Product Gym by Elevate

I luckily me Rich at a Product Gym meetup event.   He is the architect to my success - revamping my resume, coaching me throughout the interview process and every step of the way in the job search process. Saying that I am grateful would be an understatement.  

My success rate went sky high from no call backs to multiple, within the first week!! I started to gain confidence then clarity.  Rich and his team focus on generating as many interviews as possible because those interviews serve to build your confidence.   Go for it - Don't waste anymore time thinking!  

I had spent years in Pharma sales.  I was getting burnt out moving from contract to contract.   I knew the trajectory I was on was leading me to Product Management.   I had taken a $4k course somewhere else but wasn't able to land a job.  Needless to say, I was wary about purchasing another bootcamp type of course.  However, after speaking with Richard and drilling him down on a nearly 2 hour phone call, he convinced me that their methodology would help me land the job that would fit my experience and passion.   After a painstaking and humbling course load, I learned how to interview well and was able to land my dream job with a healthcare startup!  It's my dream job - I can't thank these guys enough.  

Pro:  They will willingly and thoroughly answer all your questions related to how this program will work for you.  Get on the phone with them and ask them the real questions that matter. I've been tricked by reviews before and I sure wasn't going to take someone else's opinion.  I needed to hear it from them and the proof is in the pudding. I got my dream job.

Con: N/A

For me, the most intimidating part about transitioning into the Product Manager role is the technical aspect. I didn't have much experience in building up my technical skills because I worked mostly in finance.  But, during the 6 week course, tech experts, some who were PM and some who were developers, would come and speak to the class.  Listening to them speak about specific functions then working on the exercises, really helped build the confidence that I needed to start researching and fine-tuning the skills on my own.  Being immersed in class with the instructors and my fellow classmates is also a huge resource.   I watch and analyze how they answer questions in class, so I can see the differences from how I’m thinking and learn how to get to where they are.  

Pros:  I felt fully prepared during the interview process answering tech related questions and was also able to back up any exercise given with the knowledge I attained during the 6 week course.  

Cons:  This isn't for the weak at heart.  You have to want it. You have to have a Type A personality. You have to be a driven person that plans and organizes, and can be responsible for many moving parts. You have to be interested in the field you are getting into and rise once you get there. There is no room for slacking off in this field and especially not in this course because it is a rigorous boot camp.  There is just no room for slacking off.  

I was already going to a ton of interviews before I met these! I thought it was good, but I wasn't getting the offers. Rich took my interview game to the Lebron James level. I am forever grateful. The secret the closing offers is aligning your background with the pain the company is experiencing and delivering the message in the form of a pitch. And I have to say to say this, Product Gym's pitch training is on point. 100% on point. 

Pros: Everything, Everything you need to know about interviewing is here. Don't waste another minute. I tried to do this on my own for a year. I did 118 interviews in less than 3 months and ended up with 4 offers. I have nothing but the best to say about Product Gym. 

Cons: Its really hard work, but considering I got a $70K pay bump its worth it. I will talk to you if you do not believe me.

If you need help driving an insane amount of traffic towards your linkedin so you can do better interviews with the most exciting companies that hit these boys up. I interviewed with Google and Facebook, I didn't make it that far; but it is awesome just getting contacted from these companies. Interviewing is an unfair game and I really like the face that I have an unfair advantage with Product Gym by my side. Rich comes from a Tech Recruiting background, meaning he has a database of knowledge regarding how recruiters can find you. He helped tune up my profile so these top level recruiters found me. 

I am not talking agency headhunters; these are recruiters that are actually employed full time by the most awesome tech companies. 

Pros: 

They helped me get better interviews with better companies. 

Cons: 

You might not always be ready to interview with the majors. When facebook reached out to me it was my second week in the program. I wasn't ready, but honestly there's no way I could have been. However, I learned more failing that interview than I could have reading another book. Learn by doing people, it's how we learn.

The only thing you will need to know is staying consistent and maintaining a high level of discipline when it comes to applications and interviews. That's it. Everything else is secondary. If you lose focus of this you can go down a rabbit hole that is hard to come out of. 

