Hi! My name is Anya. I run the Product Pulse Telegram channel, work as a PMM in tech (B2B to be precise), and also consult on marketing, product, and career-related topics.
Today, I’m going to tell you all about my career path and share some of my tips — and anti-tips.
How It All Started
Let’s start with this: I have a technical background. I got my Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and a Master’s degree in Product Development Management of IT Services – yeah, I’m a tech girlie. The program was designed to teach us to become technical product managers: it was pretty well-balanced, combining both technical and business disciplines — entrepreneurship, for example. It was fun.
But my education was more of a consequence than a cause. I knew from the very beginning that I wasn’t going to become a software engineer (four years of a Bachelor’s degree made that pretty clear), but I still wanted to stay in tech. So when I discovered the product manager profession during my fourth year, the rest of my career plan was basically decided.
First things first (even before starting my Master’s), I decided to take as many free courses as possible, get as many certificates as possible (it was 2021, when Coursera was still very much alive, and I took several specialization programs there), and build a proper portfolio around a pet project.
Of course, I never really considered it an “educational” project. At the time, I already had a fairly large audience on Instagram, so I was lucky enough to learn how to test hypotheses and work with different frameworks on a real audience.
So, in the summer of 2021, I started conducting my first customer interviews, built a website on Tilda, got my first traffic and my first users. Feeling absolutely thrilled with my success, I simultaneously decided to apply for a Master’s degree — and got in.
At the same time, I put together my portfolio, created a resume following the classic course formula (“task → action → measurable result”), and started applying for internships at big tech companies.
First Wins and Failures
My strategy was as simple as it gets: apply to a million job postings and eventually something will work out. I created a generic cover letter and sent it to every company I saw, trying to apply to approximately a million vacancies every single day.
It’s worth mentioning that at the time I was working as a UX/UI designer in an office, 5 days a week, from opening to closing time. So, obviously, I couldn’t interview during normal human hours, which made an already difficult attempt to break into product management through internships even harder.
Probably more than 95% of my applications ended either in silence or rejection. But thanks to my sheer stubbornness, about 1–2 months after starting the search, I successfully made it through approximately a million interview stages and got an offer for a Product Intern position on a new international initiative at a huge e-commerce company.
I remember that at the time I could practically see my entire glamorous future unfolding in front of my eyes, like in a movie: there I was, working in a beautiful office on one of the highest floors of Moscow City, talking to Important People, going on international business trips, and adding a shiny new line to my CV.
I had beautiful clothes, a huge professional network, I was rich and successful, and everyone wanted to be me.
Basically, I was in a state of blissful ecstasy, imagining how I would escape my working-class life and become that girl.
Just a dream. You’re 21, and you have absolutely amazing prospects.
So, what did I do?
I turned it down.
From a career perspective, this was a huge failure, a mistake, a waste of time. I understood that logically and rationally back then, and I still understand it now.
However, I’ve always had very strong intuition, and mine was telling me that this simply wasn’t my vibe.
Why am I talking about vibes? Because when a company’s vibe doesn’t match your own, it can lead to burnout and a quiet hatred of the career path you’ve chosen.
Sorry, but nobody is going to convince me otherwise. I’m Gen Z.
A Quiet Period and a Random Coincidence
After turning down the offer, I fell into a state of gloom and apathy. The rational part of me was screaming, “What an idiot you are! This was a one-in-a-million opportunity!”
I understood that myself, so I kept beating myself up over it. My studies were eating up a ton of time, and I no longer had the energy to restart the job search. At the same time, I was making new connections and starting my academic life: regularly attending conferences and writing papers, building my LinkedIn network, participating in product competitions, and occasionally taking additional courses.
Life went on.
Then, in June/July 2022, I unexpectedly received an invitation to apply for a Junior Product Manager position at a small IT company. I went through the process and got the offer.
I grabbed this second chance at life with both hands and legs — and this time I wasn’t letting it go.
First Steps and Growth
Since I was absolutely determined to grow hard, I started performing beyond expectations.
Overall, this strategy turned out to be the right one, and I developed my skills a lot. The team was very small, which meant I had to turn into a many-handed, many-legged creature. That’s how marketing entered my life. And it came quite naturally — luckily, many things in product management turned out to be pretty similar.
In April 2023, I started my Telegram channel 🫡
It became a great way for me to systematize my knowledge, because I started by simply uploading useful materials from my notes, adding my own thoughts and observations. So, if you want to grow professionally, I strongly recommend starting a blog in whatever format works for you.
You don’t even need to build an audience. It’s enough to simply write posts about topics you find interesting and try to look at what you’ve written from different perspectives.
I started thinking about my next growth opportunity in the fall of 2023. I really wanted to grow both my level and my salary by changing jobs.
You know, to this day, the whole essence of mentoring for me comes down to three things:
- look at your situation from a different perspective;
- realize that it’s not actually hopeless — and maybe not that shitty;
- put together a list of actions you need to take to get out of the situation.
After my mentoring sessions, I realized two things.
First, I wasn’t actually a useless professional.
Second, my mentor gave me a great idea: I was already doing so much marketing, so why not look for a Product Marketing Manager specialization on the job market?
Here I should clarify something: to me, PMM is NOT a marketer. A PMM is a product person who understands marketing but is still primarily focused on product development. That’s why I don’t really like being called a marketer. I’m either a PMM, a Product Marketing Manager, or don’t call me anything.
This time, my job search took around 2–3 months because, as I noticed, the market had already started getting worse by then (it was the end of 2023). At some point, I became completely desperate. And then the heavens sent me the perfect match.
Remote work from anywhere in the world.
A promotion to mid-level.
A young team.
A position focused on developing new products within the company.
A startup atmosphere (and I love controlled chaos).
In November 2023, I accepted the offer and finally moved into a Middle Product Marketing Manager position at a B2B SaaS company.
Guys, how are you doing? Did you actually make it to the end? And… are you waiting for part two?
