10 Best Companies Hiring Product Managers in 2021

With so many companies hiring product managers, there has never been a better time to be a product manager. Just between the years of 2017 and 2019 alone, there was a 32% increase in available PM roles in the United States. The market is quickly changing, products are becoming more complex, and companies need skilled product managers that can keep up – you could be just what they’re looking for.

Because products are becoming more and more complex, the PM job market is getting competitive. If you want to land a job at a company like Uber, Amazon, Google, or Apple, you’re going to have to know exactly what they’re looking for when hiring PMs.

The good news is that the job positions are out there! You can apply for one of the best product manager jobs in 2021 with confidence if you simply know how to leverage your experiences to communicate to a company that YOU are what they’ve been missing.

What Makes A Good Product Management Position?

Of course, the salary will matter when looking at the best companies hiring product managers, but that should never be the deciding factor. If a job is not challenging, disturbs your comfort, or feels like a dead-end, the monetary factor might just not be enough to stick it out any longer.

We recommend that you consider the following when looking for the best companies that are hiring PMs (it will be up to you to decide which are the most important!):

Responsibilities

Take a good look at the job description before you update your resume and get excited about applying. Are your current skills and experiences in line with what you will be expected to do in a new position?

If you’re a young product manager, don’t be deterred by positions with high-level responsibilities, and don’t limit yourself to entry-level positions. Things move fast in the product manager world, and you might be more up to date with current trends than someone who has been in the biz for, say, 10-years.

Growth

Of course, as a PM, you are expected to bring growth to the company through strategic road mapping, product perfecting, and consumer habit research, but you have to think about your PM career growth, too! Is the company that you’re applying to  provide you with the opportunity to rise through the ranks? If so, what does that process look like? Are they going to provide you with the means to advance your career through continuing education and/or mentorships?

Personality

How do you relate to the company on a personal level? This can be an incredibly important factor when it comes to finding your perfect PM job. For example, if you are a person who is passionate about traveling, Airbnb might be YOUR dream job. For a person who loves techie products, Apple or Netflix might be a better match.

The 10 Best Companies Hiring Product Managers

Now we’re going to take a deep dive into the ten best companies that are hiring product managers in 2021. Within this list, you will also find how YOU can leverage your background to land a job at the company of your choice.

1. Amazon
2. Facebook
3. Google
4. Airbnb
5. Tesla
6. PayPal
7. Uber
8. Stripe
9. Microsoft
10. Apple

1. Amazon

Amazon is an incredibly attractive company to product managers because they continually expand their efforts into other industries. In just the past few years, they have gone from an online store to a music and video streaming service, smart device provider, delivery service, and beyond. In order to land a PM job at Amazon, you will have to know what department you desire to work in and how to communicate why you’re the best fit.

Here are some qualities that Amazon looks for in a product manager:

• Business InsiderLeadership (you must be able to lead a multi-functional team that includes engineers)
• Innovative, outside-of-the-box thinking
• The ability to produce results
• Effective communication skills
• The ability to take complete responsibility for your products

2. Facebook

Facebook states on their Product Manager career page that they are looking for “…a visionary who guides new product ideas from an initial concept to a full-blown product launch.” Facebook makes it abundantly clear that they are looking for someone with an entrepreneurial mindset – someone who is a self-starter and has the vision to make the future better by creating products that will disrupt the status quo.

3. Google

Google [“PMs that have versatility rather than PMs who are specialized in one area or another. Business Insider reported that Google wants PMs that have strong strategic thinking skills and understand the technical and business sides of the job. Google, much like Amazon, is always developing new products and looking for ways to be innovative. They want a PM who is flexible enough to fit into all categories of their company and prepared for anything.

4. Airbnb

Airbnb is a good PM career move for those who are passionate about travel and community-focused products. Product Lead for Trust & Safety at Airbnb, Angeli Jain, said that Airbnb looks for the following qualities when hiring PMs:

• Vision – creative and outside-of-the-box answer to questions.
• Structured thinking – PMs should take their time at the “drawing board” when searching for answers or solutions.
• Leadership & collaboration – Airbnb is all about community and teamwork. They may ask you how you’ve solved issues between yourself and a co-worker before to see how well you are able to work with others.
• Execution and accountability – as a PM at Airbnb, they will expect you to take full responsibility for the success or failure of a product.

