Product Gym by Elevate

I was such a pain in the a$$ to Richard…I can’t believe he put up with me and his team got me my dream job. I asked him every single question you can possibly imagine about the class because I did NOT want to spend another $4k on a course that would not get me the job. (yes, I took another PM course elsewhere and it didn’t do it for me)
This course got me the job – I’m a PM at a healthcare startup right now – it was a PERFECT FIT for my background in pharma advertising. 

Pros of the class: EVERYTHING the other reviews said. They focus on the job and the interview. They teach you the PM fundamentals with subject matter experts. Surprisingly (?) some of their alumni come back to the classes and tell you exactly their experience – wow, this proves that these guys have a track record.

Cons: its a lot of work – a lot of, sorta trial and error, but very focused-educated trial and error, but really the best method. My only gripe would be to have more warning on how difficult the transition would be. It helps that everyone in the room is also going through the same pain, but I just wasn’t expecting so much time to be spent on this. I got my dream job so it just goes to show, if you want to accomplish something you’ve never accomplished before, you have to start doing something you’ve never done before

These people mean business, so be sure that you are ready to do the work when you come in here. I landed my first Product Manager job with Product Gym after taking a class with Product School earlier in the year. This was an extra $3,500 investment, but it was damn worth it. I don't want to throw Product School under the bus, but although I enjoyed my team with them; they did nothing for me in terms of transitioning. My resume was never revamped, nor was my linkedin reconfigured, they were absolutely clueless in my transition. 

In less than 3 weeks after I enrolled in Product Gym, I was going on more interviews than I could handle. Its an awesome problem to have. I ended up landing 4 offers with Product Gym and I am very happy with my choice. 

I want to give a big thanks to all the instructors and coaches at Product Gym that made this transition possible. Thank you for never giving up on me. 

With Product Gym you can take their classes for up to 12 months and as a person that needs to understand everything, it really benefited me because I did not come from a technical background. The courses are split into 6 sections 

Hard 
Technical Engineering 
Product Design 
Data Analytics 

Soft 
Product Marketing 
Product Strategy 
Cultural and Behavioral Fit 

I needed to take the Hard Skills portion about 3 times. I didn’t need to, but I wanted to because they go out of their way to make sure you learn the fundamentals and the application portion of the business. The journey with Product Gym lasted 4 grueling months, but it was worth it. Seeing all the students land offers was also very inspiring for me. 

My advice for all of you reading these reviews is to take the class, follow everything they tell you to do, and commit. Don’t try to understand every little thing, because you won’t. You have to interview! Don’t focus on being perfect, because you won’t be perfect either. 

Good luck, hope you see some of you reading this review at an alumni event soon. 

I will really want to take the time to thank Product Gym for everything they did for me. Transitioning to Product Management has been my dream for the past year and during this time I tried everything. Product Gym provided with the support I needed to land this job. 

I want to thank Anthony Rudeen personally!!! He was a very big help in the process. 

Product Gym takes all the anxiety associated with getting this job away, so I was able to focus my time on the right activities that matter. As some of you guys can relate, job hunting is a full time job on top of your full time job. Things can get stressful very quickly when you are running into setbacks and there is not clear strategy on how to move forward. 

Product Gym helped me realized what activities were worth my time and took everything else off my plate. They helped me stay focus, get out of my own way, and get out of my head. Now, I have the job I wanted after landing 4 offers and I could not be happier. Even after landing the job, they are still in contact with me. 

Product Gym stuck with me for 8 months before I ultimately landed a job through them. Their coaching is awesome. The coaching team here surgically breaks down the entire interview processes so you are not surprised what happens during the interview. My greatest challenge was recognizing that interviewing for a product manager role is a numbers game. They constantly tell us that you cannot save or hold yourself out for any one company. You may not like to hear what they say, but they sincerely care about all the students that come through this program. 

