MSPM Alumni Week - Dec 2020
Curiosity, Networking and Preparation
I went from having no plan to a good plan after one week of meeting our program’s alumni. I can’t believe how helpful this week was. Here’s one key takeaway from each of them.
Jerry Cai - Start internship applications early. Don’t wait to be ready for interviews before starting to apply.
Ashwin Rao - Apply even if your resume doesn’t match completely to the job description. Apply even if you don’t get a referral to the company.
Iris Lin - Recruiters and Hiring Managers know that you are looking for a job. Add a note when sending a LinkedIn request, but don’t make it too long - stick to the point.
Deb Sasmal - Don’t be afraid of rejection. Learn from your rejections by reflecting. I had applied to 100+ companies of which I only got 19 initial phone screens, 9 first round interviews, and 7 interviews. Finally, on Dec 1, I had no offers, but in the next week I had 4. Take rejections in your stride.
JL Singson - Take the MCC’s help to tailor your Resume, T.M.A.Y. and Elevator Pitch for product management.
Sanjeev Malladi - Consistently chip away at your S.T.A.R. stories and internship applications so that you have something ready by the time the program starts. There’s 14 days to January, just work on 1 story and 2 applications a day.
Abhinav Moramganti - Know what kind of a PM you want to be. Don’t be a Technical PM if that will make you miserable.
Neal Iyer - Networking doesn’t just mean connecting with people on LinkedIn. Treat it as a funnel, where you are growing your connections to passive supporters, advocates and finally your sponsors/champions.
Erin Ho - Choose projects that give you ownership and you can build an actual prototype or artifact rather than a deck/presentation.
Vivek Indrayan - We’re all in this program to learn, and it is a balancing act, but hey, prioritization is what Product Managers need to be great at and that’s what the MSPM is going to teach you!
THANK YOU to the entire MCC Team, ALC Team and Brad, Kevin and Casey for organizing this week’s orientation.
And finally, nice to meet you, MSPM 2021 :)
"It's very low, but that's very high," Deb on getting a 7% response rate when networking on LinkedIn