5. Tesla

Tesla aims to accelerate world’s transition to a sustainable energy by ensuring we provide a seamless and frictionless experience to our customers. To meet this goal, Tesla is constantly striving to innovate and provide best in class services through introduction of pioneering new products and services.

According to Skill Roads, Tesla looks for the following qualities in employees:

• Diversity. They look for varied personalities, thinkers, backgrounds. If you can solve a problem, that is great, but if you can solve a problem in a creative and unique way(s), then that is a big big plus.
• Impact. Someone who can really affect and improve their setting is sure to get a job at Tesla. The working atmosphere is very important at Tesla Motors and hardworking and dedicated people inspire others to improve.
• Potential. There are multiple stories of students getting a job at Tesla with absolutely no prior experience of work, which might seem ludicrous at first. In reality, this shows how much the company values the future and how employees can improve themselves and the company.
• Preparedness. This is a simple point to understand. Someone who is passionate to work for Tesla will obsess over this idea and try to make their chances of employment as high as possible. 

6. PayPal

PayPal quickly transitioned from a subsidiary of eBay to one of the leaders of the fin-tech world. According to our internal sources at Paypal, excellent communication is the way to have a PM career at PayPal. Even though PayPal is a tech-based company, technical experience isn’t exactly what they’re looking for. They are really looking for someone versatile, have previous experience as a successful PM, and effectively communicate with team members and other departments.

7. Uber

If you want your PM career to take you to Uber, the biggest rideshare company in the world, you will have to have at least three years of experience in the industry. Uber has many different branches, like “Uber for Business” and “UberEats,” for example, so the exact experience that you need will have to match up to the position that you’re applying for. That said, Uber hires PMs with backgrounds in Computer Science, Engineering, Program Management, Business, and Data.

Here are some example questions you might hear in an Uber PM interview:

• “Tell me about a free service you like and how would you monetize it.”
• “Describe the last time you had to make a challenging decision when prioritizing.”
• “There’s been a 15% drop in usage of UberEats — how do you fix it?”

8. Stripe

At Stripe, Product Managers help build innovative payments products for our customers. Product development is an extremely collaborative effort between engineering, design, and customer-facing teams. You’d be joining a small group of experienced Product Managers who have helped build successful products at companies such as Apple, Facebook, Flipboard, Google, Microsoft, and Twitter.

Here are some qualities Stripe looks for in product managers:

• You have a nose for great products and advocate for new features with qualitative and quantitative reasoning
• You do whatever it takes to make your product and team successful, whether that means writing a QA plan
• You are technical enough to ask engineers good questions about architecture and product decisions alike
• You communicate with empathy and exceptional precision

9.  Microsoft

Microsoft is still one of the best tech companies to work for. Their market value stayed pretty consistent until 2019, and then it completely skyrocketed. You can land a job at this trillion-dollar company by having the ability to work efficiently, quickly, and communicate well with teams across the world.

10. Apple

Apple was the first company to reach a trillion-dollar market cap. All of that money allows them to really hire as many product managers as they find necessary. This means that you (yes, YOU) have a great opportunity to land a product manager job at Apple – but it isn’t going to be easy.

BGR reported that Apple asks some pretty out-there questions that they expect impressive answers to. Questions like:

• “Tell me about a time when you had to convince someone something without you having authority over them”
• “Why do you want to work at Apple?”
• “What’s your favorite Apple product? Why? How would you improve it?”

Apple asks these questions to test a prospective PM’s ability to solve problems, think strategically, and lead a product to a successful future.

Final Thoughts on Companies Hiring PMs

There you have it! The 10 best companies hiring product managers and tips for landing a job in 2021. If you’re looking for more guidance, Product Management Exercises can help! We have more practice interview questions and coaching services, so you can walk into any PM interview completely prepared! Sign up on Product Management Exercises to gain premium access.