Session: Twenty-five and Thriving as a Product Manager
In this talk, Kaja Pavlinić, a product manager in the IT industry, shares her story of discovering the world of project and product management right after graduating from college as a Software Engineer.
Bio
Kaja is a Master of Science in Computing, a product manager in the IT industry, a member of the US Department of State alumni community (BFTF 2014), a vice-president of the Croatian Youth Network (a member organization of the Youth European Forum), a Climate Pact Ambassador, a Young European Ambassador, a Commitment Mentor at Clinton Global Initiative University, a president of Sustainable Development Forum Green Window, and an owner of her own business KAJUŠKA. She is currently living and working in Croatia.
She is actively engaged in youth work since 2014. From 2017 to 2020, she was a member of the Youth Council of the President of the Republic of Croatia, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, and the member and a vice-president of the Youth Council of the City of Varaždin. Along with her colleagues, she has worked on preparing the candidacies of the city of Varaždin for the European Youth Capital 2021 and 2022, which both ended up in finals. Currently, through Sustainable Development Forum Green Window, she is managing several projects related to youth, human rights, democracy, corruption eradication, activism, green policies, and climate change. Since 2018, she has coordinated the project European Green Activists Training, which is financially supported by Green European Foundation. The project aims to educate young people about sustainable development, green values, green policies, climate change, human rights and environment protection, and equip them with skills and tools to become active citizens and activists.
In 2020 and 2021, she has carried out two editions of a project Youth Voice for Integrity, supported by the US Embassy Zagreb through the Alumni Grants Program. The purpose of this project was to connect young people with experts, explore corruption in the media, academia, health, and public sector, and encourage them to develop their own solutions to fight corruption. This year, another project activity was also conducting the research about the perception of corruption in Croatia among youth. In 2020, Kaja also coordinated a project under the name “Students for Students - Our Voice for the Dignity of Student Work”, financially supported by the Active Citizens Fund, to explore the state of student work in Croatia, especially during the pandemic of COVID-19.
As a Commitment Mentor in the scope of the Clinton Global Initiative University curriculum, Kaja helps students and young professionals all around the world with building and launching their social innovations, as well as implementing their Commitment to Action projects, which aim to help their local community and resolve burning local issues. Additionally, she regularly mentors young people coming from marginalized communities through the UPSHIFT project organized by HUKI (Croatian Office for Creativity and Innovation) and supported by UNICEF.
Previously, she has received a “Future Leader“ award by Croatian Women’s Network and a “30 Under 30“ award at VIDI Awards. Kaja is passionate about strengthening the capacities of young people in the fields of sustainable development, active citizenship, IT, project management, business development, and leadership.