I really want to take the time to thank Product Gym for everything they have done for me. I took the PM course at Product School and I truly feel this course is far superior for the following reason; I landed a job. The entire coaching staff is extremely helpful towards guiding all incoming students from inception to job placement. The criteria to enter into this program is very high, if you do not meet their requirements; they cannot and will not guarantee you a job. 

For me I came from a hedge fund and started my career off in banking before landing a product manager role at a finch company here. My biggest challenge was that I did not have a clear path to securing a position. Unlike Product School, Product Gym revamps your resume, linkedin, and cover letter as soon as you enroll. They help you generate interviews before you class starts, that way you actually come to class with questions about your interviews. Each class is structured around a particular interview category for that week such as: 

Technical Engineering

Product Design

Data Analytics 

Product Marketing

Product Strategy 

Cultural / Behavioral 

Product Gym not only had the answers to all the questions I encountered during my interviews; they bring top PMs and subject matter experts to help us refine our pitch. For example, their technical engineering interview questions are covered by a current lead software engineer from Google. The engineer walked us through all the questions from the perspective of other engineers that interview product managers. 

This process took only 7 weeks from me, but I still get access to all the Product Gym classes for up to 12 months after I landed my job. I guess this was a another major selling point for me; with Product School and General Assembly I am only able to take their classes for 8 or 10 weeks. At Product Gym I can access these classes for up to 12 months. This is the best $3,500 investment I have ever made. 

They are helping me now even after I started my job. 

Thanks Product Gym! I love my job and I recommend anybody that is struggling to make the transition to enroll with Product Gym. 

I began working as an Intern for Product Gym in June with the intention of moving into the Marketing arena. After being exposed to an overflow of Product Management content, I became super curious about learning how to transition into the field instead. As an intern,I have the golden opportunity to basically take the Product Management 6-Week course for free and honestly even if the course wasn’t actually offered for free, it would definitely still be worth the investment. The things that I love most about this program is first, the courses are taught by real-life Product Managers who are currently, and have been working in the field for many years. This is great because we’re constantly being fed new and relevant information about Product Management which in a sense, allows us to have an upper-hand in the overall job search and interview process. I also enjoy the different teaching styles and different perspectives offered by the instructors. Second, the courses are for the most part very engaging and hands on. For me, I definitely learn best in this way and appreciate working with other people who share either the same or contrasting viewpoints that I have, either way it generates conversation.

Overall, the courses definitely challenge you on how to think like a Product Manager and the information is easily digestible for those who have little to no experience such as myself. Lastly and most importantly, I love how passionate Rich is about this business. He genuinely wants to see us win and land the job of our dreams. He literally does everything in his power to make sure we go out there and crush these interviews; the numbers can show you better than I can tell you!

For those of you who are still undecided about taking the course or transitioning into Product Management in general, I highly recommend you read the Product Gym blog or even attend an event hosted by again, real Product Managers not retired ones. At the end of the day, nothing beats having that one-to-one interaction with Rich as he personally coaches you through the process! He really, really knows his stuff! I’m only half way through the course and my experience so far has been phenomenal.

The processes and methodologies of product management are often taught in a vacuum, and most programs barely scratch the surface.  Product Gym gets it right and sets students up for success once in the job by diving deep and teaching the cross functional nuance that the job entails. The curriculum is designed as such because above all, the program is designed to help you land the job. The instructors were extremely credible and helped me think like a product manager, starting with how I managed my own job search. The program instilled the confidence I needed to interact with hiring managers across a wide range of industries. I would definitely recommend Product Gym to any aspiring product managers looking to take control of their career. Having done the Product Management class at General Assembly before enrolling in the Product Gym program; I can say with complete confidence that Product Gym is far superior than any other program on the market. 

