What Type Of Person Thrives In The Edtech Industry, According To A Content Program Manager At An Edtech Company
Sasha, a Senior Content Program Manager in the Edtech industry, highlights the importance of "wanting to make an impact, but also recognizing that impact is incremental," a crucial trait for success alongside strong stakeholder management skills and proactive time management in a remote work environment. Building relationships deliberately is key, as "it is harder to build relationships with colleagues when you work remotely."
Passion for Education, Incremental Impact, Cross-functional Collaboration, Remote Work Management, Proactive Relationship Building
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Sasha Ban
Senior Content Program Manager
Leading Edtech Company
Barnard College
UCLA MBA
Biology & Related Sciences
Education, Technology
Operations and Project Management
Greek Life Member, Student Athlete
Video Highlights
1. Passion and realistic expectations: A successful professional in this field needs passion for education but also the ability to accept incremental change rather than expecting to solve all problems immediately.
2. Stakeholder management and communication: Effectively communicating and collaborating with diverse teams (customer-facing, engineers, operations) is crucial, especially in non-technical roles.
3. Proactive time and relationship management: Remote work demands strong time management and proactive relationship-building skills to avoid isolation and build connections with colleagues remotely.
Transcript
How would you describe PE people who typically thrive in this industry?
That's a great question, and I think there are a couple of pieces to it. In education, you have a lot of people who are really passionate, but you also have to accept that you'll have an impact, but you won't be able to solve all the problems.
There are many challenging systemic issues. I've seen many people burn out, whether they're classroom teachers, administrators, or people in ancillary industries. This happens when they start to feel deflated because they're trying hard but not seeing the systemic changes they hoped for.
Wanting to make an impact is important, but recognizing that your impact will be incremental, rather than a silver bullet, is also key.
In the tech industry, it's crucial to work with different stakeholders from various backgrounds. There's a lot of interfacing between customer-facing roles, engineers, and those in operations. Being able to speak their language and empathize with end-users and customers is important.
You also need to have constructive conversations with technical folks, especially in a non-technical program management role like mine.
With remote work, time management is essential. You won't have a lot of oversight, and it can be easy to get distracted at home. So, being proactive about time management and relationship building is important.
It's harder to build relationships with colleagues remotely, so you need to be deliberate about how you do that. Sometimes, reaching out to schedule a coffee chat is helpful. If your company uses Slack or another communication tool, take advantage of social channels or resources. These help replace the spontaneous interactions you'd have in an in-person setting.