🔍 Google APM's 2021 timeline, resources, and FAQs

How to prepare and when to apply for full-time or internship product management roles at Google

Thanks for commenting on my LinkedIn post about Google’s APM program (or already being a subscriber!).

As PM recruiting season heats up, I want to make sure you have the information you’ll need to succeed in your journey toward Google’s Associate Product Manager program. Today, I’ll go over the rough timeline, answer some questions I’ve heard a lot, share some prep resources (including a discount code for a popular one!), and talk about my personal experiences as a former Google APM.

Usual disclaimer: everything I say here is unofficial and based on my experiences — ask a Google recruiter for official information!

📆 APM application and interview timelines

The Google APM applications for full-time jobs usually open in mid-September, staying open for just one week. Internship applications sometimes open at the same time, sometimes a few weeks later. I’ll post here once I know for sure.

My advice is always to apply on the first day the application is open. It’ll increase your chances of getting seen by a recruiter early on — plus, I’ve heard horror stories from people who waited until nighttime on the last day to apply, only to find out that the application had closed halfway through the day. Don’t let that happen to you!

The timeline varies after that, but from what I’ve seen:

• First-round phone screens tend to be in early/mid October.

• Homework assignments tend to be due in late October or early November.

• Final-round “onsite” interviews tend to be in early/mid November.

Candidates with competing offers tend to get expedited schedules. One of my mentees had her final-round scheduled for one month in the future, but then she told her recruiter she had another offer and promptly got an invite for a final-round that was in two days!

💬 Frequently-asked questions

The most common questions I get from folks on LinkedIn and elsewhere are about work authorization. Specifically, if you need an American visa, can you still apply for Google APM?

I talked to some international APMs, and the answer is: yes, you can still apply. There are APMs from India, China, and countries across the globe each year. Google will do its best to keep you in the US and eventually sponsor a visa. That said, it’s very helpful to have some pre-existing work authorization coming in, which is why many international folks get master’s degrees in the US so they can snag a few years of initial work auth before they apply for APM.

To dispel some rumors I’ve seen floating around LinkedIn: no, there is not a separate application process or timeline for people who need visas. I think the timeline differs for EU residents who want to work in the EU, but if you want to work in the States, it’s the same application for everyone, American or not.

Another common question I get is about minimum or maximum experience. For internships, Google only hires rising seniors from undergrad. For full-time, Google hires upcoming or recent graduates from undergrad, master’s, or PhD programs. I don’t think there’s a hard cutoff in terms of years of experience, but I’ve seen folks with up to two years of experience in product management, software engineering, consulting, or other fields get into APM. The odds are best if you’re still a student, though.

📚 Recommended prep resources

Competition for Google APM slots is fierce — thousands of people apply for every open slot — so I always advise people to use a wide range of PM interview prep tools. That includes books, mock interviews with friends and coaches, and professionally-made PM interview prep courses.

For general PM interview prep, you can’t go wrong with books like Cracking the PM Interview. I also like The Design of Everyday Things and Thinkertoys for building your product-thinking and general creativity muscles. Stratechery is the gold standard for tech news and analysis, so it’s helpful to brush up on that too.

As for Google-specific prep, I recorded a few Google PM interview videos for my friends over at Product Alliance — scroll down on this page and you can sign up to get one of my free videos, where I show you how to answer a tough product & business strategy question similar to the ones Google asks.

From my free Google PM interview video (scroll down to get the signup form).

It’s also a good idea to invest in a Google-specific interview course. You should do your own research, of course, but I do recommend Product Alliance’s Flagship Google PM Interview Course, which gives you lifetime access to strategic insights into Google Cloud, YouTube, Search, and the company’s broader 10-year roadmap; examples of great answers, including voiceover commentary from a panel of PM interviewers; common mistakes that Google PM candidates make (and that you’ll learn to avoid); and lists of past interview questions. And you’ll get all the interview strategy videos I filmed!

I think the best way to get the Flagship Google Course is through the full course bundle, which gets you the Google course along with similar courses for Facebook and Amazon, plus resources for breaking into product if you’re new to the field. You can use my coupon link to get $25 off the full Product Alliance bundle — at the time I write this, the bundle is already 75% off, and my code should get you a discount on top of that.

If you’d like pointers on other interview resources, feel free to ask in the comments, or check out this article I wrote with more Google APM interview prep tips.

🌏 My experiences as an APM

I absolutely loved my experience as a Google APM; I maintain that it’s the single best way for people to kickstart their product careers. Just a few of the two-year program’s strong points:

• You get to pick which team you work on in your second rotation. This gives you a chance to try out far-flung corners of the company: recent “APM2s” have gone to work in cloud, gaming, policy, ML Fairness, wearables, and other super-interesting spots.

• The big APM Trip lets you meet tech leaders in cities across the globe, from Japan to Thailand to India to Europe. It’s a great way to hang out with the rest of your ~45-person cohort, too!

  

  My APM class (plus advisors) in Berlin during our APM Trip. I’m in the red shirt toward the back.

• Each year, you can do a mini-trip to cities across the US to learn about a particular tech sub-industry you’re interested in. Some APMs have gone to learn about music tech in Nashville, smart cities in New York, video game tech in Los Angeles, and more.

• You’re assigned a team of official mentors and advisors who stick with you as you move around the company, and plenty of former APMs are glad to be your unofficial mentors.

• You get a leadership coach, who can help you think about career advancement and personal growth. As the saying in Mountain View goes, the only people who get leadership coaches at Google are senior executives and APMs!

I could go on and on, but suffice to say that it’s really a phenomenal program. If you apply this year, you should get to start out in the office next year, so you can take advantage of all of Google’s famous perks and get to know your classmates in person.

🚀 Good luck!

I hope the information and resources I’ve shared here are helpful! I’ll post again once applications officially open. In the meantime, feel free to ask questions in the comments, and I’ll do my best to answer.

—Neel