Linda Xiong
Product Manager
Menlo Park, CA USA
“Live intentionally. There are a lot of things in our lives that are not in our control, but there are some that are. We should be intentional about making decisions for the things we can control.”
Videos
By Roadtrip NationLinda Xiong
Milestones
My road in life has taken me all over.
I immigrated to the U.S. from China when I was in middle school.
My dad urged me to go into engineering and technology because of the security that learning hard skills could provide.
I considered computer science but it didn’t seem like I’d fit into that community, so I studied industrial engineering and operations research instead.
After graduating, I worked as an engineer at Lockheed Martin—it wasn’t a great culture fit for me, so I started looking for something that would match better.
I transitioned into the technology industry and worked as a senior business intelligence analyst for Ubisoft for a few years before moving to Facebook.
I started at Facebook as a marketing analyst and have since worked my way up to data scientist and then product manager.
I’m also the founder of Moms in Tech, an online support community for women.
Keep following my journey
Education
High School
Career
Product Manager
I build and lead teams to solve the most important problems with technology.
Career Roadmap
My work combines:
My work combines:
Business
Technology
Working with Others
Day to Day
My primary role is to bring direction to the team. I evaluate the problems we need to work on and decide who should be working on them. These could be customer, technical, or infrastructure problems. I also help team members make the best out of their day by being efficient and happy. It’s also my responsibility to make sure our products fit into the rest of the company and the outside world. My days involve a lot of meetings and thoughtful thinking to connect dots within the company.
Advice for Getting Started
Here's the first step for college students
Learn to work hard, build authentic connections, and take feedback. If you're looking to get a foot in the door, networking and making good, authentic connections with people in the industry can really help.
Hurdles
The Noise I Shed
From Society in General:
"You want to have kids, so you'll probably want to take a step back. You can't be a hands-on mother and a successful career woman."
Challenges I Overcame
Gender Discrimination
Interviewed By
At Your Fingertips
Computer science from new perspectives
