Hello, my name is Justin Gross. I currently live in Washington DC. I’m at Capital One working on our fraud disputes and reissuance experiences in the capital on mobile app. I’m a huge fan of the product management profession, this profession I started after being in several roles in my early years out of college.

I would say I got there in a round-about fashion. Product management sits at the intersection of human, business, and technology. How do you understand a customer problem and what drives someone to use your products? What are the emotions? What are the outcomes you were driving toward? For business what benefit does this product provide?

Releasing products that customers love isn’t inexpensive. It requires a lot of work. How can you justify the work required to release and at least make your money back if not generate lasting long-term value? Technology is about building innovative products that are easy and seamless and practical.

You get to wear many hats as a product manager, which is part of what makes it so exciting. The idea of wearing many hats and playing multiple positions comes from ideals instilled in me from our parents. I grew up running track and was pushed to try almost every event, eventually becoming a decathlete, competing through college. For 15 years, I tried to excel at so many different events and take on the unique challenges that each event presented. I played the saxophone in concert in jazz bands, and can also hold my own as a Spanish speaker. I didn’t know at the time, but that attitude of mindset would go on to play a very central role in my early career.

I was an economics and policy studies double major and undergrad at Rice University. I really had no clue what I wanted to be when I when I left school, and I’m still not really sure that idea has fully developed five years out of college, even after spending my first four years out of college at an investment management firm and Edtech company in roles ranging from investment analysis, corporate finance, customer insights and strategy, business intelligence, to data science.

I moved to Capital One in February of 2019. When I graduated, I didn’t expect that within five years I would have worked at three companies and held five different roles. But embracing new challenges and gaining new skills when possible has been something I’ve prioritized in my early career. 

In one of my first interviews, I was asked if I thought I was someone whose learning style was more in line with “a mile wide and a foot high” or “a foot wide and a mile high.” In other words, do you like to know a lot about a little or a little about a lot? Careers are long – intimidatingly so – you have a long time to start building up a mile high if your career is 30 to 40 years long. Why rush? I’ve seen folks who get started down the path and keep building up in a role that doesn’t align with their personal or career interests, but the title and money make it hard to pivot and explore other opportunities after time.

It all comes down to what you optimized for. For me, I’ve been interested in seeing a business for many different angles. There are definitely folks my age who are subject matter experts at this point and have really leaned into a specific function while I’ve been in a exploratory phase of my career.

What I’ve learned is there are many ways to go about a career and many folks reskill, retool, pivot, and take on new and exciting opportunities in later stages of a career and all throughout. I love learning and I love picking up new skills. My parents always told me, “The more things you can do, the more opportunities you may have available to you.”

I really look forward to continuing to take on new challenges and really piece together the things that make a business home, but also my career home. Ultimately, it comes down to knowing your end user well. Your career is no different. Finding things that you like, that fit your style, and allow for your goals. Over time your career can be looked at as a product that you gather requirements for, refine, iterate, and enhance, as you go along.

[To see more of Justin’s views, explore our Career Conversations feature Work happiness by choosing a career that aligns with personal interests.]

Debi Saha, Longitude fellow, Rice University:

Thank you Justin! You perfectly encapsulated how I view my education and career. Going into Rice in the midst of a pandemic, I wanted to reinvent myself as this “Renaissance woman.” That meant learning a new language, pushing my activism, and getting involved in student government, something I hadn’t done before. Right now, that looks like taking Arabic, posting action items for various social and political movements, and being part of the academics committee in Rice’s student association. I am someone to jump at every opportunity for skill building, and though it may not directly lead me to a specific career, I enjoy facing these challenges, like Justin. As someone who is also majoring in Social Policy Analysis and Economics (alongside managerial studies), it is encouraging to hear about the plethora of options available to me after I graduate. I want the opportunity to explore multiple roles and careers, guided by my love of learning. As Justin mentioned, “Find things that you like, that fit your style, and allow for your goals” and while that may be especially hard during a pandemic, you’ll come out on the other side of this in a better place.