We recently connected with Bosky Mukherjee and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Bosky, we’re so appreciative of you taking the time to share your nuggets of wisdom with our community. One of the topics we think is most important for folks looking to level up their lives is building up their self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you share how you developed your confidence?
This has takes lots of learnings and unlearnings in life and career but one experience very early in my career made a huge impact on how I built my confidence every day for the last 23 years.
My first manager consistently belittled me.
Every interaction left me questioning my worth. My self-confidence was low, and I wondered if I was even fit to work in a company.
My days were filled with last-minute deadlines, often extending past midnight, along with belittling remarks that crossed the line from professional to personal.
In those 3 years, I became sick, ended up going to the ER, and I was gradually becoming a negative person. It was a struggle to make good decisions, and my work suffered as a result.
I did not have another job lined up. My friends told me to stay put.
But I refused to become a victim of my circumstances. I trusted my gut and left.
I accepted a stop-gap role to pay my bills. This gave me the mental space to approach my job search intentionally.
Looking back, it was the best decision I could have made.
Here are 3 things I learned from that experience:
1/ I cannot blame myself for not knowing what I know now
2/ I defined my “non-negotiables” when looking for my next role
3/ I reminded myself that I don’t have to become toxic to deal with toxicity
Toxic workplaces don’t just drain productivity; they drain our spirit and confidence.
Life lesson: Remember: you’ll likely spend 1/3 of your life at work, so make it a joyful place to be.
And if there isn’t much you can do, start planning your exit strategy before you have no option but to leave.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I am a startup founder, 100% bootstrapped, a working mom , an immigrant , and a minority in rooms where my presence and abilities were doubted.
That’s why I’m passionate about helping women and minorities future-proof their careers. I have paused, pivoted, and restarted my career countless times.
At PMDojo, we are rewriting the old rules and playbooks that held back women and minorities from succeeding in their tech industry careers.
Our new playbook is all about helping you develop real-world skills (both hard and soft skills) to fast-track your career with expertise, real experience, connections, and opportunities to be hired, promoted, and rise to leadership roles in product and tech.
I coach Product Managers, Product Leaders, technologists, and business leaders from Fortune 500 companies to move up into leadership:
– Become stronger strategic thinkers and problem solvers
– Lead innovation at scale and drive business impact
– Build mindsets and resiliency needed to navigate today’s business world
– Build high performing teams that grow
We do this with our experiential and personalized programs like the Product Accelerator or Coaching.
With over 22+ years of experience in the tech and product field as an individual contributor, people manager, a product executive, and a business executive, I have worked in several startups in SaaS, marketplace, climate tech from pre-product-market fit to growth, and also at some cool larger companies like Atlassian.
I have supported 1000+ women and minorities in fast-tracking their careers in this market. Many can be found in some of the top tech companies like Meta, Netflix, Uber, Meta, LinkedIn, Visa, Walmart, Cisco, Amazon, Oracle, and others.
I write and share about:
– Career inflection points of real, ordinary, yet inspiring people in product and tech
– Raw and genuine stories of navigating life’s ups and downs while advancing in your product career
– Heart-wrenching stories of resilience and tenacity that inspire courage and belief
Learn more here – https://www.pmdojo.me/
Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bosky/
P.S. Waitlist applications are now open for our upcoming cohort and 1:1 sessions. If you are looking to transition into tech/product management or move up in leadership roles, reach out.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
2 traits and skills that have helped me in my journey are:
1. Think of my career like a business: Very early on in my career, I learned that no one cares about your career. You need to own it and treat your career like a business.
It made me more intentional with my time, what I was choosing to say yes to and no, what I wanted to learn and unlearn.
It made me realize that I needed to invest in my career to get compounding returns and prepare for unforeseen circumstances.
If the recent layoffs have taught us anything, it is that life is unpredictable and if we’re not prepared in advance, we can fall behind.
Just like companies have business continuity plans, you need to think about what your career can look like in the coming years and whether are you ready for a sudden shift. Here is my
TIP#1: Think in the macro
So many of us just let our careers happen. I did the same for the longest time. But this mindset makes us keep waiting for the good things to happen.
Instead, take charge of the roadmap.
– How is the market evolving and what the nature of your field could look like in 2 years?
– What do you want to be doing in your next two or even three roles? Are you optimizing for those skills today?
TIP#2: Take ownership of your career
Work is evolving, markets are transforming and this is the time to be up to speed with change. Making hard decisions, defining your career map, and responding to change becomes easier when you take complete ownership of your career.
And just like a business, the results compound over time.
2. Integrity and credibility: I have worked extremely hard and people know me as someone who would always do my best work. This has helped me build my credibility because consistent performance compounds over time.
A closely tied skill here is integrity because we can lose our credibility fast without integrity. I have always had this reputation of doing what I said I will do and following through. Sounds old school but still true.
How would you describe your ideal client?
I’m passionate about helping women and minorities future-proof their careers. I have paused, pivoted, and restarted my career countless times.
At PMDojo, we are rewriting the old rules and playbooks that held back women and minorities from succeeding in their tech industry careers.
Our new playbook is all about helping you develop real-world skills (both hard and soft skills) to fast-track your career with expertise, real experience, connections, and opportunities to be hired, promoted, and rise to leadership roles in product and tech.
I coach Product Managers, Product Leaders, technologists, and business leaders from Fortune 500 companies (and smaller ones) to get unstuck in their careers and move up in leadership roles by:
– Become stronger strategic thinkers and problem solvers
– Lead innovation at scale and drive business impact
– Build mindsets and resiliency needed to navigate today’s business world
– Build high performing teams that grow
We do this with our experiential and personalized programs like the Product Accelerator or Coaching.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.pmdojo.me/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bosky/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/boskymukherjee/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bosky_mukherjee
