anyone, even non-experts, a big-picture understanding of tech topics (like how Google search and A/B testing work) and business trends (like why Google made Android free for phone manufacturers).
Swipe to Unlock uses short case studies to give you the industry knowledge you’ll need to craft great interview answers and talk intelligently with your interviewers.
The things I learned while researching for Swipe to Unlock were tremendously helpful in my PM interviews, and the book has gotten strong reviews from people who landed offers from Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and more thanks to the knowledge contained in the book. Check out Swipe to Unlock on Amazon!
Your PM bookshelf
Cracking the PM Interview and Decode and Conquer will help you understand PM interview questions and practice your approach— and Swipe to Unlock will give you the real-world knowledge that’ll help you make even stronger answers.
Step 3: Go deep with interview prep courses
If you want to dial up your preparation even further, try taking a dedicated PM interview course. There are a variety of courses that offer resume preparation guides, strategies for various types of interview questions, and deep dives on specific companies (including Google!).
Personally, I recommend the Product Alliance’s excellent trio of interview prep courses. (I’m a bit biased, since I filmed some mock interviews for them, but all their content is top-notch!) Some of their greatest hits:
- Techniques for snagging referrals and getting recruiters to reach out to you on LinkedIn
- Video strategy guides for many popular interview types — including the design, estimation, and analysis questions that companies like Google love. (The mock interviews are the best part, IMO; you can watch some for free here!)
- Five videos on Google products and corporate culture, along with a whitepaper breaking down Google’s corporate strategy. The Google whitepaper isn’t available for free, but check out this Uber paper — I thought the financial details and product roadmap were very well done.
This content is really the best in the business. Check it out at productalliance.com — they often have discounts during recruiting season.
Step 4: A few final tips
After you’ve read those books and taken those courses, try these tips to finish off your preparations:
- ThePMInterview.com has tons of free interview questions. I did 5 of these a night on a whiteboard before my Google interviews. You can have your friends mock interview you with these questions, too.
- At the end of the day, the interviewer just needs to like you. The Charisma Myth has great tips on how to win people over. And don’t forget to smile!
- Have interesting opinions on Google apps — it’ll make you a much more memorable candidate. Try out some lesser-known apps (Google Flights and Trips are among my favorites, for instance). The same goes for other companies you might interview at.
Step 4: Go crush it!
I hope this article was useful! Feel free to leave a comment if you have a question. Best of luck with your interviews!
P.S. If you’re really curious about the manholes, here’s the reason why they’re round.
Disclaimer: All views are my own and in no way represent the views of my employer. My opinions only reflect my personal experience with recruiting; your mileage may vary. All facts in this article are sourced from publicly-known information.
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