Calling all Berkeley-Haas Fall 2010 Applicants

Ok I have figurred out what is the career path for product manager. In Microsoft it is a typical corporate ladder path:
Program Manager (PM) >> PM2 >> Senior PM >> Principle PM >> Architect >> Partner >> Director >> VP >> President. 6 levels to make Partners.. Quite a long winded path!!

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I'm a R1 Haas applicant and my focus is product management for my short my short terms goals. This are my views on the product management track in the high-tech sector.

Product Management can broadly be classified as two tracks. Kryzak puts it across really well - Internal and External. External is the product marketing, consumer behaviour and market research aspects of product management. These areas of product management are more academic and well set and courses in Marketing will teach you these business functions.

The most interesting part of product management (IMO) is the internal aspects. This role really depends on the product company. In the case of a well established company like Microsoft, product management is similar to project management and the product manager will have to deliver incremental updates to existing products. Very rarely will new product managers be handed new products to develop from scratch. Of course in a company like Google, you can always utilize your 20% time to come up with great new products but Google is an outlier.

When it comes to (internal) product management in startups, its a totally different ball game. A product manager's role is more entrepreneurial in this case. Not only is he going to be involved in every aspect of product management but he might also have to roll up and his sleeves and get his hands dirty with engineering (which is more fun!). The engineering work here could be evaluation of technology or validating the architecture and design of a system engineering comes up with. In this case, the role is also more strategic in terms of defining the product roadmap, identifying consumer patterns and even financial planning. A mixture of marketing and strategy courses would be the right mix for such a product manager.

A product manager role is a good path to get into Venture Capital or the first step to be an entrepreneur in the high-tech sector. If you are interested in the VC career path, product managers would normally function as subject matter experts within a VC firm helping out budding entrepreneurs with their product and market strategy. For budding entrepreneurs, product management experience teaches you how to create a product that has "market fit".

Haas is perfect for product managers. A general management MBA combined with the MoT program gives the right flexibility for a product manger to either function as a program/project manager in a large company or take an entrepreneurial route to product management. Not to mention the location.

I know each organization has its own corporate structure, and having worked for a Tech MNC for last 4 years, i would like to post my view of Product Management. This is based upon my company which is a Global manufacturing company.

The path of a Product Manager is more Technical, and the corporate ladder to it is something like this

Engineer-> Technical Lead-> Technical Manager-> Product Manager -> Director-> VP-> CEO

So as you can see, you need to build a lot of credibility in the company to move along this track and definitely need to work for many number of years to rise to the top. ( Each step is not only related to performance, but also the number of years you have put in at the company. This is corporate culture- Loyalty is always valued)

The Product Manager role in my company is more related to the Business side of the issue, i.e with respect to Business Development and Strategy. As like kryzak said, the External Track of this role.

The internal track is indeed Project Management, but if you really want to progress in your company all the way to the upper Executive level, i would advise anyone, to not to pursue the Internal path and instead to take the External Track.

In the External Track, you would be able to interact with client, plan marketing strategies, develop the overall Business Growth, and this is more visible to the Company and considered more valuable in the eyes of the upper management, rather than just Project Management ( I myself do some Project Management activities, apart from been a Technical Lead ). I would guess this is true for most Engineering companies. I am not saying it's not possible to become CEO, by taking the internal Track, but its just that, its takes more time, and also your contributions are taken as of lesser business value to the company.

And as a side note, Engineers, Technical Managers, etc don't have much respect to Project Management, since they are seen as Generalists and have no knowledge about the Product details. Thus when you take this role, you are in-charge of cross-functional teams while completing projects, but would never be actually involved in the Business Decisions which take place in any of the major functional groups, i.e Engineering, Marketing and HR. I would like to stress this point once again, as this is very important. In a Matrix organization, it is the Functional Group Managers ( i.e Tech, Marketing etc), who make the decisions ( which are implemented by the Project Manager in their various Projects), and these Functional Managers ultimately are the ones to progress to the Executive levels, by taking the Product Manager-External Track.

My views may not be applicable to a Software-only based Company where the boundary between a Project Manager and a Product Manager may not even exist.

Sign me up for Round 2!

I am done my essays but am tackling the supplementary questions. When discussing extracurricular, courses and previous employment should they be done in essay form or in list/point form? I'm not really sure how to structure them.

great insights, bpr and topa! Kudos!

I pretty much agree with their statements, and the internal vs external debate will depend on the company. Some companies value their internal PMs more, others do the opposite.

Speaking of skills for external PM, I'm taking Consumer Behavior next semester, and am trying to get into Market Research, to complete my education in those areas (I've done Proj. Mgmt before in my old job).

Just wondering if anyone received more e-mail updates/invites from Haas ???

I just got this one:

Dear xxxxx,

We were very excited to receive your Round One application to the Berkeley MBA program. We know how much time and effort you put into the application, and we appreciate your strong interest in Berkeley.

