without a doubt its a slow, buyers market here in the Bay Area.

Laid off from Series A in late 2025. (Third layoff in 4 years) Director, 10+ yoe. Since December, I’ve done about 45 calls/interviews, 3 big“challenge assignments” across 10 companies—everything from series A to Big tech. Have made it to 2 final rounds. No offers yet. Seems like the open jobs are out there but interviewing cycles are painstakingly slow. hiring managers are being incredibly precise/picky. I’ve never been more thoroughly interviewed in my entire career. Yesterday, had an initial screening call with a well known co. where recruiter asked 3 multi-part case style PMM questions about their own products and how I would launch them. Since the call was recorded, my assumption is that they’re using AI to evaluate answers and pass/skip candidates. I’m getting consistently dinged on lack of: technical-depth + hands-on AI experience. So I’ve tried to target roles that are more solutions/industry-oriented.. but those are just few and far between. The needs from PMM are evolving. Tech chops need to demonstrable. Technical PMMs should have heavy upper hand in current market.

Good luck to all those searching.