Pros:

They are very focused here on numbers. I mean I can't say that I am surprised. Rich comes from a boiler room, aggressive cold call background. So, you come in here thinking that you are learning about PM, but then you end up getting so much more. You get to learn how to generate momentum. Rich loves that word. Its that special thing that makes you unstoppable.

Cons: 

Go get it. Don't complain about it. I love this team here, I feel really good sleeping at night knowing that I have a whole coaching staff ready to help me.

I was sending out the wrong resume to the right job. I am coming from finance and I kept you using a finance resume to apply to PM roles, it was clearly not working. Rich helped me tune it up and boom I average right now 4 to 7 interviews a week. 

Pros: 

Trust what they tell you to do about the resume. The resume defines everything. It defines your pitch, the scale that you can apply on, and everything else that is necessary. 

Cons:

Don't spend too much time being fixated on the resume. At some point you have to go.

Would you believe me if I told you I was so damn passionate about being a product manager that I took a class from Product School and GA? That’s right, that’s me! I did it all, so I can tell you that Product School and General Assembly only focuses on your job after the offer. But how are we going to get there? I had great instructors from campuses, but you have ask yourself; does the instructor have the same challenges as you? It doesn’t matter that your instructor is working at Facebook, you are not working at facebook. Your instructor is not interviewing for you. Your instructor won’t interview for you. If your instructor has never experienced the challenges you have, then they can never really help you. 

The instructors here and you get a freaking team of 10+ instructors, half of them were former students that are working PM’s right now that transitioned into Product with no Product experience. They know the pain you are going through right now. My facebook instructor was very good; but I don’t need to know how to facilitate design sprints, wireframe, or try to reach a group consensus. I need interviews right now. Within 3 weeks, I had more interviews than I could handle in less than a month. 

Pros: Everything 

Cons: Nothing 

These guys are awesome thinking about this. I don’t come from the traditional background. Well, most of my classmates didn’t either; but I do learn better at my own pace. Product Gym provided me with 12 months of access to the classes and workshops, which was great. After hearing the data science portion for the third time; I get it now better than most. It was something that I was really interested in. 

Now that I have landed the job; this information is even more pertinent to me than ever. 

Pros: Like I said 12 months of access. 

Cons: Honestly, I can’t think of any and I will tell whoever is reading this why. IT IS MANDATORY TO GIVE FEEDBACK HERE AFTER EVERY SESSION. Lol!!! Seriously. The founders here Rich and Cody immediately implement all the valid feedback; so even though this class is not perfect - these boys continuously improve upon it. They want to hear your feedback. I guess the only sad part is that some students don’t write that feedback. 

As a management consultant that just graduated school a few years ago. My schedule is hectic enough as it is. I never have anytime to myself. Thankfully, Product Gym holds class both during the week for practical interview training and weekends where you can learn the fundamentals. 
 
Pros: I want to give a big thanks to Rich! Coming in from Accenture, the travel schedule is unforgivable and I could tell that Rich was truly vested in me to succeed. Many of my phone calls with him were just me venting, but he is a GREAT LISTENER! 
 
Cons: I wish this course was like a 24 hour gym, but that’s not going to happen. Keep it up PG! 

One of my biggest challenges was feeling that I didn’t have enough experience. Rich and Cody helped me through that tremendously. I was always feeling worried about not having enough experience, but what Product Gym helped me understand was its not my fault. Not having ALL the experience is okay. It’s not my fault I work for a company that chooses to stay with waterfall. There was nothing I could have done about that. You are only going to develop the experience on the job and that was what they helped me do, LAND the job. Everything else was just so theoretical. 

Pros:

Focuses on interviewing a lot. This place is all about interviewing here. More phone screens, more onsites, more offers. I landed 2 offers, both of which I am very happy about. 

Cons: 

The rates are going up folks! So, get in while you still can. 

The thing that is really cool about Rich and Cody’s program is they make a big emphasis on the psychological obstacles one goes through during the interview. Interviewing is never fun regardless who you are, but it can be less painful. With Product Gym they make fun. Its hard work, but its worth it. 
 
Pros
 
These guys stress a lot about interviewing and I have seen with my own eyes the number of people that get offers here. These people MEAN business. 
 
Cons 
 
For me, there was no. They were extremely professional and courteous. 

