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Alex Bentley, Product Management Leader and Coach at IBM, describes the role of an Offering Manager at IBM (IBM has renamed Product Management to Offering Management).

Alex has over 10 years of experience working as a Product Manager. He also leads the Associate Offering Manager program at IBM.

You can check out IBM's Associate Offering Manager program here: http://ibm.biz/aomprogram

Some of the areas that Alex talks about in this episode include:

1. How Offering Management is very similar to Product Management

2. Why IBM renamed Product Management to Offering Management - To emphasize the focus on building a business, as opposed to a product only

3. Difference between Offering Management at IBM and Product Management in some companies and Project Management

4. Examples of projects an Offering Manager might work on

5. How an Offering Manager/Product Manager needs to think like the CEO of the business

6. Examples of metrics that a Product/Offering Manager is evaluated on and how they vary with where the product is in its lifecycle

7. How Product/Offering Managers need to understand incentives of various stakeholders they work with - their customers, as well as internal stakeholders

8. Ability to say No and prioritize is critical

9. How Product/Offering Managers need to be able to context switch a lot. Alex blocks his calendar on Fridays to have some focused time for work.

10. Advice for candidates interested in breaking into Product Managemnt

11. Tons of helpful resources for interested candidates

12. Translate your work into measurable business impact when applying + what you did

13. Alex interviews a lot - common reasons why he rejects applicants for Product/Offering Management roles

14. Skills needed to do well in this job

Helen Chou, came to the US for her MBA at The Wharton School. Before that, she was working with Asus in Taiwan. In this episode, Helen shares a candid account of the challenges she faced as she went through recruiting, how networking was a scary experience in the beginning, and how she learnt to do it.

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Atif Nayeem, former Account Manager at Amazon, recently completed his MBA at Kellogg School of Management and recently received an offer as a Product Manager at Series B funded E-Commerce startup, Narvar. In this episode, Atif shares how he went about startup recruiting.

Some of things he touches upon include:

1. Why he decided to recruit for startups

2. How it's hard to change location, industry and function at the same time, and so he looked at e-commerce startups only

3. His startup selection criteria - how series B startups can be a good fit for MBAs

4. His application strategy - Applying online + sending a direct message to the recruiter or hiring manager on LinkedIn

5. What he wrote in these initial messages - his projects and skills that could be relevant to the role he was applying for

6. How going a step beyond to really show how interested you are in the startup is really helpful

7. His interview process and some interesting questions he was asked

8. How he evaluated his offer and negotiated it

9. Helpful resources for interested candidates

Thank you for listening!!

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Helen graduated from Wharton in 2014. After business school, she joined IBM’s leadership development rotational program and has been with IBM for three years now. She is currently a Product Manager on the IBM Watson Internet of Things platform. Prior to her MBA, Helen was a Business Development Manager at ASUS in Southeast Asia, traveling across Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia.

This episode covers some of the salient points outlined by Helen in this post - http://www.learneducatediscover.com/leadership-development-program

Helen touches upon:

1. What is the General Management Leadership Development Program at IBM

2. Pros and cons of doing a rotation program vs a regular job

3. How to decide whether such a program could be beneficial for you

4. Qualities needed to make the best use of such a program

5. Helpful resources

Thank you for listening!!

Follow the show on Twitter @LED_Curator

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Jim McCarthy works with executives to build happy, high-performance teams. He is an internationally acclaimed leadership consultant and motivational speaker. Jim’s workshops often include scientific research, anecdotes, writing exercises, group discussion, action items, and daily practices.

Jim has more than 19 years of executive and board level experience at Silicon Valley startups. He became employee # 258 at Yahoo in 1997, and later worked at NexTag, BlueLithium, and Drawbridge. Earlier in his career, Jim was an English teacher in Frankfurt, a business journalist in Madrid, and a McKinsey consultant in Munich.

