How To Crack Your First US Internship (& Transition to Product Manager Roles) - w/ Maya

you've used up all the time much time to get to work talk me through the plan here your Master's application process resume is going to look a lot different from when you were applying to corporate jobs I do not have two different resumes I had just one single resume the minute you land in the United States and you start off with your first semester it hits you like a bullet train how did you land a product manager position when your experience doesn't have things that are generally attributed to a product manager TLA is extremely fast-paced and there was just no time immediately I was thrown into the project can you speak to the T like interview process realizing that the market is bad that and just being humble in that sense that let me try and apply to anything and everything

try and apply to anything and everything that interests me so do not restrict yourself PA G Ras usually come with their own benefits you get your insurance for free you your tution can be waved off I don't do any applications on LinkedIn by the way I just use it as a database of sorts to just realize what are the companies that have a lot of internship positions what can you tell us about negotiations Welcome to The Ready Set do part part where we discuss journeys of not experts who are just two steps ahead of us I'm Naman Pand and in this episode featured not expert is Maya Mishra Maya is a master student at puru University that has cracked scash that destroyed the internship code she secured offers from Amazon Tesla Walmart HP ABB and uner and I'm not even going to list all

uner and I'm not even going to list all the places where she got interview call backs but do check out the description below the like button for that information this discussion has every single thing you need to know to break into your first internship position as an international student in the United States by the end of this episode you will know the application strategies and approaches that work versus those that don't we also discuss how to negotiate your offer Maya's internship experience at Tesla and Walmart and what you can do to make sure that you have the most enriching internship experience possible in keeping with our team of learning from somebody that's just two steps ahead of us instead of an expert my goal

ahead of us instead of an expert my goal with this episode is to capture Maya's incredible knowhow derived from her own personal experiences that anyone can use to capture often the most critical position of your journey as an international student which is your first US internship this is The Ready Set do podcast and to support it please subscribe to my YouTube channel and now without any further Ado my friends my discussion with Maya I'm so excited to jump into all of the deep diving we're going to do about the world the fascinating world of internships here today maybe you'll disagree and say that oh that's not fascinating at all but kind of want to jump into the deep end here and you know go over expectations and realities so right off the bat I want to find out um what were some

want to find out um what were some things or maybe the biggest pointers in your mind around when you were in India you know when you hadn't moved to the US that you figured or assumed it would be like you know the whole internship hunt process versus now having gone through through that successfully might I add um you know the realities that you were exposed absolutely I think that's a great question well um so when I was in India that was um I mean I joined uh puu University for my masters in Engineering Management and started as um started in August of 2023 so until then uh I was in India and honestly I think I prepared myself for the worst so I told myself

myself for the worst so I told myself it's going to be a horrible mad Rat Race uh 10 times worse than what you have already experienced in India so like brace up and I think that sort of mental strength is required which really helped me in in just in just retaining that stamina because the minute you come I I feel the minute you land in the United States and you start off with your first semester it hits you like a bullet train like there's just so much to do and even though I had been independent I had been in this new city uh even in India like you know I had moved uh for my work I was quite independent in that aspect but moving countries you're completely all on your own and that's not just one of your

own and that's not just one of your aspects it's it's everything so starting right from your banking to your insurance to your medical to name it and oh yes housing one of the biggest troubles absolutely so I had prepared myself for the worst and internships was just one of the other criterias in that um and the minute I start I remember like I gave myself like about a week and I was into the game like I was like okay I need to start applying uh I remember a week is all that I gave to myself which was again for a reason because there were a couple of things that I wanted to sort out and really assess whether I

sort out and really assess whether I would want to add that onto my resume or not uh but there's a lot of groundw work that I had to do in the past even before arriving in the US right um because you brought that up do you mind adding or shining a light on what some of those preemptive tasks were that you did before arriving so the resume obviously is one very easy low hang fruit that people can work on what are some others what are some other pointers absolutely uh so I think here's here's a little bit of point of difference where in I would like to add that resume most of the times we think oh you know we just applied to schools we just underw this

applied to schools we just underw this entire Master's process I have my resume ready but what I feel is your Master's application process resume is going to look a lot different from when you are applying to corporate jobs so taking a step back and saying that hey I need to get another set of resumés ready right like a a completely new version with that being said it's usually human tendency to you know rely upon something that's convenient when we like okay I just need to make a couple of tweaks but it's just that you have this very preformed agenda for your resume that's already laid out and if you try and edit things there I don't think your best work is going to come out so my

