When I was applying for the Google APM internship position, I did not have any formal product experience. That does not mean you don’t have the right skills for the position!

*Please note within this article I use the words CV and resume interchangeably.

I spent quite a lot of time tailoring my CV before submitting it for the Google APM internship. Fortunately, I was able to get past the CV screening and then ultimately land the position! You can find more about my experience of the whole hiring process from my other article: How I landed the Google APM Internship 🚀

But before you even think about interviews, you have to ensure your resume is on point. Your CV is the first part of you that the recruiter is going to see, so you need to make sure that you convey efficiently and effectively, why you would be a great fit for the role.

From the resources I read and research I did online about product CVs, I gathered that the most important things to convey on my resume were:

• Effective communication skills
• Interest in products and technology
• Technical and analytical abilities
• Leadership/ entrepreneurial spirit

I will break down each one of these concepts below, as well as give some helpful resources and/or examples for each.

Effective communication skills

I learned early that communicating effectively is one of the most important skills within Product Management- because most of the time, the PM is responsible for bridging gaps between various stakeholders and spearheading the product, which is only possible if all parties have a clear and common understanding. I approached conveying this in 2 ways:

• The CV design and layout itself (I mean if you profess to be a fantastic communicator in the content, but your CV design is actually very unappealing and difficult to read — you could see the issue there!)
• Communication skills from past experience

In terms of the CV design, I’m sure most of you will have heard that recruiters don’t look at your CV for long at all (6–7 seconds according to Indeed.com). Therefore it is very important that your resume conveys just the right amount of information in the most effective manner.

I personally hate the traditional black and white CVs, that is just all text and no fun. When you are looking at something, you are more likely to read and engage with it if there is a bit of colour and attention on design, see the two examples below and mentally note which is more attractive to look at:

So, some tips that I noted when designing my own CV were:

• Keep your CV to 1-page: Especially for Google, they are not even likely to look beyond the first page, so try and choose your most relevant experience, and design it to fit on a single page.
• Utilise online design tools: I used Canva to design my resume, there was a bunch of great examples to use and draw inspiration from to really make your CV stand out.
• Use metrics to measure your impact: Again, another Googley concept to incorporate — when speaking about your experiences, dont just say what your role was, explain the impact of you being in that role (ideally with numerical statistics).

So once your CV looks the part, it’s time to start adding some substance. With regards to conveying how I am an effective communicator with my experience, I thought back to times when my communication had caused an impact or a positive change. Some examples I included were:

• Being part of a panel discussion with sixth-form students about my journey into tech
• Helping to lead and prepare a presentation around Inclusion & Diversity to my company’s leadership team

Other experiences you could draw from:

• Presenting as part of a university project
• Any kind of writing or content creating you have done — maybe having your own website or YouTube channel

Interest in Products and Technology

As you are applying for a Product position, it is imperative that you at least have some passion for the area even if you don’t have any official experience. Quite a lot of APMs/PMs I’ve spoken to actually “fell into PMing”. By that I mean, they were perhaps doing a lot of core product management skills in their day job or whilst studying, which they enjoyed and gravitated towards, but they maybe didn’t know about the actual role (as I did!). Some examples as to how to show an interest in product without any official experience:

• Acting as a product manager/owner in a university group coursework project
• Taking an online product management course
• Being part of a hackathon that centered around scoping and building out a product

Being able to highlight your passion for technology and products in general is a very important part of crafting your APM internship resume. Think of it as a common thread that ties all of your experiences together.

Technical and Analytical Abilities

This one is quite specific for Google — as for the APM program, they require you to have a background in Computer Science or a related area. I had been doing my part-time masters degree in CompSci for around 1 year, so I had to pull most of my experience and skills from this. I also tried to pull out analytical aspects from other non-technical experiences. For example, during my business internship at Google, I carried out a piece of analysis in which I learnt how to use Google Data Studio, which required some data manipulation and cleansing. Highlight some of your most interesting projects from university and/or your past roles; and if you want to, do another side project from tutorials on YouTube to gain technical experience in other areas of interest! Some suggestions below:

• Include your favourite university technical projects, highlight what you did and the impact it had e.g. if you got great user feedback or achieved a high grade
• Take part in a hackathon/event to develop your technical abilities ( Hackathon UK, Eventbrite, Google Student Events)
• Use YouTube to learn how to build something (12 Beginner Python Projects, 15 Programming Project Ideas)

Leadership/Entrepreneurial Spirit

This is a really fun one! Especially if you actually do have an entrprenrual spirit. This area is a chance to really show off your extra-curriclar endeavors and proactive attitude to life. I am the type of person that really loves to try new things and fail fast, so I was lucky enough to have quite a few things to draw from. So I would say if you are reading this, and really struggling to think of extra things you love doing outside your degree and/or job — now is the time to go on that journey and find some of your other passions! Some of the things that I highlighted on my CV were:

• Blogging — I have my own blog where I wrote regular articles on my experience doing my part-time Masters degree in Computer Science
• Fundraising — Raising money for a charity by selling my own artwork on a market stall
• Language — Travelling to Jordan for 3 weeks to improve my Arabic speaking skills

---

Some other general points around CV best practices:

• Make sure there are no spelling mistakes.
• Be consistent with grammar and capitalisation (e.g. using full stops at the end of bullets — make a decision and stick to it.)
• Highlight key points in bold- I like to highlight impact metrics in bold so they stood out to anyone reading my CV.
• Ensure you are showcasing skills that are part of the job description — for Google specifically, check out their page of Common APM Skills for inspo!
• Try to compartmentalise your experiences to make it easier for recruiters- I personally had separate sections for education, employment, leadership, additional interests, and technical skills.

Good luck!

Feel free to reach out with any questions by connecting with me on LinkedIn.

Disclaimer: As always, all views here are my own and not representative of Google. This article is intended as a means of sharing my own experience and providing some inspiration and ideas to those of you looking to apply to APM internships.