LinkedIn CPO explains the mindset change that led to success
While LinkedIn is the mecca of job search, chief product officer Tomer Cohen said he didn't actually apply for his role at the company before being asked to join.
In a recent episode of Lenny's Podcast, Cohen said that he first joined LinkedIn in 2012 after meeting up with Deep Nishar, former senior vice president of products and user experience.
The two were talking and Cohen pitched Nishar on an idea.
"I said, 'This is how I think this is how LinkedIn mobile unit should be built,'" he said. "And he was like, 'Okay, how about you come and build it?' I was like, 'Amazing.'"
Cohen, who has risen from head of product to VP and eventually CPO, said that while he has "always loved building" from a young age, he had to completely switch his thought process after moving from Israel to the US for graduate school in 2008.
"When I moved here, I realized my career path was very much dictated by one thing," he said. "It was like, what's most in demand? What's most challenging? And how do I do that? It was very childish in many ways."
Many of Cohen's vocational choices, from which company would be the best to what the toughest engineering role was, were "dictated by society" rather than his own convictions and passions. He said he recalibrated from seeking highly regarded companies and challenges to projects that actually motivated him.
"I fell a lot along the way, but I always kept going," Cohen said. "And then when I came here, there was a really big challenging for me personally around what do I care about? What matters most to me?"
After accumulating a student visa and massive school debt, Cohen co-founded a now-defunct startup called FellowUp, a personalized automated assistant. Although it was "not a very intelligent decision" for him monetarily, Cohen said he "didn't care."
"I was like, this is my new path," he said. "And then I got into LinkedIn."
Cohen said that LinkedIn was exciting and and the opportunity to make an impact — which he had a plan for. Cohen ended up leading the effort to remodel the LinkedIn feed and helped set in motion the company's shift to adopting an AI-first mentality prior before it was as ubiquitous.
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"I don't know if this is a recommendation for everybody, but for me, it's worked really, really well," Cohen said. "It was really pursuing the conviction I had and my excitement, and bringing that to the fold with people."
However, Cohen said that making a strong impact will be difficult if you're not genuinely enthused or motivated about your product or the company's mission.
"I love building, I love working with builders," he said. "Sometimes I'm like, I get paid for this, this is insane. But I love my craft, and I love getting deep into it."
At the same time, product people are also in "one of the most fortunate positions," said Cohen, because employers tend to place less weight on the prestigiousness of former companies or positions. Instead, it's their work that gets measured.
"It's a very special place," he said. "Nobody cares about your title. Who cares? Maybe the company name for some people matters, but for the most part, it's about the impact you created with the products you've built."
