👀 Yahoo APM: Application to Offer – iykyk

UCSD, Consulting, and Cognitive Science

Hi there 👋 — Who are you and what’s your background?

I’m Ajit, I’m 23, and currently in the Bay Area. I am a part of Yahoo’s APM program and I’m currently working on Yahoo Sports. I grew up in the East Bay (Fremont and Pleasanton) and went to school at UC San Diego where I majored in Cognitive Science - Machine Learning with minors in Computer Science and Business.

I was always fascinated by how technology was becoming more and more a part of our everyday lives and was always more interested in how technology affects people and improves our lives than how the technology worked itself - though that’s also very important to understand as a product manager. Throughout college I tried to get as many diverse experiences as possible in the fields of engineering, design, and business. I also tried to get involved in organizations and did my best to seek out leadership opportunities. In college, I was a tour guide for UCSD, a leader in Triton Consulting Group - a consulting student org, and a TA for a product marketing class in my senior year.I love the field of product because beautiful product experiences enhance all of our lives, and bring joy to us as users. Product management allows you to uplift, contribute, and empathize every step of the way in creating a product experience, and I think that’s one hell of an opportunity to take on and get your hands dirty with as an ambitious new grad.Though all of my internships were at B2B companies working on B2B products, I’ve always had a deeper desire to work on consumer-facing problems, creating product experiences that everyday people like my friends and family can interact with and enjoy.For fun, I like to spend time with friends and family, watch sports, and keep up to date with trends in tech, finance, and the general consumer space.

A Challenging but Rewarding Program

How is the program structured, for those that are unfamiliar?

The Associate Product Management [APM] Program is a robust, Learning and Development incubator for emerging PM talent coming together as a cohort. It is structured around leadership, mentorship, community, and growth.Yahoo’s program offers vetted, high-impact projects that thrust early career talent into roles with significant leadership and responsibility, while also providing community and mentorship to set the APMs up to succeed. Our cohort jokes that it’s like being dropped into the deep-end of a 20-foot pool, but with a floatie on and all the resources to learn how to swim.

As we assessed key pillars for 2023’s program, we’ve decided to shift away from the program’s legacy roots and become a cornerstone of how entry-level PMs come into Yahoo. We are removing the rotational aspect of the program. This includes evolving and expanding on our extensive L&D program as a part of the APMs’ onboarding experience and continued career growth. This also allows APMs to have more impact and ownership in their product area.

All APMs are assigned APM buddies (an older APM - think like a Big in college), and an APM mentor - a director-level or higher product leader within the company who has signed up to mentor and take an APM under their wing. Your buddy and mentor will help tremendously in helping you get your footing to succeed as an APM.Additionally, there are regular workshops, tech talks, and learning sessions to supplement growth as a product leader. There is a Steering Committee, consisting of Yahoo’s Product leadership and Talent Acquisition folks, that “runs” the program, regularly checking-in with all APMs.

Understated Program Perks

Is there anything the landing page doesn't tell us about the APMM program?

I guess how fun it is! Being an APM is a roller-coaster ride with a lot of highs. There are many events and off sites to socialize and bond with your fellow APMs. There is also a lot of executive exposure and networking opportunities with higher-ups in the company. I would say the website understates the indirect perks of the program.

Acing the Yahoo APM Interview

What do you think made you stand out as an applicant and is there a recruitment strategy that nobody is doing right now, but should be?

For a full-time PM role at Yahoo, it definitely helped me that I already had an APM internship - but I received that APM internship as well as Yahoo’s full-time offer without any referral or internal foot in the door.I believe what made me stand out as an applicant was my resume with diverse experiences and well-written experience bullets. I completed internships in consulting, design, engineering, and finally product management at companies ranging from startups to tech giants.

The fields of design, engineering, and business are all adjacent and highly related to product management -- having experiences ranging across these fields is a good proxy to signal that you have the qualifications to be a strong product manager.The key attributes the Yahoo APM program looks for in candidates are as follows:

1. Analytical experience

2. Leadership experience — Ownership of projects and leads teams to bring out the best in people, owns the results and looks for ways to collect feedback, and then iterate/improve on that feedback.

3. Product/Design sense — natural instinct for what makes for generally good and bad product experiences

4. Effective written/oral communication

5. Structured problem solving — breaking down an ambiguous problem into actionable pieces. PM frameworks found in books like Cracking the PM Interview help a lot with this

6. Bonus: technical skills/experience technical experience or skills are not required but definitely help. The program needs to be able to gauge that you’d be able to work effectively with engineers and speak their language conceptually. No, haha, the actual job does not require any coding.

Focusing on these attributes and tailoring your resume and experiences to reflect these traits will help greatly in the resume review process. The strategy of trying to accumulate diverse experiences through college across leadership, engineering, design, and business is one I think more people could be doing.Although PM has to be on your radar pretty early in college for this strategy to work, don’t think that it's too late. Experiences across all these fields are not needed to receive an offer, I just believe it’s an effective strategy to pursue if you have the opportunities and timeframe to do so.

Yahoo APM Salary Progression

What is the average starting salary for program participants and what does the salary progression look like once you’ve graduated from the program?

The average starting salary is comparable and consistent with other leading APM programs.Promotions are performance-based and dependent on the APM’s readiness and business needs. During the two years within the program, APMs will have built-in feedback conversations with their managers within the first 3-6 months of their start, 12 months, and 18 months. Promotions typically take place either in Year-end or mid-year cycles.

My next career target is becoming a Sr. PM, where I hope to own impact for a specific component of the Yahoo Sports product suite, such as Daily Fantasy Sports or Sports articles. Following Sr PM, the next role would either be Principal Product Manager or Manager of Product Management, depending on if you want to take the individual contributor (IC) or management route. Many PMs also decide to switch career paths at this stage - often into VC or Strategy, and some decide to pursue their own business ventures as founders.It’s really up to the individual to define their own career path and career growth following the 2-year program, but there is no need to re-apply for a PM role at Yahoo if you’d like to continue as a Sr. PM. Following the 2 year program, you’ll also have the opportunity to rotate products/teams.

Learning to Build and Operate for Millions

What’s your next play after graduating from this program and how has this program impacted your 5-10 year career plan?

I am having a blast on Yahoo Sports, it’s the first time working on something where I am extremely passionate about the industry/area I’m working in - so I see myself staying here for a while. Until I feel like I’m not learning or growing anymore, or just have a gut feeling for a change, I will likely continue as a PM on Yahoo Sports where I hope to grow my scope, impact, and influence.

At Yahoo, I am learning how big established businesses operate and create products with millions of users in mind. I’m learning about the tech stack and engineering architecture required to support large amounts of users without crashing.

Similarly, I’d like to gain hands-on experience on how start-ups operate, grow, and scale by being an early member at a startup whose mission aligns with one of my core values or passions.

Following that, I would love to start my own company that solves a real user problem I’m passionate about. I think I have always had an entrepreneurial spirit and hope I get a chance to act on it in the future.