Can I really get my first role in product?

If you're looking to get into a product role then you might worry that the opportunities just aren't there for you, but that's not true.  Just taking a look at the entry level roles shows you what employers are looking for, and you can definitely meet their needs. 

I'm based in the UK, and the most visited job site for us is indeed.co.uk.  A quick search on here shows that there are numerous Junior Product Manager roles available at present and looking through these, the following are the typical skills and experience needed for the role:

Skills

• The ability to communicate clearly to others

• Having the analytical skills to understand data

• Being organised and proactive

• Maintain a collaborative approach and work closely with others

• Having a technical understanding

Experience

• Working in a similar type organisation to that which is advertising the post

• Showing some entrepreneurial spirit

Even if you've never held a product role before, these skills and experiences can be shown from a variety of roles that you will have held.

Whether it's a scrum master in a startup, a project manager in a corporate, or an engineer in a growing SaaS business, there are opportunities to pick out the individual skills that you've developed in these roles and apply them to a product role.

Looking at some of the other leading recruitment sites around the world, we can see that the scene is very similar.  Whether it is monster.com in the USA, Killer Launch in India, or LinkedIn everywhere, opportunities are out there and they have similar required skills and experiences.