Riyaz Mohammad's Jobaaj Learnings Review: From BBA Graduate to Product Manager at Illusion Consultants

"Initially, cracking interviews was a huge challenge for me — especially since I didn't come from a traditional product background. I had some practical exposure but lacked a clear understanding of how to drive product processes or handle product interviews." — Riyaz Mohammad

Riyaz Mohammad is from Bangalore and holds a BBA in Business Management and Administration. His interest in product management grew out of a customer-facing role where he spent his time solving customer problems. He enrolled in Jobaaj Learnings' Product Management Program on 28 August, interned for two months, certified in January, completed around 20 product assignments, and was eventually hired at Illusion Consultants — on an internship that has since converted to full-time.

If you are searching “is Jobaaj Learnings genuine”, “is Jobaaj real or fake” or “can I become a product manager without a tech background”, Riyaz's account is the one that most clearly separates what the course did from what he did himself. He is direct that after certification he still could not crack interviews, and describes the self-directed work that closed that gap. He also tells prospective students plainly that “not everyone can make this transition.” Read it alongside the other conversations in our Interview Series and the wider feedback on the reviews page.

Who Is Riyaz Mohammad? His Background Before Product Management

Riyaz was born and brought up in Bangalore and still lives there. He holds a Bachelor's in Business Management and Administration — no engineering degree, no product experience.

What pointed him towards product was the shape of his day job:

"My journey started while I was working in an organization where I focused on solving customer problems. That experience really helped shape my mindset toward understanding product management."

Note the direction of travel. He did not decide to become a PM and then look for evidence he could. He was already doing one part of the job and went looking for the rest of it.

The Timeline, Month by Month

Riyaz gives dates, which makes his journey easier to plan against than most:

What He Rated Most Highly: The Teardown Sessions

Of everything in the course, Riyaz singles out one component:

"The weekend teardown sessions were particularly valuable — interactive classes where actual product managers helped us understand how to approach problems and make structured decisions."

Two elements make that work in his description: practising working PMs rather than career trainers, and structured decision-making rather than product theory. He says this is where his learning became “more curated and industry-oriented.”

The Part Most Reviews Skip: Certification Didn't Get Him Hired

This is the section worth reading twice if you are choosing a course on the promise of a certificate.

Riyaz certified in January. Then:

"Initially, cracking interviews was a huge challenge for me — especially since I didn't come from a traditional product background. I had some practical exposure but lacked a clear understanding of how to drive product processes or handle product interviews."

What he did about it, in his own list:

• Explored additional resources beyond the course material
• Studied industry case studies on live products
• Completed around 20 product assignments to sharpen his approach
• Used feedback from employers — including the ones who rejected him — to refine his understanding
• Tracked market trends, particularly how AI is reshaping product strategy and operations

That is a substantial second phase of work after the programme ended. Budget for it.

The Outcome: Illusion Consultants, Internship to Full-Time

Riyaz was hired at Illusion Consultants. His account of why he was picked is specific and does not credit the certificate:

"They appreciated the structured journey I had taken, the self-initiated learning, and the efforts I had put into refining my skills."

The role began as an internship and has since converted to a full-time position — which, unlike some accounts in this series, is a completed conversion rather than an expected one. No salary is disclosed.

Riyaz's Honest Answer on Whether Anyone Can Switch

Asked whether someone from a completely different background can move into product management, Riyaz declines the easy answer:

"Honestly, I'd say not everyone can make this transition. You really need to have clarity about why you want to enter product management and what value you can bring to customers or to society."

His conditions:

• Problem-solving is the core skill — product management is solving customer problems creatively and effectively.
• It's not about having ideas. It is about prioritising, deciding, and building something that actually helps users.
• Empathy, research, communication and a mindset of continuous learning are required alongside.
• It doesn't happen overnight. Time, mentorship, staying current, seminars, and a willingness to experiment.

Do You Need a Tech Background to Become a PM?

Riyaz's answer is a qualified no:

• You are not expected to write code.
• Understanding basic tools and workflows helps, and some roles will require genuine technical depth depending on the product.
• What actually matters: understanding the problem, defining the product, and making sure it meets user needs.
• If you can follow the process and collaborate with engineers, he says that is generally enough.