Over the last month and a half, we have created your physical application file and matched it with transcripts and supplemental documents. By now you should have received an email indicating whether your file is complete or incomplete. If your file is complete, it is currently under review. If your file is incomplete, we emailed you indicating what was missing. If you have not already submitted the requested information, please work with our office to do so.

Our Admissions Committee takes great pride in reading and evaluating applications for admission. Every single application, regardless of GPA, GMAT, or number of years of work experience, is read by a minimum of two readers. In many instances, an application is read by three readers, and sometimes four. As a result, it does take some time before we extend our interview invitations. Please be patient as you await word from us.

Our first interview invitations have been made, and we will continue to extend interview invitations up until our Round One notification date of January 27, 2010. Please note that you should not be discouraged if you do not receive an interview invitation by our Round One notification date. Some Round One applicants will be offered a place on the waitlist without having been interviewed; these waitlisted candidates are welcome to schedule an interview in February.

Again, thank you for your strong interest in Berkeley. We look forward to reviewing your application!

Sincerely,

---The Berkeley MBA Admissions Team

Yeah I just got that one as well. Made me really excited for a second until I realized what it was.

I just got this:

We were very excited to receive your Round One application to the Berkeley MBA program. We know how much time and effort you put into the application, and we appreciate your strong interest in Berkeley.

Over the last month and a half, we have created your physical application file and matched it with transcripts and supplemental documents. By now you should have received an email indicating whether your file is complete or incomplete. If your file is complete, it is currently under review. If your file is incomplete, we emailed you indicating what was missing. If you have not already submitted the requested information, please work with our office to do so.

Our Admissions Committee takes great pride in reading and evaluating applications for admission. Every single application, regardless of GPA, GMAT, or number of years of work experience, is read by a minimum of two readers. In many instances, an application is read by three readers, and sometimes four. As a result, it does take some time before we extend our interview invitations. Please be patient as you await word from us.

Our first interview invitations have been made, and we will continue to extend interview invitations up until our Round One notification date of January 27, 2010. Please note that you should not be discouraged if you do not receive an interview invitation by our Round One notification date. Some Round One applicants will be offered a place on the waitlist without having been interviewed; these waitlisted candidates are welcome to schedule an interview in February.

Again, thank you for your strong interest in Berkeley. We look forward to reviewing your application!



And my status is now:

Status Description
Your application for admission to the Berkeley Full-time MBA program is under review by the Admissions Committee. Please visit the web site again and log in with your user name and password on or after the decision date for the round in which you applied to check your application status.


I can't remember if that's what it has said in the past few weeks. This sorta feels like a ding but maybe (hopefully) I'm reading too far into it.

Ian

"I can't remember if that's what it has said in the past few weeks. This sorta feels like a ding but maybe (hopefully) I'm reading too far into it."

My application has been "complete and under review" for 4 or 5 weeks. I wouldn't take it as a ding, my impression (I got the same email) was that this was an attempt by the Adcom to keep us in the loop, which was nice of them. I think we all still have a chance!

-Duc

this is the timline of interview invites from R1 last year (fairly poor results):

R1 - 11/4/2008 - 27 applicants, 9 interview invites (33%)
wolffali - Invited to SS Interview (12/8)
weezy25 - Invited to SS Interview (12/18)
peaceyall - Invited to SS Interview (12/22)
mindruna - Invited to SS Interview (12/22)
MBAngst - Invited to SS Interview (12/10)
SolarMBA - Invited to SS Interview (12/17)
Chickmagloor - Invited to SS Interview (12/23)
rosav - Invited to interview (1/8)
caligl - Invited to interview (1/9)

So First invite should be today or tomorrow :D Goodluck!

I got the same email and I agree, looks more like keeping us in loop. Why would they be shy to send a ding, if they have to.

I don't know....

It seems like an awfully crowded loop to me. I would feel better if there were some rejections reported along with the interview invites. I get that it is a complicated process but there is no need to keep us all on the line.

But maybe there have been rejections... Anyone??

Seems strange that this email comes after a few interview invites have already gone out. This process is so drawn out!

"Our first interview invitations have been made, and we will continue to extend interview invitations up until our Round One notification date of January 27, 2010."

No, I believe it's perfectly normal. it sounds like they are adjusting our expectations as they have already released their "first interview invitations" but also asking us to be prepared if they invite us to interview.

For those waiting for interview invites....what status are your applications in?

Dude, you probably need to see what you need to get fixed. Here is what mine says:

Application Status: Application Under Review
Status Description
Your application for admission to the Berkeley Full-time MBA program is under review by the Admissions Committee. Please visit the web site again and log in with your user name and password on or after the decision date for the round in which you applied to check your application status.

I agree. when i i first read the mail, my first impression was ,' Oh man another ding'. .

After reading it a couple of times, and seeing how many people have got the same mail, it looks like an Update mail from Haas, telling us that this process is long drawn and would take time. Maybe i can clarify things a little more with the Adcom, during the Berkeley MBA Event session in my city on Thursday.

But it would be interesting to see, if anyone has not received this mail. So anyone out there who havent got this mail?