I moved to the US from India in January 2020 to live my dream of working in the silicon valley. I started school at Carnegie Mellon University to pursue MS in Product Management. This was the only program I applied for and I was fortunate to get in. I was the first in class to land a product internship. I was one of the 2 students who were shortlisted to work with Microsoft for their capstone project in a cohort of 40 students. Everything so far was hunky dory until I started looking for full-time product management job in the valley.
I was hoping to carry forward my successful run but I just did not realize that I was entering the most difficult and competitive job market in the history of US in the fall of 2020, thanks to the pandemic. I thought I was well prepared but it hit me really hard!
Interviews were hard to land. I failed the recruiter screenings. I failed the hiring manager rounds. I failed multiple on-sites. I failed EVERY round that was possible. It was nerve wrecking! I graduated from my program with no job and no further interviews scheduled. This was one of the toughest times I was living through. The situation gets even more complicated for an international student on an F-1 visa as I had to land a job within 90 days after graduation. I would often go through bouts of anxiety thinking if I am doing the right thing and if I am even capable of landing a product management job.
As America started enjoying its Christmas and New Year holidays, I took a 10 day break from everything and started focussing on my mental and physical health. Journaling, meditation, and 3 mile runs every day helped me a lot and I was able to bring back my focus and energy to begin my job search yet again.
I entered 2021 with a lot of hope and faith in myself and decided to take control of the situation. I now had 90 days to land a job. It was a do or die situation! I completely changed my strategy and started applying aggressively. I applied to over 400 roles in a span of 3 weeks. I landed interviews with 16 companies over the next 2 weeks, some with the top FinTech companies in the world. This was followed by 3 weeks of intense interviewing where I gave 10+ interviews each week. By this time, I had reached a stage where I had confidence that I could crack any PM interview, no matter how hard. I eventually landed 3 job offers and had to say no to a lot of other companies where I was still interviewing. The tides had completely turned! All of this happened within the first 45 days of 2021.
None of this was easy and it was one heck of a roller-coaster ride. While going through all of this I learnt a thing or two about hiring, interviewing, and how to crack them successfully and methodically. There was a lot of hit and trial to figure things out and I wish there was a place for me to read about all of this to feel supported during this journey.
As of today, it has been 30 days since I have been sharing my stories from job search process on LinkedIn and I have received an overwhelming amount of support and response from everyone. My DMs have been filled with people who have not only been able to connect with the stories but also learn from them. I have tried my level best to respond to each and everyone of you looking for help and advice. I was also fortunate enough to speak with some of you on a 1 on 1 basis. I wish I could continue doing that but I have reached a point where it is logistically impossible for me to continue doing that. I still want to stay close to all of you to build that deeper and meaningful connection and help.
And so today, 🥁 I am launching my newsletter Pragmatism! Pragmatism is my commitment to continue sharing those stories, give practical tips and advice, share deeper insights into the product universe, how to land those coveted roles, AND deliver it right to your inbox 📧 so that you do not miss out on the content. (And also have lifetime access to all of it!) This newsletter will only contain things that YOU want to read about.
With this newsletter I want to support you, let you know that it is okay if you are going through the 'job hunting' phase and we will figure this out, together!
P.S. - I am still not sure of the frequency that you will get this newsletter at but you will hear from me at least once a week. I will be experimenting a lot with the content and the format. Please bear with me and ALWAYS feel free to share your feedback. This is your newsletter!
Hi Tanay, I read your product stories on a weekly basis and it's really great.
It's wonderful way to help and impact others who will share a growth story similar to yours.