work is going to come out so my suggestion you usually is start out from a blank page complete blank page and start charting things out and this time you need to remember who your target audience is and that's the corporate world it's not universities um sure like you know when you're like one significant difference that I would like to highlight when you're applying for universities you would want to highlight your NGO experiences or extracurriculars in terms of what have you done for the society right but when you're talking um about corprit as your end audience you would focus more on your projects more on your uh work experience in India or probably the uh TA or ra ships that you have on campus right so with that being

have on campus right so with that being said resume would be like getting a new draft draft and have a couple of sentences like couple of blanks where as I said right like I arrived here I gave myself a week to sort certain things out and I was like okay now that I have this project I want to include this right um so give give your resume that room to just do those last minute edits once you're here and then just be ready to start applying the second thing I would say is interview prep nobody is stopping you to do the interview prep and I was ready for my interviews even before arriving in the US because uh I think I took that time to really get started with the star structure um so maybe if you would like

structure um so maybe if you would like to know more I can shed some more light on how I went about pre- preparing about those those interviews yeah so we'll be talking about interviews like we'll be specifically deep diving into interviews as the next step you know of this entire process but um I realized that I detracted you from what you were answering earlier about expectations and realities so to BR to bring the conversation back to that front uh do you mind continuing on that absolutely okay okay um right so I think as I told you I had prepared myself for the worst besides that couple of things especially from academic standpoint I think um our our Indian mind is very very trained to um

Indian mind is very very trained to um to you know focus on final exams but what I felt the education system here concentrated on was continuous assessments right so you'll have a lot of assignments to do a lot of quizzes to take up uh probably presentations to make right and all of this like adds up to your final grade versus that one final dday where you study a night before and then you probably take an exam uh now this again with that being said this might vary from courses to courses um probably in thesis based courses this could look very different versus the nature of my course which is very professional in nature right uh but I think at the end of the day the the core Crux Remains the Same which is they

core Crux Remains the Same which is they really want to be continuously evaluating the second thing in terms of academics I think deadlines are deadlines like what set is set in stone so uh which is which is good in a way because they have these dates laid out so you know that you know things are not going to move around you can plan everything around it um so I I like structure a lot so that is one thing that I really like about the United States and I and I feel that that wasn't quite the case especially in my undergrad things are always flexible um even probably your final um exam dates could also be moving around right but like academic calendars are set in stone here and they will abide by it allows

here and they will abide by it allows you to plan your travel even if you want to travel back home to India it just allows you to like you know take all of that into account do your planning really really well speaking of planning I think that's the third thing to stay on top of your game you really need to plan yourself and be very very well ahead of things um for example um I was working as a project manager for uh for an oncampus project and I got my admit in February of 2023 and the minute I finalized okay that this is the school that I want to go to next week I was already applying for an on-campus job and and this is this is like probably

and and this is this is like probably four to five months in advance of my course even starting right so that's what that's what I mean by really staying ahead of your game this really helped like having that understanding really helped me adjust when I moved from India to the US past guests on this podcast have expressed a you know a lot of they've said there's a lot of benefit in applying for Ta or/ Ra positions and typically what I've heard is that yeah you have to start way out in advance so I'm curious um as to was that a factor that you looked at at all or were you specifically not wanting to do that and just wanting to stick to an oncampus job

just wanting to stick to an oncampus job right so uh technically the project manager position that I had it's a teaching as a stin position uh but because it's for a corporate project it's they internally they call you project managers so essentially what I was doing is um it's a course on campus that that has a bunch of uh undergrad and grad students and each ta essentially or a project manager has a bunch of students under them so I had like about 12 students under me that I was guiding through the entire project and you know we were running um agile methodology Sprints uh to keep them on track and things like that with that being said um t g r usually come with their own benefits such as you know you you you essentially you become a staff

you you essentially you become a staff for that particular school so you you you probably get your insurance for free uh you your tution can be waved off um um sometimes um I mean you're also paid um it takes care of your basic living expenses as well uh but again it depends from course to course like my course did not really like wave off my tution or did not really qualify me as a graduate student but that's a caveat um and like you know I I knew all of that it's not like it took me by surprise it's something that you sign up for and besides that uh it was not a typical ta it was a very uh corporate kind of position and I I was the direct Le on

position and I I was the direct Le on between the company and the students so it felt nothing less than an internship honestly awesome love that thanks for that context that's super helpful for us so bringing us back to week one in the US you've decided you've given yourself you've used up all the time you give yourself now it's time to get to work talk me through the plan here how many applications per day what type of applications and what was your gen general you know job search prototyp well not prototype but blueprint I guess is what I'm getting yeah um so yeah so I arrived a week before my orientation so I was extremely jetlagged through my orientation uh family with uh sorry spending time with family was sort of the priority at that moment I was like

