The article outlining how to build a portfolio for a corporate career was published in the Chartered Institute of Linguists’ (CIOL) bi-monthly print magazine The Linguist (issue 58/6) based on my custom framework ‘Beyond Translation: How to shape your career as a Linguist’ presented at CIOL’s Members’ Day in March 2019.
5 Steps To Becoming A Product Manager As A Liberal Arts Major →
This article was originally featured in Agile Insider, a leading Product Management publication run by Alpha HQ.
As Preston Smalley pointed out in his article, there are as many pathways to Product Management as there are career stories.
A former classroom teacher turned Product Manager I’ll be sharing my story and 5 steps you can take to land your ideal PM role if you’re coming from a non-tech and non-design background.
1. Analyze Your Career And Personality DNA
At first glance, my path into Product Management simply follows Preston’s outline:
M.A. in Romance Studies (French), LMU — University of Munich, Germany
Marketing experience across the public and private sectors while in college
Language Teaching career (German) in France (university) and the UK (private school) and private tutoring experience via a well-known online tutoring platform
Marketing Manager at a private tutoring agency in London
Product Manager, overseeing the delivery of their bespoke, bilingual tutoring platform to streamline business processes and enhance the customer experience
Although “speaking” is what comes to mind when we think “Languages & Linguistics”, there is a lot of mathematical logic happening in the background.
Ever since my university days, I have particularly enjoyed the grammar part of studying French, which, when it comes to French, falls under “creative problem-solving” in and of itself.
To me, creative problem-solving is what Product Management is all about. Building a product is as mathematical as it is creative: Scenarios are mathematical statements and hypotheses (“If this then that”), each User Story is a subcategory of a specific Epic. Analytical and creative thinking skills are equally as important.
Building a product is as mathematical as it is creative: Scenarios are mathematical statements and hypotheses (“If this then that”), each User Story is a subcategory of a specific Epic. Analytical and creative thinking skills are equally as important.
As you can see, it’s not just about your job title — it’s about your personality, your upbringing, the underlying interest and all the strengths that make you ‘you’. ‘Analytical thinking’ is not listed under “achievements” on my resume. The ‘ability to combine linear and fragmented thinking’ is not listed under “credits” on my diploma, yet these underlying strengths have been fueling my career all along.
Being grounded in who you are will help you understand and explain your interest in Product Management, which will make you stand out and help you find the perfect PM role and the right employer for you.
Action Step
List all the components that make up your career trajectory and all your relevant personality traits. Connect 2–3 of them to Product Management.
Example: Marketing experience helps articulate features and benefits in order to define the product-market fit.
Note: If you’re a Creative/Liberal Arts Major struggling to define your career DNA I encourage you to read this article by career coach Laura Simms.)
2. Position Yourself As An Industry Expert
As you can see from my example, I offer a blend of language study, classroom teaching, private tutoring, and marketing experience. Therefore, stepping into an EdTech PM role to build a platform localized in English and Russian has been a natural career progression for me.
The industry knowledge you bring to the table is your value proposition — combined with empathy it will make you relevant for the right company, even if you do not have PM experience yet.
Action Step
Write down any industry knowledge you have and research companies (small businesses, startups, corporations) that could use those insights, be it FinTech, EdTech, Manufacturing, Retail, E-Commerce, Hospitality — you name it!
Note: If you are a recent graduate/still in college, your area of studies, internships, projects, and entrepreneurial pursuits are your areas of expertise!
3. Monitor Your Favorite Brands
During my university years, I used to participate in market research focus groups on a wide range of products and services across a variety of industries. From magazines to yoghurts, from mobile operators to soap operas: Weighing in on the product lines of well-known brands, such as Danone or O2, allowed me to gain a first glimpse into Product Management from one of the most important perspectives for a PM — that as a customer, and to practice the most important skill for any PM — empathy.
To this day, I fill out feedback forms whenever a business wants my opinion and monitor digital products from a user perspective:
“TransferWise app has an improved UI — Noted!”
“The hotel I stayed at on my last business trip has launched a new app — Let me check it out!”
“Eventbrite customer support does XYZ for their customers — Noted!”
Even if you don’t have any idea of the Design and Engineering aspects of Product Management –- if you practice empathy you will have plenty of examples and even case studies to mention in the interviews and, more importantly, you’ll be showcasing your ability to put yourself in the customer’s shoes.
Action Step
Pick 5 websites, apps or favorite brands, follow them on social media and keep a log of new functionalities and product development trends. Ask yourself what you would differently and what area of improvements you see as a consumer.