Audiences deeply appreciate Jim’s unique perspective — as a Stanford MBA, Internet pioneer, world traveler, father, and person living with a cancer diagnosis.

In this episode, Jim shares what he learnt when he was diagnosed with cancer, and his message for others as they go through their own lives and careers.

Thank you for listening!!

Follow the show on Twitter @LED_Curator

Website www.learneducatediscover.com/

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Malcolm Phelan, ex-consultant and techie, having worked at BCG, Dropbox and Webflow, and now twice Campaign Manager (currently managing the campaign for Miller for Georgia), talks about what it is like to work as a Political Campaign Manager.

Some of the things that Malcolm touches upon in this episode include:

1. What is campaign management

2. Elements of a political campaign

3. Skills you develop when working as a campaign manager

4. Resources for those who are interested in trying this out

5. How running a campaign is similar to managing a startup or a business

6. Interesting and challenging aspects of the job

7. How to apply

Thank you for listening!!

Follow the show on Twitter @LED_Curator

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LED has partnered with Y Combinator backed startup Fullstack Academy, to bring to you these startup projects. Great opportunity for anyone interested in getting exposure to a high growth startup and making connections in the startup ecosystem.

Apply here: http://www.learneducatediscover.com/startup-projects

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Jordan Kong, Director of Business Operations and Board Observer at FoodTech startup Ando, talks about what working in Business Operations is like.

Some of the areas that Jordan touches upon in this episode include:

1. What's a venture studio (eg: Expa) and how it's great for people who want to work at a startup but dont have an idea

2. What does someone in Biz Ops do

3. Examples of projects someone in Biz Ops may work on

4. How this can be a highly cross-functional role and requires working with teams across the organization

5. How this is a data heavy role

6. How this role can take on either a strategic finance bent or an operations bent

7. How Biz Ops can be similar to an internal consulting role at times

8. Interesting and challenging aspects of the job

9. How this is a relatively new function and so the career path is not very clear

10. How to assess the importance of the function on the outside/while recruiting

11. Qualities in someone who would enjoy this job

12. How to stand out in a cold mail

13. Recruiting and interviewing tips for interested candidates

Thank you for listening!!

Follow the show on Twitter @LED_Curator

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Akash Mayur, Manager at Management Consulting firm A.T. Kearney, Inc., shares some of the things that he does to excel in his role as a Management Consultant.

Some of the areas that we touch upon in this episode include:

1. The role of a Management Consultant

2. The 3 layers to a great Management Consultant - Analytics/Problem Solving, Communication skills, and Emotional Quotient

3. Examples in each of the three layers to illustrate how this can make a difference

4. Akash's tips on how to excel in each of these areas

5. Other best practices for current and aspiring consultants

Thank you for listening!!

Follow the show on Twitter @LED_Curator

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George Zeng, Product Marketing Manager at Facebook, describes what is involved in working as a Product Marketing Manager and what you can do to excel in this role.

With an undergrad from Princeton, and grad from UPenn, and a highly diverse work experience ranging from Investment Banking at Goldman Sachs, to running Sales for Groupon for Souther China, to starting and selling his healthcare startup, George shares a number of clear, actionable advice not just for people interested in this role but advice for anyone looking for simple tips that could help you excel in your career.

Some of the things we touch upon in this episode include:

1. What is Product Marketing Management

2. Two broad components of this role

3. Typical and atypical ways of doing this job - and how the atypical ways can help you achieve exceptional results

4. Type of projects someone would work on in this role

5. How the PMM role at Facebook might differ from other companies

6. Interesting and challenging aspects of this job

7. Common misconceptions about this role

8. Qualities in a person who would enjoy this role

9. Useful resources for interested candidates

10. Tips for anyone interested in this role

11. General tips for career greatness! :)

Thank you for listening!!

Follow the show on Twitter @LED_Curator

Website www.learneducatediscover.com/

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Email us at [email protected]. We will reply!!

Subscribe to the show on iTunes itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/learn…ver/id1049159321