Bijan Shahrokhi 
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Article Contents
Do you aspire to become a product manager? Are you looking for ways to ease the transition into this field? Are you wondering what type of education you need to not only land a job but to succeed?
If you answered yes to these questions, you’re in the right place. In this article, we discuss the type of education you need to become a product manager. While there are no hard and fast rules, there are some basics to keep in mind as you embark on your educational journey.
Before we go any further, it’s good to note that you can become a product manager without a college degree. Yes, it may complicate your path. And yes, it could even slow you down from landing a job. However, there are things you can do to help your cause:
- Show your career path and progress
- Share a product you’ve built
- Showcase your technical knowledge
- Advance your analytic knowledge
Does this mean you should forgo a college education? Of course not. If you dream of becoming a product manager, there are many benefits to obtaining a degree. You can gain knowledge in many subject areas, grow your network, and think through the type of career path you want to take.
With that being said, there are some important points of consideration when it comes to your education and becoming a PM.
1. Consider an MBA Degree
It’s a common myth among aspiring product managers that an MBA degree is required. Yes, it can make it a lot easier to land job interviews. And yes, it makes you more appealing because it shows that you (hopefully) understand the technical side of the field. But it’s far from required at most companies.
Should you decide that an MBA is right for you, here are some of the best programs in the United States:
- Stanford University
- University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)
- University of Chicago (Booth)
- Northwestern University (Kellogg)
- Harvard University
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan)
- Columbia University
- University of California–Berkeley (Haas)
- Yale University
- Dartmouth College (Tuck)
If you have an undergraduate degree and you want to take your education to the next level, an MBA makes sense.
2. Consider a Technical Degree Program
As an undergrad, a technical degree program is a good way to prepare for a career as a product manager. This is particularly true if you have your eyes set on a technical PM role.
An engineering or computer science degree can definitely work in your favor, as it shows that you’ll do well from a technical perspective as a product manager.
3. Consider a Business Degree
This is a more general degree program, but it can still help you as an aspiring product manager. You’ll learn a lot about the business world in general, which allows you to better identify with the many responsibilities of a PM.
For instance, you’ll take marketing classes, which allow you to focus on the user-facing side of things. This is critical to your success as a product manager, as you’re building products for other people. You need to know how they think and how you can best connect with them. Those are things that you’ll learn in marketing courses.
4. Some Companies Are Big on Education
Just the same as any other field, some companies are bigger on education than others. This is often the case with leading tech companies, such as Google. They’re often attracted to applicants with an MBA or a very technical background, as the experience and knowledge gained generally translates well into their work environment.
If you want to work for a specific company, learn more about their educational requirements by scouring recent PM job advertisements. You can find these online within a matter of minutes. From there, you can decide if you have the required education or need to take action.
5. The Best Education is Firsthand Experience
There was a time when a college education was a big deal to all employers. However, this no longer holds true across the board. In today’s job market, firsthand experience often trumps all other details — and that includes education.
This is especially the case in product management. Firsthand experience goes a long way in helping you land a role. And the best way to gain that experience is by developing your own product.
Here’s what we have to say about this in our “how to become a product manager” article:
The best way to present your Product Manager skills is to do the tasks that the job requires. How do you do it? Use your free time to build products and work on side projects that give you a chance to play the role of a Product Manager. This may cost you money, as you might have to pay a developer to code the product which you designed, but it will cost significantly less than paying a hefty price for a Product Manager course that gives you no practical experience.
Adding to this, there’s a hefty price associated with obtaining a college degree. By building a product, you learn to do the following without a high cost:
- Conceptualize a product
- Wireframe a product
- Work closely with developers
- Manage the product development under time and budget constraints
- QA and test
- Provide specs
- Generate a roadmap
- Conduct user testing
- Attract users
In other words, before you pay for a college education with the goal of becoming a PM, consider if it makes sense to build a product instead.
Final Thoughts
Here’s the easiest way to put it: you can have any education and work background and still become a product manager. Don’t let your education or lack thereof hold you back from heading down this career path.
Once you’re set on the fact that you want to become a PM, it’s all about self-educating. At PM Exercises, we can help you with that. From our library of interview questions to our interview course to our mock interview partners, we’re here to guide you through the process of finding a job that you love.