the priority at that moment I was like it's okay jetl jetl is just a Hox I'll somehow survive uh but God was I so wrong this is I think this is around 1st of September that I probably started my first application my curriculum typically allows me to do internships over spring summer and fall which is not usually the case with most of the universities especially when you're an international student but for my course it's a requirement so um I I was essentially allowed to start my internships uh by Jan of 2024 which is in less than 6 months I don't think that I strategized in a sense that oh now I need to be looking just for spring internships and let my summer be put on

internships and let my summer be put on hold or let my fall internship be put on Hal I was like I'm going to apply to anything and everything that I see irrespective of when it starts because I don't really have a starting starting point in that aspect right and summer internships typically for good companies you know which have like these fancy internship programs when they lay out something very very specifically for you that starts out very well in advance like yeah internship positions for 2025 are already open right um so again to be on the top of your game you already want to start applying so I did not quite eliminate summer saying that okay I want

eliminate summer saying that okay I want to only focus on Spring that's not what my strategy was I said I'll apply to any and everything the second thing was being being flexible I think yes um we all have a certain career path in our mind like so did I so so do I like even at the moment but at the same time realizing that the market is bad uh especially for the last one year it has been really really bad realizing that and just being humble in that sense that hey you know what let me be flexible in this aspect let me try and apply to anything and everything that's that's that's possible for me to do right that interests me so do not restrict yourself um is is one

restrict yourself um is is one suggestion if you will that I have um and I I I wouldn't say that you know don't do something that you want that that's why the reason that I phrased it differently was just be flexible exctly that makes sense yeah so being flexible is something that I would suggest and um so with that being said what I what I started doing was LinkedIn acted like a source of Truth for me wherein it would just show me a lot of companies that were hiring now let's say if I see that there are a lot of positions on Microsoft um that's being posted right I go on to Microsoft's website I don't do any applications on LinkedIn by the way because ultimately does take me to the company's website I just use

me to the company's website I just use it as a as a database of sorts to just realize okay what are the companies that have a lot of internship positions so no easy applies you you're saying well easy applies when I would be in like shuttle traveling from University to classes or like I'm grabbing lunch that's when I would be like okay it's a tap that I need to do so that's how I was optimizing but I don't really know if it worked or not because I didn't quite get inall back from course I really like that call out in terms of optimizing for whether or not you have access to a laptop CU it's something you know you never know what but cool s please continue absolutely so yeah I still remember like when I would be riding the bus or something I would still have my

bus or something I would still have my phone and I would keep doing these easy applications in fact per has this industrial round table and when I was I was standing in the queue to meet up with companies I was still standing in the queue and doing my easy applications for all other companies in the meantime you you got to do what you got to do right so um so that was happening uh but besides that I would see what companies are hiring on LinkedIn go to their websites and um start looking for positions uh like filter by internship specifically and start applying um now again like no rigid filters like or product management or program management only I was open to Logistics was open to

only I was open to Logistics was open to operations I have some background in the past my interests also align with those I'm like okay I'm completely open to trying those out uh but this is this is typically the strategy that I used easy apply when you don't have access to your laptop secondly um just just trying to look for which companies are hiring or like Mass hiring on LinkedIn and going back to their application back to going back to their application portals and starting the application besides that uh I also sometimes use keywords like you know we are hiring uh on LinkedIn and just filtering it by posts and especially like removing the clutter in terms of Old Post so you can also filter it by what's recent uh so that also helped me in just like

that also helped me in just like connecting with those folks and um like going back to those applications because sometimes they put in their workday links and putting that application in y how many hours were you doing every day give or take wow um I was doing a lot of applications I didn't keep a Tracker I know a lot of people keep tracker this might be a very um different opinion but I don't think trackers are helpful in my opinion if you hear back it's going to come to your email like it's it's their responsibility to reach out to you if if you're shortlisted they'll either drop you an email or reach out to you via call um the other thing that I would say is that you you do get a lot of scam

is that you you do get a lot of scam calls but at the same time a lot of recruiters directly call you so do not miss any call that you're receiving uh because I have been in very very close scenarios where I probably missed that call and just like you know somehow it so happened that I ended up receiving and it was a recruiter on the other end so I don't think trackers are efficient um and in terms of the hours that I was applying quite literally like you know uh besides being in class I was always applying so I don't really have a track of how many applications I put in uh but it was literally like okay today I finished Microsoft tomorrow I finished