I just completed the weekend Product Management course here in NY, and it was awesome. My background is in Tech Sales and I came into this program very insecure that I wasn’t going to be able to make a transition without any coding skills. The instructors really helped me boost my technical acumen and confidence. I am now able to not only just talk the talk; but I understand the concepts on a deeper level. The career support here is also phenomenal, they completed revamped and tailored my resume, linkedin, and cover letter to play to my strengths. Every week we were focused on a different set of interview questions, where the instructors helped us break down these question, and customize our own unique answers. Lastly, the most awesome thing about Product Gym is the army of instructors that they have. What really differentiated this program from the other competitors out there was they brought in a different subject matter expert every week. For my class we even had a Top Tech Lead to go through all the engineering questions with us. How sick is that? They also brought in UX Designers, Data Scientists, and Product Marketing Experts; just to name a few. I had a very positive experience with Product Gym and I encourage anybody that is serious about making a transition; to contact them.

I have been working in finance the past 3 years and pretty much hated every minute of it. I really wanted to make a transition into product, but had no idea how to go about it. The main instructor and the entire team were so helpful. When I was looking up the competition; I noticed the entire market was mainly hosting PM classes with only one instructor. At Product Gym I had a team of subject matter experts on top of my main instructor that helped me in making the transition. They are awesome! All rockstars in their own right. They helped me with everything from gut renovating my resume to working on creating my own PM brand.

On top of that they have a VAULT of interview questions and walked me through how to navigate every question.

Product School was the most amazing experience of 2017. I had little to no product management experience when I enrolled in the course. Through a combination of lectures, assignments, and confidence exercises (Yes! We do them here.) I was able to generate 11 PM interviews by the third week of the program. We focus on PM Career Topics WEEKLY, not just concepts and theories; because the students are here to make a transition. Product Gym makes the transition and simple (not easy). 
Just do what the instructors and career support staff tells you here and you will be fine!

I felt like I was training for the special forces and I may well be; considering how competitive this damn role is. During the first open house I attended here, I notice there were 76 people from every background you can imagine trying to break into this field. The staff at Product Gym makes this process and simple as possible for you. First, they sit down and talk about your goals and desires in making the transition. Then, they completely revamped my background from my resume, linkedin, cover letter, and helped me build a “back story” which I will love them for until my last days. The professionals at Product Gym are hardcore believers on GAME PLAN! After helping me tailor my own custom job hunting plan; we set out to generate as many interviews as possible. There is no hand holding in that; you just have to do it. By week 2 I was already seeing interviews coming in. Booyah!

I haven’t made the transition yet, but I am averaging 7 interviews a week with a higher and higher conversion ratio. I welcome anybody that is truly considering making a transition to just sit down with this amazing group of Product Managers and Career Support Coaches, so they work on a game plan with you.

My path to Product Management was inadvertent. I never knew what it was, until my friend (an industry veteran) exposed me to it and I was hooked. I read every book I could find on the subject, network ferociously, and prayed. There wasn’t a single book or person that was able to provide me with a roadmap of how I was going to leave my job in finance and transition into product. I didn’t want to take a job I don’t want at a company I liked; just to HOPE I could transition into product someday. Yes someday, that one f****ing day that never seems to come around. And then I discovered Product Gym; once I was blind, but now I see. Their Head Career Coach sat down with me for 1 full hour and broke my game plan. They told me what I needed to do inside and outside of class to be successful. In addition, I was also given a set of metrics to work with; 5 final round interviews. I just needed 5 final rounds and I will be home free. 
I made the transition in two months. It was really hard and at times I really wanted to quit; but these guys wouldn’t let me. My advice to anybody looking to make the transition is to accept that this is going to be hard, follow the advice, and be prepared to do the work.

My instructors were all true product management veterans, having worked as PM’s at some of the world's top companies. Our Lead Instructor leveraged his vast experience as a PM to give the class examples of what we can expect to encounter and how to approach challenges. This was very helpful considering that most of the students in the class has very little PM experience. I particularly liked how they had a VAULT of interview questions. Each week you would learn how to master a very particular set of questions based on different categories. It was so refreshing to see students landing and passing interviews during the course. By the end of the course, in addition to the PM concepts you'll know how to generate interviews, prepare for the them, and work with your instructor to progress to the final rounds.