#003: Product Manager at BOMBARDIER Transportation – Zouheir El-Jabi
Zouheir El-Jabi has a bachelors of Computer and Communications engineering from the American University of Beirut in Lebanon and a Masters in Electrical and Computer engineering at Queen’s University in Canada. He then began work in Europe at BOMBARDIER Transportation – a Canadian firm that is one of the world’s largest companies in the rail vehicle and equipment manufacturing and servicing industry. Out of 5,000 candidates, Zouheir was amongst only 20 selected for the BOMBARDIER Global Graduate program. Five years later, Zouheir is now the product manager for the Low Power Propulsion Converters.
In our conversation, we discuss:
- Internship hunting.
- Why he pursued a Masters.
- Tracking turtles wirelessly.
- BOMBARDIER Transportation.
- The BOMBARDIER Global Graduate program.
- Leadership training.
- Interview tips – being yourself.
- Low Power Propulsion Converters.
- Responsibilities of a Product Manager.
- Product Development.
- The importance of your network.
- Working in teams of hundreds.
- Active listening, emotional intelligence, communication.
- The difference when communicating with German and Spanish engineers.
- Learning from your mistakes.
- Battery powered trains.
- Taking action.
- And much more…
Selected Links from the Show:
- BOMBARDIER Transportation homepage.
- BOMBARDIER Transportation wikipedia page.
- Low Power Propulsion and Control brochure for the MITRAC 500 series.
Reach out to Zouheir El-Jabi via LinkedIn.
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Discussion timestamps:
3:27 – Intro
4:08 – Why Zouheir studied computer / communications engineering.
5:47 – Why he pursued a masters in Canada instead of entering the workforce.
6:47 – What research focused on for his masters.
8:03 – How Zouheir secured his research internship.
10:18 – Work done at the Wireless Communications and Signal Processing Lab.
13:02 – How the job hunting process went for Zouheir.
16:08 – BOMBARDIER
17:57 – The Global Graduate Program at BOMBARDIER.
23:01 – Why Zouheir was one of 20 chosen from a pool of 5,000 candidates.
25:30 – Talk about Low Power Propulsion Converters.
29:31 – Responsibilities of the Product Manager.
32:40 – Managing the teams involved in a project.
34:01 – Important qualities for success as a product manager.
37:33 – Future tech: battery assisted trains, space travel, silicon carbide,
39:34 – Advice for future engineers.
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