Significant Career Lesson From a Product Manager at Levi Strauss & Co.
Kanika, a Product Manager at Levi Strauss & Co., emphasizes the significance of "feeling passionately about the product," noting that this passion leads to longer-term career satisfaction and success, even influencing promotion opportunities. While early career flexibility is acceptable, Kanika advises prioritizing products that resonate personally after gaining experience, having left previous roles due to lack of passion and repetitive tasks.
Product Management, Passion & Purpose, Career Longevity, Burnout, Work-Life Balance
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Kanika Kapoor
Product Manager
Levi Strauss & Co.
Punjab Technical University
UCLA Anderson school of management- MBA
Engineering - Electrical
Apparel, Beauty, Retail & Fashion
Product / Service / Software Development and Management
Took Out Loans, Immigrant
Video Highlights
1. Find a product you're passionate about; it prevents burnout and increases job satisfaction.
2. Don't be too picky early in your career, but after 5 years, prioritize working on products you care about.
3. Passion for your product leads to greater success and opportunities for promotion
Transcript
What is one lesson that you've learned that's proven significant in your career?
This is an interesting one. I would say, and a lot of people might not follow this, but feeling passionately about the product you're working on goes a long way.
You might get burned out after two or three years working on a product you don't emotionally care about. For instance, working on a back-end tool that helps Amazon settle their transactions might not be as fun.
This is different from working for Nike sustainability, or initiatives like privacy within Facebook. If these are things that matter to you, you might thrive longer and not get burned out.
You'll also feel a sense of pride when talking about your work with friends. So, at the beginning of your career, you don't have to be that picky.
However, once you've been a PM for five years, wanting to work on a product you personally care for goes a long way. This sets you up for promotions because you're genuinely invested in the product.
But if you're someone who doesn't care about what they work on, just wants to get the job done, and feels less for the customer but wants to make the company successful, you might still be successful. For me, I've left jobs in the past because I wasn't feeling that passion for the product, or I was doing repetitive work and wanted to do new work to serve the customer my product was serving.