My journey into product management (as an engineering/computer science grad)

Isabelle Kohout
Bootcamp
Published in
11 min readFeb 15, 2022

Woman leading a workshop
Photo by Jason Goodman on Unsplash

Last year, I finished up my undergraduate studies with two very technical degrees: an Honours in Mechatronic Engineering and a Bachelors in Computer Science.

Today, I work as a product manager for Australia’s biggest tech company. Product Management (PM) is largely considered to be a non-technical role, so how the heck did I end up here!??

I’m so glad you asked! But before we get into it, let me give you some context.

Context #1: ✍🏻 Why Am I Writing This?

For two reasons.

Firstly — I love speaking to other young people about their careers! I’ve had heaps of fantastic chats with passionate students that have reached out to learn about my experiences.

The first few questions I’m asked, almost without fail, are the same — to the point where I can copy and paste my answers from one LinkedIn DM to another. I want to answer these FAQs in a centralised place so I’m able to have richer and more personalised conversations with students who want to explore product careers.

Secondly, I found out about the PM role ~3 weeks before I ended up applying to the APM (Associate Product Manager) internship at Atlassian. I was in my fourth year of university…

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Bootcamp
Bootcamp

Published in Bootcamp

From idea to product, one lesson at a time. Bootcamp is a collection of resources and opinion pieces about UX, UI, and Product. To submit your story: https://tinyurl.com/bootspub1

Isabelle Kohout
Isabelle Kohout

Written by Isabelle Kohout

Product @ Atlassian. Tech and book nerd. Writing about product, early career, technology ethics, and everything in between.

Responses (3)

What are your thoughts?

Another fantastic article!

As an engineer-turned-PM, this is a really great in-depth overview. I wish I had this article at my disposable back then when I was considering the switch and I'm glad I did!

Absolutely love it - huge +1 to everything here.