Landing Your First Product Management Job in Nigeria
The Nigerian and African tech landscape has come a long way, about six years back you might not be taken so seriously if you told your parents and loved ones you worked with a tech startup or plan on building one. But with the more successful startups over the past few years and massive investor backing for lots of startups, you can now earn a decent living working with a tech startup.
Tech jobs are now some of the best paying jobs in Nigeria and Africa . More companies are building products and this has led to the rise of product managers in Nigeria. Starting your product management journey is still not as straightforward as landing a job as a software engineer in Nigeria. This is because most startups building their products will prioritize hiring experienced product managers with experience with building products . So the reality is there are not so many product associates and intern roles out there at the moment.
But here are some practical ways to start your journey in product management;
- Join an early stage startup: This is still one of the fastest ways to kick-start your product management career in Nigeria for now. Joining an early stage startup who is just starting the development process for their product will make you get enough practical on-the-job experience. You will learn how to relate with development teams (this might comprise of majorly the founders and one or two more people) and also be thrown into the deep end of managing the development lifecycle along with the product owner who at this stage is also the Co-Founder or founder of the company. There are pros and cons to this though,
Pro(s): You get to learn and gain real skills across so many aspects of product management and general management you wouldn’t have gained early in a much bigger team.
Con(s): The pay is really low in most cases, the startup is at a bootstrapping stage and might not be able to afford to pay you at industry standard.
2. Request To Switch To Product Management With Your Current Company: If you currently work with a company that has a product department or about to start one, you can apply for this role if you have already equipped yourself with the required skills. There are quite a number senior product managers who started their careers this way. Some transitioned from Business development, Human Resource Management, Project management (this is the easiest), some from UI/UX design. This is probably even easier than the first suggestion but only works for people who are already in a company and simply pivoting. What makes this easy is the fact that you won’t need so much time to settle into this role since you already work in the company. You understand the culture and probably already work closely with members of the development team.
Pro(s): It takes less time to settle into your new role which you probably already play in some capacity.
Con(s): This only applies to those in technology driven companies .
3. Build Your Own Product: This is a courageous path to take and will require a lot more grit than working in an early stage startup. But while applying for associate roles as a product manager, you don’t have to wait doing nothing. If you have a product you have always wanted to build, try to set up a team consisting of the necessary skills you need to build this product with you as the product manager. You will probably learn two times faster due to the pressure involved with pulling this off. You are responsible for selling the idea to people to bring them on board to work for free with a promise of equity. If you can do this, you have already started your product management journey which always requires you getting lots of buy-ins often on features and products in general. If you can successfully lead a team to build and launch a product , you would have learnt so much within that space of time. Any technical recruiter will find this really impressive. You might even get to skip starting from an associate level as a result.
Pro(s): If you can finish building this product, get it to market stage and it solves a real problem, you just never know, it could go on to gain traction and also attract investors. You own equities in this that you can convert.
Con(s): The emotional and mental demand required to keep people motivated with little or no immediate rewards is unreal and takes its toll on your mental health. You also need to ensure you have some source of income no matter how small while doing this or a sponsor helping take care of the bills for the short term.
4. Apply For Product Associate and Intern Roles: The reality of high unemployment rate in Nigeria makes even internship and associate roles so competitive but the tech world is not for the lazy or mediocre. So yes apply with the mindset of going in for a competition you intend to win. But be ready to apply for as many openings as possible. Prepare your CV to show your greatest strengths and highlight any little experience you have (if any). Do not undersell yourself but do not lie too ( this is always a hard balance to find :) ).
Pro(s): Going through interviews is always a great learning experience, if you don’t land the job on the first interview or first few interviews, it prepares you better for future interviews as you gradually build confidence and experience on handling interviews better. Who knows, you just might land the job at first try.
Con(s): The chances of being rejected or not even hearing any form of feedback from recruiters on your first few interview attempts are really high, higher than getting positive feedback. You must also prepare for this scenario and learn to move past it.
5. Join Product Management Communities: Joining active online product management communities helps you network with product managers at all levels and is of tremendous benefit to your career especially when trying to land your first product management job. You get job updates shared in these communities, you join webinar sessions with senior product managers where you get to ask them pressing questions. You also get access to mentorship (directly and indirectly) from more senior product managers within the communities (this is subject to your social and communication skills). The best product communities in Nigeria and Africa as a whole are Product Dive and Product Tank Lagos. If you are not already in these communities, join them now.
Pro(s): Networking well within these communities can help you bypass that painful process of submitting multiple resumes all around. Senior Product Managers first look within these communities to recruit before publicly advertising these jobs. You also get access to lots of free learning materials and webinars that are of tremendous value to your career.
Con(s): There are barely any cons in this situation but the closest might be that for larger communities, it might be hard to get the kind of personal attention you need from the community manager.
6. Find a product management mentor: Request for mentorship from experienced product managers who have walked your path and can provide guidance on how best to position yourself to land your first job. You can also benefit from their network. But you must learn to not bug these mentors with too many questions. Learn to do your own research before asking them questions. Their duty is not to handhold you in everything you do but provide guidance only when necessary.
Pro(s): If you are teachable and patient to get their take on things, you can avoid a lot of rookie mistakes.
Con(s): Having a very nice mentor who might handhold you can make you mentally lazy and slow your growth process.
Good luck with your job hunt and visit Treford website for more information on our upcoming bootcamps.
