I have about 5 years of PM experience and am looking for a senior PM role in a company that makes ML based products and it's been hard. I've gotten feedback that I seem "really smart" but I'm not a good fit for X role. It feels like a hiring manager saying you seem "really smart" is code for something.

I'm also in the position where I've had real successes but my current role is stagnating to the point where I don't know if I can claim any real big achievement in the last quarter to 6 months.

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The "you seem smart" sounds like general acknowledgment that you look good on paper, have the right skills, have good experience, and you're intelligent enough to do the job. Sounds like the issue is they don't like you personally.

Do they think you're boring? A jerk? Overbearing? Awkward? Too extraverted? Something else? Even if you don't think you have some negative characteristic, do you come off that way? You might need some tough feedback from people who you trust to tell you this stuff. Companies are not likely to tell you that, especially if you are a member of a protected class, as that kind of feedback could be viewed as a risk.

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That's really useful insight. I might run through some practice interviews with some people I know in the industry and get their feedback on how I come off as. I've never had to do video interviews before and that might be one of the things tripping me up.

Definitely sounds like the move to be looking to jump ship. My question, different from the others, is how much ML specific experience do you have?

I had a job interview recently for a Product role where I got similar feedback and they straight up told me that I seem like a smart person and if they hired me I’d probably learn and do ok, but I didn’t have enough experience in the industry and they wanted someone who already knew it.

This interview was through networking not through a resume drop, so in your case I’m not sure why they’d call you in at all if they were going to give you that answer. Maybe they wanted to dig more into seemingly related experiences and then didn’t really find anything?

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We have a lot of interviews like this at my company. Person is accomplished and obviously gets up to speed fast… but we just can’t afford any time lost to training. OP, what is your evidence that you understand ML, proper data science, and the industries you’re working in? Have you taken classes, done Kaggle, played with B2C offerings?

At what point are you getting this feedback? Curious if your salary may be out of range and that’s an easy way of saying “we can’t afford you”.

smart

It's after I've passed the recruiter screen plus the first or second interview.

So many diverse opinions and rightfully so. So I agree that you seem really smart is code for something, and I'm assuming that's coming after an interview. If you were able to press them for more specific things that they didn't feel were a fit or areas of experience that might be helpful to pick up before reapplying - and they weren't able to give an answer - it's probably a personal thing. If you sense that might be it, definitely work on your interviewing skills. Interviewing.io is a good place to go.

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But make sure that when you use the interview service you do it exactly as if you were walking into the room - commenting on someone's shoes, asking them about themselves, whatever you typically do if you were having the entire experience of you.

Why ML?

Feel free to DM me, happy to answer any questions you might have of me.

There is also a chance that they think you're underqualified for the role you are applying for. Like "you could probably do the job but you don't look good on paper."

Good enough to get the interview though?

It's likely that either you look good on paper but can't perform to expectations in practice, or your salary expectations are outsized. Is it possible maybe there's something coming up on a background check or from a past employer that could be putting them off?

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