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. 

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.