- Meta released a guide for how to land a product manager job at the company.
- Meta interviewers want to see a candidate's product sense, leadership, and creativity.
- Tech companies release guides like this because product manager talent is scarce, one expert said.
If you are a product manager trying to get a job at Meta, you're in luck: The company published a thorough guide on what to expect in an interview and how to succeed.
The guide says the first phase of the interview is an initial screening to assess the candidate's product sense and analytical thinking. Then, if a candidate makes it to the next round, they'll do a "full loop" interview that will consider their leadership skills and ambitions.
Both interviews "focus on your product knowledge, creativity, problem-solving skills, and awareness," the guide says.
"Questions could center on a product that you feel is a great product, why it's a great product, and what you'd do if you were a PM or the CEO of that company," the guide says. "Other potential questions that could come up in this interview are looking at an existing consumer-facing product within the Meta ecosystem like Facebook Groups or Instagram Small Businesses and figuring out how you'd evolve it."
Aakash Gupta, a product leader who writes a newsletter on product growth, shared a copy of Meta's guide on LinkedIn.
"Be creative - the best candidates are coming up with unique solutions others don't mention," Gupta said on LinkedIn. "You should be able to go end-to-end on a feature, even with a sketch, in 45 minutes."
The six-page guide includes what questions to anticipate in the interview process and what background the company candidates should know.
"Meta and Google interview most PMs because good talent is so scarce. In an effort to improve that process, they put out all the information to make the process as accurate and meritocratic as possible," Gupta told Business Insider.
Jenn Bouchard, the former global head of talent at Meta, previously told BI that the biggest mistake a candidate can make is not asking enough questions.
Interviewees should be "curious about getting to know the role, the company, the culture, even the team that they might be walking into," Bouchard said.