How I Got Hired: Boeing Product Manager

Careeer.me is helping people make their next career move into a tech job. Our expert career coaches and customized career roadmaps create the path towards a new career. Our goal is to bridge the gap from where you are now to where you want to be, and that’s exactly what happened for Dan W. Continue reading to learn what Dan has to say about his experience with Careeer.me.

Hey Dan, can you introduce yourself and tell us how you you decided to go into Product Management?

Hello everyone! My name is Dan W. and I work at Boeing as a Product Manager. I studied Electrical Engineering at Northwestern University. My interest in product began in college when I was introduced to The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman, who was a professor at my university. As a result, I began to develop an interest in user experience and user design, and that’s when I came across product management. Since then I looked for roles that would enable me to develop product.

Tell us about the road to becoming a Product Manager.

The road to becoming a product manager has definitely been bumpy. It has required a tremendous amount of patience and there were a lot of times that I was close to giving up because it was difficult. There were a lot of third round interviews where I would be flown out to some city and I would meet everyone on the team only to find out I didn’t get the job. Then there were the times when I spent months and months applying and I wouldn’t hear back or I would receive the automated email message saying, “Thank you, we’re not going to proceed with your application.” It took me about two and half years to get to the point where I am at.

Sounds like it was tough. What did you do to breakthrough?

I stayed involved and connected with the product management community to stay motivated and I began to look for career coaching services, but no one seemed to have a specific expertise in transitioning from non-product to product. I found a lot of career coaches that could help me find a new electrical engineering role, but I was having a hard time finding a career service that would help me make the pivot between non-product to product. I needed a very tech focused expertise. I really needed someone who knew tech and someone who understood product because that was the only way I was going to get a job — by working with someone who really understands the discipline.

Why did you choose Careeer.me?

Other career services were limited with what they were able to help me with. For example, they could help me with the resume or they might be able to give me some tips on an interview but they were never able to look at me comprehensively and say here’s what I think we need to do to make this happen. The career coaches at Careeer.me focus on what needs to be done to get you from point A to point B.

How is Careeer.me different?

My specific goal was to transition into a Product Management role, and Careeer.me was definitely a key piece if not the key piece of my success. They showed me what I needed to do to get from where I was to where I wanted to go. They also showed me what I needed to do, they showed me how I was going to get there, and we completely reframed my resume to communicate my skills from a Product Management perspective not from an Electrical Engineering perspective.

Would you use Careeer.me again?

Careeer.me was so good that I’ll probably use them in the future if I want to make another career transition (hopefully I am set for a little bit). They’re just so good because they gave me skills that I can now use for the rest of my career to engage new employers as I progress, and that is a very powerful byproduct and value that Careeer.me provides.