From learning product management online to becoming an Associate Product Manager, this EntryLevel student shows you the exact roadmap to reach your career goals.
After taking a 6-week Product Management program with EntryLevel and learning online, Hassanat landed a Product Management internship. Within a few months, she was promoted to Associate Product Manager.
She shares her story and step-by-step guide for how you can land your first product management internship too.
Connect with her here:
https://twitter.com/AmeenHassana
https://www.linkedin.com/in/hassanat-taiye-abubakar-b708a1128/
EntryLevel helps you learn and get experience so you can get hired. Our 6-week programs are taught by world-class mentors, so you can learn and build a portfolio of work.
You'll learn with a cohort of driven peers, and each lesson is unlocked after a set time so you stay accountable and finish the program.
Put yourself out there - always learn and share your learnings online (Twitter, LinkedIn)
Find peer mentors to reflect on your growth together
Work on portfolio projects with others in the tech community
You can product manage your life - treat your learning as a product itself
Be proactive (research and solve problems yourself), ask good questions, and follow up - these skills will help you succeed in the workplace
Newbie PM (shadow product managers, learn, and work on task simulations): https://instagram.com/newbie_pm
Ingressive4Good: https://www.instagram.com/ingressive4good/
She Code Africa: https://shecodeafrica.org/
People in Product: https://twitter.com/peopleinproduct
Create a roadmap for yourself to learn more about your strengths and weaknesses
Previous events with mentors: https://www.entrylevel.net/events
Previous EntryLevel students: https://www.entrylevel.net/interviews
Learned project management first
Work on transferrable skills
Didn’t join Discord community, but did Telegram channel
Portfolio → prototype, used Canva at first to do it (doesn’t have to be complicated)
Project = project only, execution
Product = keep working on the product
EntryLevel helped with breaking in
Mentor helped with guidance
Mentor was friend
Messaged on LinkedIn (cold message) - some people said they weren’t in the right position to mentor
Senior mentor can help with your growth, but consider peer mentors as seniors aren’t available all the time
Did project management
Skills and strengths
Do research first
Focus on 1 or 2 courses first
Don’t keep taking courses - need to improve, evaluate
EntryLevel
Design was weakness
So many problems
Few friends - work on something together for collaboration and communication
Didn’t really prepare
EntryLevel helped with technical assessment
Had to document things w EntryLevel
Good to start looking for internships → some people stop learning and focused on learning
Focus on open-source projects, build portfolio
Can go for entry-level or junior role
In Nigeria
1-2 projects
What companies look at
Give insight about what your skills are
Demonstrate how you think
Do market research, collab with friend (designer, no-code tools vs dev)
Who you are, what you do
EntryLevel course
Join communities, find people to work with
Mentorship
Put yourself out there - share your journey
Background in healthcare
Tailor CV around product management
PM your life, health, relationship, job search
Put yourself out there to stand out
Don’t need to go for a big company - can do startup
Ask ppl to review your work
Networking - not just to get a job. Network for value
Share work, social media, networking
Putting yourself out there
Tell your story
Join communities
By networking
Nigeria have good communities, supportive
They do evaluation
Determined person, did job well
Go as fast as possible
Ask questions, don’t wait
Proactively research
Dedicated
Follow up
Roadmap for self
Work on open source projects - experience working with ppl
Twitter, LinkedIn
Post 1 thing per month on Twitter and LinkedIn
Don’t need to focus on 1 audience
Use Notion portfolio - about self, background, experience, projects → send link
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After taking a 6-week Product Management program with EntryLevel and learning online, Hassanat landed a Product Management internship. Within a few months, she was promoted to Associate Product Manager.
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