I really want to thank Product Gym for helping me improve the confidence of my interview game. I am already a Product Manager right now and even though I have the skills required to succeed on the job, I completely agreed with Rich that one’s ability to do any job well has no relation to interviewing for that very job. This is definitely the case for me. The mock interviewing that Product Gym hosts is out of this world. They taught me how to gauge, lead, and dictate the entire interview process. The argument that Rich and Cody makes is that the hiring team has no clear direction on how to hire people, because if they did have a plan; there really isn’t a reason for them to speak with you at all. There is so much talent out there competing for the same jobs. 
 
This is why you have to generate your interviews like a salesperson, like a hunter as Rich says. Interview for the role like you are an investor (you really are, because you are investing your time), and once you land the job .. treat the product as if you are the owner. 
 
I have had a lot of ups and downs during this period and the entire team at PG got me through it. Thank you so very much. 
 
Pros 
 
Keep doing what you guys are doing. 
 
Cons
 
Wish I had more time to party with Rich. This guy is a beast! 
 
 
I Developed My PM Skills by Interviewing 

I really want to thank PG for supporting me throughout my journey. I just became a father and balancing my job hunt, along with a full-time job, and a new born is NOT EASY. These staff at PG were phenomenal. I was about to attend as many sessions as I needed and the coaches here are very accessible. I couldn’t imagine being able to land the job I had now without them. 

They made it happen for me. I am very happy with how things turned out for me and I would recommend this program to anyone that is serious about making a transition. 

There were definitely times when I was frustrated, but the is to be expected. Keep your head down and do the work. The rest will work itself out. 

When you enroll with Product Gym; the feeling is that you are a professional athlete and they are going to take your game to the next level. The sure as heck did! 

When I took a class at Product School there was only one instructor per class; and it was difficult for me to develop my technical skills from a PM that was not technical herself. This is a classic case of blind leading the blinder. 

With Product Gym you get 6 subject matter experts that just know their stuff. I had a data scientist for the data questions, a UX designer for all the design questions, a Google engineer for the engineering questions, and just about every subject matter expert you can think. 

They are solely focused on keeping your job hunt simple; more phone screens, more onsites, more offers. It’s just that simple. 

Yup, its doable! I averaged 15 interviews a week and I did a GA class before them, so let me save you some money. Richard is right! Without interviews you will never land this job, no matter how much experience you have or don’t have. 

With Product Product Gym, my resume was revamped before the next class officially started, I was able to sit in on the current class that week, and started applying in 4 days. I was very nervous about interviewing at first, but Richard and his coaching staff are right about one thing; this is a numbers game. You have no control when these companies will contact you, so you might as well start generating activity into the funnel ASAP rocky! Treat yourself like a product that needs to be shipped and go for it. 

I was able to score 15 interviews per week and on the high side I did 27 interviews. They showed me ways to game the system, I even asked my boss to work Fridays from home to handle the interview volume. This was hard work and it was all worth it because in the end I was able to land 6 offers. Rich and the team helped me choose the right one for me. 

Just trust these guys and do the work. Right now, I bought something worth way more than $3,500; my freedom! I don’t ever have to feel like I am held hostage ever again in my life. 

Thank you Product Gym!

This is where I was feeling very stuck. Case studies, take-home assignments, coding challenges, and whatever else you want to call be used as free labor. Case studies were killing my week. It was insane the amount of time it takes and still no guarantee for the next round. 

Thank you Product Gym. Rich and Cody had a vault of case studies and provided me with a no-nonsense guide to how to crack it myself even when they did not have them (and they have a huge vault from most major companies). 

I remember the medieval days when I had to reschedule, cancel, or postpone interviews because I had to spend all my free time working on these case studies. 

Thanks for the support team. We did it fam! 

This was very hard. There were many times that I wanted to quit, but thankfully Cody and Richard never allowed that to happen. 

I want to preface this review by first saying that this was the hardest thing I had ever had to do. Some of you reading right now may be struggling in the process; but I implore to come and sign up with these guys. They know what they are doing. Within 22 days after signing up with them I had more phone screens than I could handle. There were a lot of ups and downs, but the support is phenomenal here.