4. Define Your Ideal PM Entry Role
In my role as an in-house PM at a small business, I have sourced a full-service design and development agency to liaise with.
In this case, the agency’s Project Manager tracks the timeline and the budget, co-writes scenarios/user stories, liaises with the UX designers and developers and advises the in-house Product Manager.
The in-house PM, on the other hand, oversees the product delivery on the whole, including:
planning the overall big-picture strategy and budgeting;
liaising with internal stakeholders;
aligning business requirements with customer needs;
defining the initial product-market fit;
co-translating product specifications into user stories, prioritizing features in liaison with the agency’s Project Manager, UX/UI designers, and Software Engineers;
If you’re coming from a generalist Project Management background, are detail-oriented and enjoy the variety that comes with working across different industries, Project Manager might be the perfect entry role to apply transferable skills and transition into a Product Management role over time.
On the other hand, if you already have specialist expertise in a particular industry and enjoy ‘big picture’ roles, a Product Manager role will allow you to apply your specialist knowledge from the outset.
Action Step
For your entry role, decide whether you want to start out as a Product Manager (strategy and big picture) or Project Manager (detail-oriented execution) and research suitable agencies and/or companies.
5. Educate Yourself On All Levels
Product Managers are considered to be generalists, yet a lot of businesses prefer to hire specialists with a background in UX Design or Software Engineering to ensure the new hire is ‘fluent’ in design or tech.
However, there is more to a viable product than tech and design: Sales and Marketing, Customer Service, Growth and Business Development all influence the UX. As a PM, you have to educate yourself both on a micro level — i.e. UX, Design, Software Engineering — , and macro level, i.e. Business Development, Marketing, Sales, Customer Service, Growth. It is only by connecting the dots between all those components that you can shape a viable Product.
Book Tip: “Entering StartupLand” by Jeffrey Bussgang (Harvard Business Review Press, 2017) offers an in-depth overview of all the business aspects described above — highly recommended, even if you don’t want to work at a startup.
Guest post for Cambridge Conversations (Cambridge University Press ELT)
1. Recognize and accept the fact that we are in a marketplace
Most of us non-native speaker language teachers want to pass their passion for the language on to their students. We know the value we bring into the classroom, and it can feel disheartening to see the evident favouritism of native-speaker teachers in the language teaching space. The best way to educate employers on the benefits we bring to the table is to show them exactly what we have to offer and why their students need us in the classroom. Like any other profession these days, language teaching is an industry with different businesses covering different needs. We can resist this reality, or we can choose to accept it and see it as an opportunity for personal and professional growth. The truth is, in a competitive marketplace it’s not about being better qualified anymore – it’s about being unique. Many non-native language teachers are equally qualified in terms of certifications and language skills, but this is just a small part of our profiles. What makes each profile unique is the personality of the teacher – and it is up to you, as a language teacher, to reflect on and to show recruiters your uniqueness.
2. Show your uniqueness
First, let’s take a closer look at your motivation to teach English (or another language). Ask yourself the following questions: Why do you teach? What was that pivotal moment in your life that led you into the teaching profession? Be specific and avoid vague answers, such as “I went into teaching because I love seeing students grow” or “Because I fell in love with the English language.” How exactly did that happen?
Next, think about the way you teach. How do your backstory and your past (teaching) jobs impact your teaching style today? Again, be specific and illustrate qualities such as “creative” or “innovative” with successful projects you’ve done in the past to show your teaching approach. Make it as tangible as possible, so that a potential recruiter gets a feel for your (teaching) personality – not just your formal credentials.
3. Position yourself – for the right teaching job
You now have a unique narrative that you can tap into to articulate your uniqueness, including your non-nativeness.
Now, once you’ve found an exciting teaching position ask yourself why you feel compelled to teach in that particular environment? What makes you think that you are the perfect fit for this position? The right working environment for you is the one in which you don’t need to hide out, where you can be fully self-expressed and completely yourself. And if you truly believe in your non-nativeness as the core benefit, try to articulate why and how exactly it is going to benefit their students. Be specific: general qualities like being able to speak their students’ L1 may sound persuasive to our colleagues, but recruiters want to hear and see concrete examples.
This self-assessment requires a lot of honest self-reflection, but the clarity that comes from it is worth the time and effort. Being clear on your uniqueness you can seek out the employer who wants to hire you precisely for your personality – because you are the language teacher his clients need.
So what makes you unique? Choose one aspect of your story or your personality and post your answer in the comments section below.