How to Land an APM Role at Uber
Fresh insights from two incoming Uber APMs
We are super excited to be kicking off our newsletter with a guest post from two incoming Uber APMs, Oliver Zou and Karen Zheng. A huge thank you to both of them! 🙏 Before we dive in, here’s a quick preview of what we have in store over the next few months:
Interview experiences from other incoming Google, Lyft, and Coinbase APMs
A first 30/60/90 days product onboarding guide
Some great resources to consider when thinking about a career in Web3
A product management interview bootcamp - fill out the interest form here!
And more…
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Now, your guide to landing an APM role at Uber!
For a bit of context on the Uber APM program from the Uber website:
You will join 3 teams over the course of 24 months across all of Uber, including but not limited to Rider, Driver, Merchant, Courier, New Verticals, Uber Freight, and Platforms, leading into a Product Manager role.
The interview process spans a take home, then 3 additional rounds — read below for detail on each, an example take home, and additional resources!
Take Home 📔
Uber assigns a take home after you submit your application. You won’t have to discuss it in an interview afterwards, but it is a significant screen in the process. Usually the take home will consist of an open-ended prompt that asks you to present a product recommendation to solve a user or business problem. Last year it was (roughly) “design a feature for Uber to better address the suburban market.”
You can present your suggestions as either slides or bullet points - I’ve seen some very pretty and well formatted ones out there but I’m not sure format is that important (it certainly doesn’t hurt).
Total disclaimer - I have never judged a take home so I have no idea what they actually look for. Based on what makes sense to me and information about the interview process that Uber puts out there, I think what is important is:
1. Having a great thought process (sound logic and analysis of tradeoffs) and ideas (creativity helps). Analyse the market and always provide rationale.
2. Being clear enough so that 1 shows through.
3. Having mockups of your feature!
Uber specifically states that mock-ups are not necessary, but at a very anecdotal level everyone I know who did a mock-up (very simple low fidelity) got through and the people that didn’t include one got screened out (n=5).
I’m sure many people have gotten through this stage without mock-ups and my experience could be totally due to chance, but it’s an easy indicator of effort and often does not take that long - so why not?
4. Doing research on the company. This is open book so go online and find exactly what this company is aiming for over the next quarter or half, find out what features already exist, and read loads of articles.
Flexing company knowledge can’t hurt and shows effort.
5. Looking at examples of successful take homes helps set the bar for what is expected. A quick Google search will yield results and here is mine for reference (very ugly and did not spend enough time on the feature).
Round 1 and 2
In previous years these two rounds have been product sense interviews with one or two behavioural questions at the beginning. As with all interviews it starts with a tell me about yourself type question - I won’t get into this part as there isn’t anything Uber specific here. It wouldn’t hurt to explain how your story leads you to wanting to be an APM and why Uber.
The product sense part usually consists of one product design question that will take up most of the interview. There seems to be a mix of general product design questions (like design a helper dog replacement) and questions about existing products (improve X product). Uber specific questions do come up so be sure to know Uber’s offerings well beforehand so that you can build on top of what exists already and have prepared insights with your perspective as a consumer - using the product is the best way.
In general, these interviews are very standard product sense interviews for the entry level. They are designed to see how you can creatively think from first principles to reach an optimal outcome for everyone.
An Uber specific tip is to be sure to touch on all of Uber’s stakeholders - Uber is a three sided marketplace, so you must touch on the consumer and the driver (or even the restaurant, freight company, industry partners etc.). Uber also has very particular business goals: becoming profitable while still growing, becoming a super app by developing new business lines, leveraging automation partners etc. A Google search would be a good place to start - if you have time, I would recommend reading the 10k (comprehensive filings that every public company must submit).
Final Round
The final round interviews are composed of 3 back-to-back interviews, each 1 hour long. This year, the final round stayed virtual due to COVID. Out of the 3, 2 are with senior PMs or PM managers, and 1 is with an engineer.
The 2 rounds with PMs are pretty standard. In terms of how to prepare, on a higher level, I recommend reviewing Uber’s presentation slide decks to stakeholders and investors that are public on Uber’s investor relations page. These slide decks are extremely helpful in learning about Uber’s overall strategy, past year’s achievements, new year’s goals, and key metrics. It will be a major plus if you can mention some of these in your interviews!
On a lower level, I recommend reviewing the user flow of at least Uber Rides and Uber Eats. Take note of what things you like, and what things you would want to improve. Also always remember that Uber operates a two-sided market for Rides and a three-sided market for Eats. Make sure you have an idea of the user flow for each side, and when answering product questions make sure you are taking into account all the sides (for example, an improvement for riders should not cause major harm to the drivers).
For the engineering round, I recommend brushing up on system design concepts, especially those that are relevant to Uber’s products. For PM interviews in general, unless it’s for specific roles in startup companies, it’s unlikely that the interview questions involve actual coding. Nevertheless, it may be helpful to get comfortable writing pseudocode, as this is a very efficient way to communicate your ideas to engineers. On the same note, since this is a conversation with an engineer and he/she is likely to evaluate whether he/she wants to work with you, it may be helpful to think of your past experience working with engineers and reflect on what works best.
Also, here is some very useful advice from last year’s Aspiring PM guide written by current APM Levi:
My advice is to start from Uber’s mission and vision, the entire product suite, and read up on recent product launches (usually posted on the official website). If you want to do extra homework, look at Uber’s earnings call transcripts or any major conferences that senior leadership attends to understand the strategy and how Uber hopes to realize it.
Be prepared to connect dots with your prior design / PM / technical work when discussing your passion for Uber. The behavioral aspect of the interview cannot be ignored for Uber. Company values mean nothing if there are no specific practices that reflect those values.
Each company is unique so be sure to understand what makes Uber PMs special (and respectable within the tech industry). There are tons of tweets and blog posts on good vs great PMs at work. Knowing the difference between a strong and an outstanding PM candidate would increase the slim odds of getting that offer.
Other resources
This guide written by Adi Raju (Uber APM class of 2020) where he covered the structure of the program in detail along with interview tips.
Levi Lian’s article (referenced above) from last year’s Aspiring PM Guide!