Somebody keeps googling for: Associate Product Marketing Manager Google Interviews. So I guess, to help out that person, I’m going to write something so that he/she can rest easy.
So what do you study as a PPM anyway?
1. Google products, of course. Study every single Google product and feature, was it an acquisition and how did it tie into its Business Model (If there is any). If you are technical read the PageRank algorithm even. For every single Google product, know its acquisitions, its competitors, and how Google tried to create (successfully or unsuccessfully) viral marketing with it.
2. The ENTIRE world of Web 2.0. Literally. Well, at least a rough idea. Know what is the latest greatest thing out there and how you can earn money from it and what is the best way to market it. And also know what is the possible new great thing out there (Cue Y-Combinator). Keep at least about twenty up and coming Web companies in mind.
3. Purple cow marketing. Assuming that your life is offline, what is the greatest non-viral-social marketing thing you’ve seen? Read as many biographies or books of great marketers. And a couple of reports of the social media. Don’t mention Apple, because we all know the Apple success story.
4. How Google earns money via AdWords and AdSense and its business model. And of how other websites earns money, or generally how any single thing on the Web earns money over all different kinds of business models.
5. It also would probably help if you were kind of geeky and knew Ruby on Rails on the sideline as well. (I’m not sure if this one helps)
6. Like I said, I didn’t get in eventually… even after one interviewer said that I would be a perfect fit for Google, so maybe you needed to drink smart juices everyday or something.
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I’m going to write the story soon, it just didn’t feel right to have such a nice story without photos and all that kind of stuff. But I promise I will!
