STEM fields for career
- Technology
Tell us what you do in your profession.
As an Associate Product Manager, my job consists of… making the new features for a software that visualizes data (think fancy charts) called Tableau. My day-to-day varies quite a bit, but mostly my time is split between talking to our customers and ensuring coordination and communication between software developers (people who code), testers (people who test our code), designers (people who design what the app looks like), and management (business people).
How did you end up in your career?
Throughout my childhood, I grew up thinking I would work in finance like my parents, or become a high school English teacher. My high school didn’t offer any coding classes, so it wasn’t until I participated in a STEM outreach program (Microsoft DigiGirlz) my junior year of high school that I became fascinated by the logical thinking and creative problem solving of computer science. After being admitted to the Computer Science major at the University of Washington, I quickly feel in love and discovered all that is beyond coding: the possibilities of what impact code can make.
Throughout college, I worked on projects with people that cared about how to use technology for good — specifically tech that empowered communities to have access to education. I had a couple software engineering and product management internships and quickly realized that talking to different groups of people in order to figure out what we should build, and more importantly why we should build it, was my favorite part of the process. And that’s exactly what a Product Manager does!
What advice would you give to a girl going in to 8th grade who loves STEM?
Remember that everyone starts somewhere, don’t feel nervous if you walk into a room not knowing anything — you WILL learn it and continue to learn throughout your life! I was so nervous about “looking stupid” and used to doubt myself whenever I would walk into a coding class or conference. I STILL get those butterflies and jitters today, but I have more confidence in myself now knowing that anything I don’t know, I will be able to tackle and figure out!
What would you do differently?
I wish I would have tried out more fields related to technology, like research or the intersection of healthcare and software. It’s so important to try as many things as possible so you can learn about what kinds of things YOU like/dislike.
Is there anything you wish you had studied that you did not?
See previous answer
What does _________ Job ____ mean?
Being an Associate Product Manager means being a flexible problem solver. No two days or two problems will look the same, and you have to constantly be ready to tackle curveballs. But it’s so meaningful because you are driving the changes to a product that can change lives!
What kinds of things do you do each day?
Talking to people who use our product in order to figure out what issues they are facing with our product, brainstorming possible solutions to those issues with software engineers/designers/business people, talking to other PMs in the company to figure out what they’re working on and how my features fit in, talking to marketing to determine how to price/market these new features
Education (colleges & Degrees; additional certifications):
- B.S. Computer Science @ University of Washington Seattle
Anything else you would like to share?
The best thing I did in college was studying abroad in Spain for 3 months taking Spanish and Art classes — remember that a career in STEM does not mean solely studying those topics! It’s so important (and so fun) to explore your other interests too.