Some background
Back in 2017, I made the unconventional move (at least from a typical Asian mentality) of switching from a stable investments job to working as a product manager in a budding FinTech start-up.
An ex-colleague of mine was curious about how did I cope with this stark change and were there instances where I felt like I didn’t belong.
What gave you that confidence to make the leap? How can you be sure you won’t be out of place?
As I approach the end of my third year in this company, I’ve had some time to reflect on this. To be completely honest, I definitely didn’t comprehend what I was getting into but let’s not dwell on my naivety 😬.
Schools will not get you fully prepared for work
The job market is increasingly diverse, especially so in recent years as new industries emerge. Being a solo-marketer (a.k.a influencer) through platforms such as YouTube and Instagram were unthinkable 10–15 years ago and now it seems to be the dream of most young Americans.
In addition, you’ll probably be job-hopping a lot more than your predecessors. According to a Gallup, an American analytics and advisory firm, millennials are 3 times more likely to switch jobs and 60% of them are open to different job opportunities. Bear in mind, these are mere statistics and how you navigate your career is mostly up to you.
I am not saying that schools are a waste of time so please put away your withdrawal letters and refund requests 😅.
I believe that regardless of what course you end up taking, you will be working towards honing the greatest skill one can have – learning (or the Midas touch, money is always useful… 🙈).
Filling your tool box
I’m sure many of you are rolling your eyes but at least hear me out.
At whatever age you are, especially if you’re just out of school like me, your greatest value will lie in your capacity to learn new skills or mental models. Or perhaps more importantly, your ability to apply them appropriately.
Frameworks and mental models you pick up across time are valuable tools in your toolbox. Any one of them may have been acquired in specific situations but they often have great applicability in other problems too.
People with experience solving mathematical functions might be familiar with the fallacy of local vs global maximums while trying to plot out a maximum. The same mental framework can be applied to engineering scaling problems where there are scenarios where optimizing different parts of the pipeline will yield a much better outcome that fixating on a particular process.
Another example which I thought was interesting is applying gamification to change customer behaviour in utilities consumption. Several states have seen significant electricity and natural gas usage reduction after implementing gamification in home energy reports. Remember all the times when Mom said being good at games won’t land you a job?
With this mentality, I’ve moved forward knowing that there’s value in the different tools that I have in my arsenal even when they are not apparent.
Capitalising on learning
To end this article, I’d like to put forward a few tips that have helped me navigate through my career as a product manager:
- Don’t discount your ability to learn – when you’re only graduated recently, the one thing that you can proclaim with confidence that you’re experienced in is probably learning. You are pretty much a professional learner from young so be sure to own it!
- Learn something different even if it’s not part your job – as a product manager, I am not required to get my hands dirty with coding or designing database schemas but I don’t regret spending time understanding coding frameworks and principles of software engineering. I believe this not only allows for greater empathy and appreciation for elegant engineering solutions but also builds better rapport across the different departments.
I’ll continue to approach problems with my ever-improving set of tools (mainly because I don’t know any better 🤓); while being hopeful that I don’t stop having moments of awe when I finally understand a new concept.
Let me know your thoughts and experiences kickstarting your career or on combating Imposter Syndrome, I’d like to know whether I’m just the odd one out 👀.