Pros and Cons, Based on Riyaz's Account

What worked:

• Teardown sessions taught by working product managers, focused on structured decision-making
• Cohort sessions plus recordings, so material could be revisited
• A two-month internship producing real project work — discovery, wireframe collaboration, documentation
• A documented five-month arc from enrolment to certification
• An outcome that converted from internship to full-time

What his account shows honestly:

• Certification alone did not convert interviews. He says so directly.
• He did roughly 20 further assignments on his own initiative after the course finished.
• The internship was in-house at Jobaaj rather than at an external company.
• He rejects the “anyone can do this” framing that most course marketing relies on.
• No salary is disclosed, and no rating was asked for or given.

Product Management Interview Questions and Answers

Tell us about yourself and why product management.

Answer: I come from a BBA background with an interest in business strategy and customer problems. Working in customer-facing roles, I saw that many of those problems were better solved through product thinking than through service fixes. That led me into formal PM training, real case studies, and an internship on a community product — which confirmed the interest rather than just satisfying it.

Walk us through a product you worked on.

Answer: A community platform where the goal was improving user engagement. I identified pain points through feedback sessions, mapped feature requests, and proposed MVP functionality — onboarding flows and basic interaction tools. I worked with the design team on wireframes and wrote the documentation the tech team built from. It taught me discovery, documentation and stakeholder alignment in that order.

How do you prioritise features in a roadmap?

Answer: Frameworks like MoSCoW or RICE, applied to user feedback, business goals and technical input — weighing impact, feasibility and urgency. Concretely: we had to choose between a community leaderboard and improving onboarding. Onboarding won because it moved retention directly and fitted inside the sprint.

How do you handle criticism from stakeholders?

Answer: Look for the need underneath the complaint rather than defending the work. When community leads criticised one of our early feature suggestions, I ran a short feedback session to understand their actual problem, then reworked the solution with them instead of arguing for the original.

What was hardest about transitioning into product management?

Answer: Learning how product interviews are structured and how to present myself as capable without a tech background. I addressed it with over 20 assignments, live product case studies, and feedback from mentors and interviewers — plus following how AI is changing products, so I had something current to bring to the conversation.

How do you understand user needs?

Answer: Qualitative first — interviews or surveys for first-hand insight — supported by behavioural data where it exists. The discipline is listening without assuming. On the community project, the right questions revealed why users were dropping off during sign-up, and that finding is what shaped the new onboarding flow.

What is AI's role in product management today?

Answer: It is changing how products are built and scaled — personalisation, behavioural analytics, automated testing, even idea validation. The useful stance is treating it as a tool that improves decision-making and user experience rather than as a feature to bolt on because it is fashionable.

Full Podcast Transcript

The complete conversation, unedited.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Jobaaj Learnings genuine, or is it fake?

This page documents one recorded case: Riyaz Mohammad, a BBA graduate with no product or tech background, who enrolled on 28 August, interned, certified in January, and was hired at Illusion Consultants on an internship that converted to full-time. He states on camera that certification alone did not get him through interviews. See the wider review set on the reviews page.

Is the certificate enough to get a product management job?

Not on Riyaz's evidence. He certified in January and still found interviews a huge challenge. What closed the gap was around 20 further assignments, industry case studies and feedback from employers — work he did himself after the course ended.

Do you need a technical background to become a product manager?

Riyaz says no. You are not expected to write code, though understanding basic tools and workflows helps and some roles genuinely need technical depth. The core is understanding the problem, defining the product, and working with engineering.

Can anyone switch into product management?

His answer is no, and it is worth taking seriously: “not everyone can make this transition.” He argues you need clarity on why you want it, genuine enjoyment of structured problem-solving, and the patience for a change that does not happen overnight.

What's the most useful part of the course?

For Riyaz, the weekend teardown sessions — interactive classes run by working product managers on how to approach problems and make structured decisions.

How long did the whole process take?

He enrolled on 28 August, interned from September to December, certified in January, then spent further months on self-directed preparation before the offer — so roughly six months to certification, and longer to a job.