College Years
I started off college pursuing a bioengineering/chemical engineering track thinking STEM was going to be the right path for me. It seemed like a lucrative career to pursue and being an engineer was more or less aligned with my parents’ expectations (although their expectations began to dwindle significantly throughout my high school years and they probably realized at some point that I was going to live my own life rather than abide by their guidance and rules).
First semester was as run-of-the-mill as you could get. I probably spent more time skipping class playing League than attending labs and ended the semester with A’s and B’s. Second semester, was a slap in the face and my grades began to slide further. I absolutely hated physics because everything was too abstract and was not at all interested in even the introductory programming classes. Rather than finishing the semester with poor grades, which I thought would surely impact my GPA, I decided to take a leave of absence and withdraw from all my classes to salvage my GPA.
I clearly didn’t think things through. I was too scared and prideful to tell my parents what had happened and did not foresee that I would be kicked out of my dorm once the request for the leave was approved. I spent the rest of the semester and that summer living in the living room of my fraternity house barely paying any rent. There was nothing like sleeping on a bare mattress on top of the alcohol-stained wooden floor next to a decades old beer pong table. I thought I hit my rock bottom.
I didn’t want to go back home to Philly essentially having failed out that semester and swore to myself I was going to figure things out and at least survive on my own during that summer. I worked as a waiter at Uno Pizzeria on campus and also as a mover/truck driver for a storage company that catered to local college students in the Boston area. I worked a ton of hours (this was the case through college before I was able to get my first internship), and achieving self-sufficiency instilled the confidence in myself that even if I were to fail again in life, I could still find ways to at the very least survive on my own.
Thankfully, I was able to return to school the following fall semester and transferred to the business school because I thought that pivot would provide me with the most amount of flexibility. Of the concentrations I could choose from: finance, accounting, entrepreneurship, marketing, supply chain, management, MIS, I went with marketing because to be honest, I still had no idea what I wanted to do and wanted a relatively easy major.
First Internship
One of the perks of attending Northeastern was the co-op program that required each student to complete 2-3 6-month long internships to complete their degree. As such, a typical undergrad degree lasts 5 years compared to a traditional 4-year program.
My GPA was still not strong enough when applying for my first internship and I knew that I didn’t have any shot landing a job at the more reputable firms my friends were aiming for. I thought the only way to make my resume stand out was to complete all three of my co-ops abroad. I knew there was so much to see in life and I was hungry to experience different cultures, people, cuisine, and experiences.
I jumped at the opportunity to work in Hong Kong for a supply chain company, Li and Fung, but I had no idea how I was going to make the financial ends meet. The job paid $1K USD per month and I knew that was nowhere near enough. Somehow, I was able to connect with a professor that led a graduate program for international studies and had connections to Spencer Fung, Li and Fung’s CEO. I was fortunately awarded another $1K USD per month as scholarship, which provided me with the breathing room I needed.
The most rewarding moment in my life was landing in Hong Kong and the weeks that led up to that moment. My job was scheduled to start early January and I had spent that prior winter break working double shifts nearly every day at a French restaurant trying to make more money as cushion for emergency expenses living in Hong Kong. I would go to the gym from 8AM-9:30AM, get to work at 10AM, get home at 10:30AM, and did that for 3-4 weeks knowing the reward was going to be worth it.
Everything was so vivid when I landed at the Hong Kong airport. Getting inside the red taxi, exchanging for HKD, the bright, sunny January afternoon in Hong Kong. I could not believe I had moved to a new country so far away from home where I was going to spend the next 6 months. It was unreal and one of my biggest regrets in life is not traveling even more when I lived in Hong Kong.
Second Internship
While preparing for my second internship, I was a lot more aspirational but I didn’t have the relevant experience nor the grades to land a job in consulting or banking. While browsing the job portal, I came across a marketing opening at “Web Services, Amazon,” not fully aware of what the job entailed. But I sure as hell knew what Amazon did and applied anyways not expecting much.
When I somehow got the call back from the recruiter asking me to schedule an interview, I knew this was my golden ticket. I knew for a fact landing this gig would open so many doors of opportunities if I were to pursue a career in tech and I spent days and nights nailing down potential behavioral questions (this was before Amazon recruiters outlined Leadership Principles with candidates with utmost thoroughness).
One thing that certainly improved my shot during the interview was I tried my best to quantify all my accomplishments as much as possible. I didn’t have any mentors at the time nor peers that were pursuing non-tech roles in tech so I was just running into the wall full-force hoping for the best. Regardless, that’s an important tip for students: replace all the objective adjectives in your resume with subjective metrics if possible.
After receiving the internship offer, I thought I had made it. Everything lined up perfectly. All I had to do was get a return offer and I would be set.
That plan was a train wreck in reality. I didn’t have a cordial relationship with my manager and ultimately I think I crumbled under the impostor syndrome. Despite that, I was still hoping for a favorable outcome because at the end of the day, I did deliver a ton of quantifiable impact, but I wasn’t extended an incline to hire.
This was the new low in my life. I was embarrassed, shocked, devastated, and questioned my worth/skillset. I felt like a complete idiot striking out when the ball was lightly tossed at me and it took me a long, long time to move on from that rejection.
Third Internship
The only other opportunity in tech besides AWS for my last co-op was at VMware. The experience was night at day compared to my AWS experience. The atmosphere was less cut-throat and I absolutely loved working with my manager and my skip-level. It was also my first exposure to product marketing and I knew this was going to be the sweet spot for me in terms of pay, career growth, and a growing demand for PMMs (product marketing managers) with relevant skills. Because product marketing is quite hard to get into as a fresh grad, I was so focused on not only delivering impact, but also forging trustful relationships with everyone my team to secure a return offer.
I was able to extend my co-op by another 6 months working part-time remotely while I finished my last semester in school and started as a full-time employee shortly after graduation. One of the biggest lessons I learned during my third co-op was the importance of the people you get to work with on a day-to-day basis. The product that you work on can be the most innovative thing in the space but if you are surrounded by egoistic individuals that prioritize individual achievement over the team’s success, then you are going to hate your job no matter what.
First Departure
Including my co-op, I was approaching my 3 year mark at VMware. I had gone through several reorgs and an acquisition so sadly, I was no longer working with the same manager and skip-level. Nonetheless, pay was good, teammates were still very genuine and pleasant people to work with, but it felt like I hit a ceiling in terms of personal growth. Things moved a little too slowly for my preference and I knew I wanted to look for external opportunities.
Having spent time working for large enterprises, AWS and VMware, I wanted to try something completely different. I was always told to try joining a startup as a young professional and I had a feeling that would provide me with the experience that I desired.
Startup Life
Learn, learn, learn. I learned more in <1 year working at a startup than the 3~ years I spent working for enterprises. I was able to lay the foundational work for product launches, work more closely with the sales team to define areas of need and produce the most relevant enablement materials, and focus on refining the positioning and messaging for some of the solutions areas. Also, the big part of this growth was that I had a manager that was supportive, allowed room for discussions and disagreements, and provided extremely pointed feedback so I could tangibly improve on areas of opportunity.
The New Beginning
Unfortunately (and fortunately) that startup run came to a halt due to an unexpected layoff. More to be discussed in subsequent blogs…