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This is the first time I've come across 'product engineer'. How is this different from a 'full stack engineer'?
The product engineer wouldn't necessarily (or rather, shouldn't) implement the functionality. That would be left to the full stack engineer.
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I'd hand them a piece of paper and ask them to sketch out a profile page that's user friendly. Then I'd ask them how they'd design the schema for that. Then I'd ask them to sketch out the admin interface for managing users and how they'd implement that. If they start asking questions about permissions and roles and such I'd be really impressed. Essentially I'd act like a client/end user who kinda knows what they want…
This is the first time I've come across 'product engineer'. How is this different from a 'full stack engineer'?
"Full-stack engineer" describes a person's technical knowledge: comfortable doing front-end or server work, maybe comfortable designing whole things from scratch.
"Product engineer" describes a person's motivations: primarily interested in writing code as a means to making a product, or improving a product.
Lots of engineers are primarily motivated by writing high quality code, or very performant code, or prefer to write tools (libraries/frameworks) over writing products using those tools.
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This is the first time I've come across 'product engineer'. How is this different from a 'full stack engineer'?
Full stack engineers are generalist engineers who are motivated by technical problems. Product engineers are motivated by building impactful tools. They learnt programming somewhere along the way as a necessity to show the world their ideas. Product engineers generally pick mainstream languages and tools. They talk about users, strategy and product.
Where do I look for Production Engineering positions? How does a new grad w/ a CS background move into one of these roles with relevant experience?
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This is the first time I've come across 'product engineer'. How is this different from a 'full stack engineer'?
Full stack engineers are generalist engineers who are motivated by technical problems. Product engineers are motivated by building impactful tools. They learnt programming somewhere along the way as a necessity to show the world their ideas. Product engineers generally pick mainstream languages and tools. They talk about users, strategy and product.
I don't like this sort of pigeon-holing; most developers I know straddle this divide.
Reading this I'm wondering what the difference is between a "Product engineer" and a "UX Engineer"?
I would differentiate them in the following way: Product Engineer: Focused on creating something that fulfills users' need or want UX Engineer: Focused on polishing the product to make sure the user's need or want is fulfilled with the least amount of friction.
This really hit home for me. I was recently looking for a job so these ideas are fresh on my mind. What I have been trying to figure out, is it better to work for a company that has a good product strategy, or an other wise good company without a product strategy? At the time, my thoughts were to find a company that needs a product minded developer. A company that has everything else figured out but product.
A company that hasn't prioritized product strategy isn't going to suddenly start prioritizing it once you get there. You are more likely to be ignored. Go somewhere that does product well, especially if you're early in your career.
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What should we be asking/looking for/testing?
It depends on the company, but I'm a big fan of pairing with a developer on something they're working on for an hour or so. The dynamics of the interview completely changes from "I need to figure out hidden knowledge that the interviewer knows already" to "I need to work with this person to find out a solution together", which I think is quite a bit less stressful. You're also working on real problems that — though t…