How I exchanged my white coat for a hoodie
My journey as an aspiring MD/PhD turned PM
If you ask me what “product management” was a year ago, I would probably throw back some gibberish about a “manager who manages products.” 😅 A lot has changed this year, and I’m excited to share my experience getting into such an intellectually stimulating field.
My journey to become a PM took me from the Philippines to Canada, through a few grueling years of pre-med work and research, and finally a decision to jump ship and take a chance on myself.
At 16, I had the opportunity to leave my home in the Philippines and pursue higher education in Canada after gaining my parents’ support. Growing up in an Asian household and moving to Canada as a first-generation immigrant imposed a lot of stress. While everyone my age was coping with the transition from high school to university, I faced adapting to a foreign country on my own. I also dealt with a constant battle of proving myself exceptional to impress everyone back home and to make the most of my time in Canada.
I eventually decided to pursue a bachelor’s degree in biology because it was my stepping stone to becoming a real-life Dr. Christina Yang. It is a highly regarded and stable career; everyone knows what a doctor does. It ticked all the boxes. What more could I ask for?
Just like any other pre-med student, I supplemented my learning inside the classroom and started to build my credentials for medical school by gaining research experience. I spent a substantial amount of time during undergrad performing academic and clinical research. One of my research career highlights was working closely with the Inventor of the Glycemic Index himself which I still find absolutely mind-blowing until this day!
Although I enjoy the sciences and research and am grateful for the experiences I had there, I came to realize that I could not see myself pursuing medicine in the long-term. On a daily basis, I constantly yearn for three things: social interaction, dynamic work, and “move fast” culture. I felt that these were to be found elsewhere.
Pursuing medicine is something that is easy to say but is extremely difficult to do. I was not prepared to miss out on what’s supposed to be the best two decades of my life. I was not ready to spend copious amounts of time studying. I was not ready to miss important life events because I have exams or clinical duties coming up. I was not prepared to deal with heartbreaking events on a daily basis. It takes that level of commitment and dedication to earn a doctor title in front of my name — one has to be married to this field.
Instead of following the traditional med school route, I decided to enter the industry post-graduation. Having no internship experience made it so much more difficult to land any role whatsoever. The only work experience I had on my resume was a tutoring gig I did in university.
After sending over hundreds of job applications and tweaking my LinkedIn profile several times, I still was not successful in landing a role. Those two months of job searching after graduation were the hardest two months of my life, but I kept going. As I was about to lose hope, I received an email from the COO of an edtech startup in Toronto:
Fast forward, and I had come onboard the startup as a tutor. Shortly after I joined, I learned that the startup was really struggling to achieve product-market fit, so I did some work to identify an audience in which there was demand for academic coaching.
After branding the coaching business as Janine the Tutor, I leveraged acquisition channels to generate leads, converted those leads into paying customers, and presented the data I had collected to convince key stakeholders to pour more resources into growing this part of the business. Fortunately, my team not only generated 6-digit revenue but also experienced one of the clearest signs of finding PMF, a sudden and significant pull from the market, discussed by Lenny Rachitsky here.
Through this experience, I learned through doing important aspects of product, design, GTM strategy, and analytics. More importantly, I stopped waiting for the light at the end of the tunnel and lit that light myself.
Who would have thought that starting something and somewhere was my gateway into landing PM interviews at companies like Facebook, Lyft, Redfin, Shopify, Sea Limited (Shopee), OnDeck, Pinterest, Oracle, Logitech, Sequoia-backed startup Wonolo, Genesys, Loblaw Companies (Shoppers Drug Mart), Bolt Financial, Splunk, and Wish? I am immensely grateful to the recruiters, hiring managers, and PMs who have interviewed me so far — they were an affirmation that someone like myself who came from a non-traditional background can also get into product.
I refuse to regret my decision of pursuing pre-med because if I did, I will never know whether this path is for me, and I found my answer. I finally found a title that required me to be skilled in multiple areas and allowed me to wear many hats at once without changing titles — I can be a visionary, a problem solver, a catalyst, a builder, an entrepreneur, a leader, a team member, a designer, a strategist, an evangelist, and the list goes on.
I continue to be hungry for growth, and I remain hopeful that I will land a full-fledged PM role one day. If I do, I’ll post an update here.
Update: I landed a full-time PM offer from Microsoft on March 15, 2021.
When the COVID-19 pandemic started, I reconnected with one of my cousins who I haven’t been in touch with for years and who turned out to be a successful software engineer. He has been a great support to me in learning about the trifecta. Also, here’s the thing with mentors — they don’t always have to be older than you. I owe a debt of gratitude to him to have gotten this far and to have decided a potential new career as a PM.
I am happy to connect with like-minded individuals, so don’t be a stranger. Come say hi on Twitter! 👋🏻
