Coaching
“I had a really great experience. This coaching tailors to people looking for PM jobs at very competitive places – it’s a lot of work, and it’s a guide to do well in every aspect of the interview, from tone to content to framing – to full on nail it. If someone’s going for a PM job somewhere really competitive, it would be really good. But if someone was just looking to get any job as fast as possible this might be too detailed.” -Christian, Senior PM, Wells Fargo
“By the time you and I hooked up, I was close to a year without a job and fairly desperate. In 10 months I’d only had 3 in-person interviews and a dozen recruiter screens. Searching that long really sapped my belief in myself and my capabilities, and I was doubting my competence as a PM and whether I’d ever work in the field again
The coaching gave me tools that didn’t know I needed, and helped me articulate a more systematic approach to the job hunt. From a personal standpoint, it gave me more discipline in approaching the drudgery of the whole process. One think job seekers lack is day to day structure.
I had one other coach in the past and it was a sh***y experience. What I really appreciate about your approach is that you did, some weeks for us, more work than I did. When I have a week when I struggle to be motivated, having you put all the work in, all the materials and the structure, it’s motivating. At very least it causes guilt.
If you’re thinking about working with Matt as a coach, I would say jump on an opportunity like this early. Don’t wait until you exhausted all your tips and tricks. Use it to bring yourself a sense of urgency if you don’t already have one. Not giving yourself every tool available puts yourself at a severe disadvantage.” -Mike, Senior PM, Autodesk
“Before the coaching the job search was overwhelming. I didn’t know what job I wanted, and I felt a lack of clarity and direction about the process. You methodically set actionable items for me and pushed me to work on them, which was one of the biggest values I got from the coaching. Personally, I was struggling with a breakup and not having a job, but having you beside me and encouraging me to keep working was helpful. I’m much happier now that have a great job and am surrounded by people that I like!” -Song, Growth, Workato
“I know that a lot of people would balk at the idea of spending on a job coach, but from my perspective, every single dollar and every single minute that I’ve spent has been incredibly valuable in preparing me for negotiation, interviewing, and finding companies. I would not have been able to do this by myself.
I figure that, benefits included, I’ll be making about double what I was making this time last year. The best part though is that the job matches my skills and desires precisely (API development in PHP, which was my favorite part of my previous job). I start training on Monday at the home office! I turned down two other opportunities to take this, though to be honest it was at the top of my list ever since I found it.” –Jesse, Senior Developer, Dealer Inspire
“It is the second week since starting my new career and I couldn’t be happier! After spending 4 years in customer success and retention, I wanted to make the shift over to outside sales and Matt was exactly the right person to coach me into that new role.
Matt is an incredibly insightful person whose years of experience with the interview process provided me with a totally unique perspective. He was able to spot my strengths and weaknesses quickly and coach me in a way that was transparent, direct, and valuable.
After several sessions with Matt I not only felt more confident in the interview process, but I had a much clearer understanding of what I wanted in my next career. Thank you for everything Matt, you are awesome!” –Blake, Account Executive, Broadly
How to Get First-Round Interviews at Tech Companies eBook and resources
“Just wanted to touch base again and say that the book is super helpful and insightful! Thanks a lot.” -Chris, Product Manager, Epic
“Matt — this is Jedi-like material you’re creating! Thank you! I’ve disqualified two companies based on your tactics and the informational interviews I’ve done. This has been the most helpful part of your philosophy — to not be shy about nuking companies based on the info you gather about them in these informal settings. The other thing that’s been most helpful is the advice you have surrounding the precise language to use in emails — e.g., the options for days to meet that you give people should be several days into the future, not “rightthisminute!”, so that increases the chances that the person will be free. Also, giving _specific_ times that you’d like to talk, to make it easier for the person to accept. I think the inclination is to say something like “I’ll clear my calendar so that we can meet whenever’s good for you,” in an effort to make it easy for the other person, but this actually forces them to think/decide. These tips are not common sense for someone like me, so they’ve been very helpful.” –Todd, Director of Product Management
“Hope you’re well! I wanted to pass along the news that I accepted an offer as an Associate Product Manager at Rally Health. Thank you so much for your support along this journey.” –David, APM, Rally Health
Mock interviews
If you’re interested, you can book your own mock interview here.
“Thanks a lot for the interview practice and providing detailed feedback, as well as the recorded video. It was all is very helpful. I enjoyed practicing and may hit you up again!” –Ali, Senior PM
“Really appreciate your help today – the feedback was to the point, and just on time when I went off the rails. It helped a lot to iterate and practice specific problem areas.” –Mariya, PM
Speeches and podcasts
Interested in having me as a speaker or podcast guest? Here’s some more information.
“Matt is exceptionally well organized and he spent the time and energy to ensure that our episode would be a success. He is very clearly an expert in his domain and it comes across with every answer. Leading up to the episode, Matt filled in a document with ideal questions and answers, making the entire process seamless. I say this with much respect to all of my other guests, but the episode we did with Matt was by far my personal favorite.” -Mary Fox, CEO of Marlow and host of the Marlow podcast
“Thank you for giving such concrete advice on how to approach the job search (it was by far the best Product School talk that I’ve heard, and I have heard quite a few!)” -Renate, PM at Google
“Matthew, I loved your talk at Product School. Seriously, it blew my mind.” -Vivek, PM
Matt’s interview skill
(This one is a bit different – it’s a review of my interview style by someone who helped give me a PM offer, rather than a client testimonial)
“Out of the nearly 100 candidates I’ve interviewed in my career, Matt was hands down the best at interviewing. He had great answers to our questions, knew how the product worked, and had even reached out to past employees to see what it was like to work at the company. During our interview recaps, a consistent point that we all discussed was how detailed his research was and how we felt that would translate into a great PM.” -Matt Diebolt, VP Engineering, Poll Everywhere