SoC #50: My Take on Current Trends in the PM Job Market and Where to Look

I'm Lisa - welcome to this week's edition of Stream of Consciousness - the newsletter for product leaders who want to build products and their careers more consciously, in ways that are inclusive, holistic, ethical, accessible, and sustainable.

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The systems that built big tech are crumbling.

According to Roger Lee's Layoffs.fyi, the number of tech employees laid off since the beginning of 2022 is now approaching 300,000.

While companies are trending towards risk-averse decisions, the impacts to hiring and the job market have been significant.

But what does this mean for product managers looking for new roles right now?

Well, a few things.

The market is busier than ever, to the point that recruiters and talent acquisition teams have never seen this before.

A quick peruse of LinkedIn shows that many roles have over 200 applicants (some postings I have seen have had over 1,000).

Because of the layoffs, not only are there more people to compete with for a single role, but the quality of candidates is also higher than it has ever been.

So what can you do if you're either unemployed or in an unstable role with pending job cuts and are looking for a new role right now?

Figure out what you can control and be very strategic.

Look at your online presence, LinkedIn profile, and resume and figure out how to be in the top 1%.

Instead of submitting a generic cover letter, submit a video explaining why you want to work at X company and how you are uniquely suited to solve the problems they are facing.

Instead of submitting a plain greyscale resume, submit one with colour that shows creativity while ticking most ATS boxes for keywords and format.

Instead of keeping your LinkedIn profile generic, focus on making it exceptional - add a video introduction as your profile photo to give hiring teams an immediate sense of your personality and approach. Write a stellar ABOUT section that uses common phrases listed in the job descriptions you're most excited about. Explain your experiences and tangible outcomes on customers you've worked with and the businesses you've worked for using metrics to back them up. (Note: If you need help with this I created a PM LinkedIn and Resume Guide that you can download to help you).

While most of the big players in tech have been heavy-handed in tightening their belts after growing too big, too quickly, they are not the be all and end all.

It used to be that tech was an industry itself.

Now, however, I would argue that tech is merely a tool that cuts across industries.

And there are many industries that are growing right now.

Mr. Rogers once said, "When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers - you will always find people who are helping.'"

Rather than focus your job search efforts on who pays the most or who has the most established product team, I'd shift your perspective to focus on the helpers - industries that are solving meaningful problems that will continue to have a need to be solved no matter what the economic circumstances are.

Here are 5 industries that are sprouting and that I predict will see massive amounts of growth over the next 5 years:

1. Climate Tech: This equation is quite simple: We need a planet to live on. We're currently destroying ours. There are a growing number of companies focused on making strides in this area to help us save Earth. A great source for product manger roles in climate tech is Climatebase. You can also check out top VC firms investing in this area and dig into their portfolio companies to see who's hiring - here's a running list of climate-focused venture funds.

2. Health Tech: Our population is aging. We're still living through a pandemic that has stressed our internal immune and external healthcare systems. Rates of preventable chronic illnesses are on the rise globally, with conditions like heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, chronic lung disease, and depression killing more than 41 million people prematurely. This represents 70% of all deaths globally. Here's a list of prominent investors in digital health (and their portfolio companies), Topstartups.io job board with an industry filter for health tech roles, the Work in Health Tech job board with a filter for product manager roles, and PM roles on the BuiltIn job board.

3. Decentralized Finance (DeFi): Web3, crypto, and blockchain are all the rageand sometimes come across as buzzwords only, but many don't fully understand their underpinnings in creating a decentralized peer-to-peer financial market that eliminates intermediaries like banks and third parties who traditional have functioned by moving money between parties and charge exorbitant fees for basic services like wire transfers. Check out Web3Jobs, CryptoJobs, and CryptoJobsList.

4. Agriculture and Food Delivery: Access to food is one of our most basic human needs. No matter what is happening economically, this will remain something that we will need to satisfy. What is more, climate change is dramatically impacting our global food supply and making our access to food insecure. Here's a list of top startups in agricultural tech, AGCareers Job Board, and 20 AgTech startups that are on the rise in 2023.

5. Education: With our ground shifting more than it ever has in recent history, more people are finding creative ways to learn new things in order to adapt to constantly changing context and constraints. While traditional education systems still exist, learning has taken on so many new shapes and forms for children and adults alike - online courses, YouTube series, podcasts, and more. I predict this trend will continue as we have more and more niches to explore to help us survive individually, and as a species. Here's McKinsey's list of five trends to watch in the Ed Tech industry,BuiltIn's list of top Ed Tech companies hiring remote workers, and the Work in Ed Tech job board.

***Bonus***

AI: I don't consider this an industry in itself vs. a tool that can be used across industries, but I'd be skipping over a rapidly growing area in tech if I didn't mention this. With OpenAI's ChatGPT and Dall · E exploding recently, applications in cybersecurity, communications, automating business processes, no-code tools, healthcare, IOT, ethics and tech for good, and more, the number of product-related jobs in artificial intelligence will continue to grow for the foreseeable future. For this one, to find out where PMs should look I went right to the source - AI itself:

Quick Tip: Teams are more likely to be hiring when they have more money. Another great way to get ahead of the curve while on the job hunt is to set up Google Alerts for companies in your industry-of-interest receiving massive injections of funding. i.e.

What industries are missing from this list? Where do you think PMs should be focusing to find work right now? Where have you just landed a new role?

Let me know!

Soulwork 💜

🔊 Five Criticism Survival Strategies from Glennon Doyle, Abby Wambach, and Amanda Doyle on the We Can Do Hard Things Podcast (I listened to this while driving this week and it is SO relatable and helpful).

Thanks for Reading!

If you're looking to improve as a conscious product leader and achieve outcomes in your career and the products you are building more intentionally, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. The Product Manager's Career Guide: If you are an early stage product manager with 0-5 years of experience and want to design your career more consciously this is for you. Get clarity on what to focus on and why, define the trajectory you are moving towards, and use my practical tools and downloadable templates to help you iterate on the systems you are using to reach your goals.

2. Stitch: The Best Resources for Product Managers: The most comprehensive resource for anyone in product looking to save hundreds of hours Googling to search for anything from "How to do customer interviews", "How to get promoted", "Roadmap templates", "How to build accessible products", "Stakeholder alignment", "Product pricing", and more. Over 2000 practical resources organized by product area in a single .pdf.

3. 1:1 Coaching Call with Me: A 60 minute video session where we tackle the most challenging problem you are facing right now.

Have a great week!

-Lisa ✨

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