finished Microsoft tomorrow I finished Tesla next day I finished all possible applications for this particular given company so that's the strategy I was using company and all internship positions to so I guess in my quest to still quantify this against you know all the push back I'm getting here yeah um and I obviously I realize it's not intentional push back I know it's just hard to like I I don't remember what I was doing a year ago but um what was the number of applications does that help perhaps in terms of getting a number I'm just trying to do this so that a person that's you know just arrived here knows what to shoot for like you know they

what to shoot for like you know they know what the the magic number is quote unquote even though obviously there is no well okay maybe maybe this would give you a ballpark figure so I did make it to Tesla for spring and for Tesla itself I had applied to like 30 different internship positions I so okay that's like 30 in there uh and like so so as I said like for every given company uh I think they were on an average about 20 to 25 positions that were relevant to me for internships that were open I countered them all yeah enough and did was your peer group doing this also so I'm very curious to specifically know this because when I came and we went to we have the same Alma M um none of my

we have the same Alma M um none of my peers were concerned with this like there was obviously yeah okay we have to get an internship so maybe we should do that but that happened not only way later like two three months in but also from what you're laying out you went hardcore like you were not screwing around at all so I'm curious where that came from from was it because of your peers or did somebody coach you or did you have a mentor what guided you through this really gruelling almost Rous sounding you know exercise of doing this over and over again every day right uh I think it you're not going to like the answer but I am very critical of myself so I did not give myself any room to breathe uh it was intense level of pressure what kept me grounded was just

pressure what kept me grounded was just like you know picking up the phone speaking to friends and family back at home uh that was my Escape essentially and like you know just couple of minutes of reconnecting with your old life right uh something of that sort uh but but besides that I did not really like I set a very rigid Target for myself like hey you need to get all three internships within this semester no matter no matter how you how you in there and and I was like I'll do whatever it takes you know even even if it means me staying up until like 2:00 a.m. 3:00 a.m. managing my studies and applying to all of the jobs with that being said I think um couple of my peers

being said I think um couple of my peers did start late um and I think I think they started late and couple of them were also very rigid on hey this is the only role that I want but then big and they're not to be blamed it's absolutely wonderful to be passionate about really really do what you want to do but it's just the nature of the market and we need to bend uh and I think just realizing that sooner than later helps because ultimately I did see some of them cing in saying okay you know what at this point I'll take whatever comes my way right but with that being said couple of friends who did stay back on campus who did not really do any internships for spring figured out a

internships for spring figured out a much better internship for summer maybe because they were very rigid and they said hey you know what I'm not going to settle and I will do exact like product management is what I want to do might take me another semester but I'm exactly going to stick to that right so I think it depends it depends on really what you want to do and how you want to prioritize things for you um but staying ahead of things is also about timeline and just starting sooner in not just internship search but everything that you do in the US things are pre-planned and you need to be on top of your game to like do your research well in advance to get started when the time's right

to get started when the time's right makes sense um appreciate that that's that's really insightful um as a precursor to my next question do you mind walking us through like a one minute background of your experiences before you came to the US of what you studied where you worked and what your profile was absolutely sure um so I um have traveled across eight different states of India so that made me very Multicultural I feel and very adaptable to just moving around and being okay with change um and I worked in three different cities uh so so that in itself was a lot of experience for me uh so I went to um for my undergrad I went to St Joseph which is Affiliated to Ana University in Chennai uh so 2016 to 2020

University in Chennai uh so 2016 to 2020 I did my undergrad in electronics and communication engineering and uh in my final semester I started my you know official professional work experience uh I interned with this company called value Labs um so I started off as a software engineer for them uh working on uiux products so essentially it was handling products and um catering to you know the front end part of it especially so stayed with them as an intern for about um I think 3 to 4 months and this was in my final semester that's exactly when in 2020 Co hit uh so we were all sent back home and you know there was uh there was this uncertainty about oh are

there was this uncertainty about oh are we going to get full-time offers or not but it so luckily happened that even though my graduation was pushed out my internship gave us full-time offers even before graduation and they said hey you know what we would like to know what you know what we would like to have you guys on board so I stayed with this company until the end of that year that's when I think this was a very individual contributor role and I started assessing ing that hey what are the tools that that will allow me to be very cross collaborative and sap was one of them so I started looking for companies that um to use ASP caterpillar and Ford happen to be my top choices um luckily found my way to Caterpillar uh

luckily found my way to Caterpillar uh worked with them as a technical consultant I was working on sap customer relationship module um stayed in that role for a year got promoted stayed again for further two years um hands down had the best set of mentors best set of uh people supervised ing me who really supported my career path and that's how I really realized that okay Masters is my way forward and figured my way out to the United States yep awesome love that yeah so I guess what I'm getting at is from there it seems like to me the jump to product management which as for your own admittance you weren't necessarily seeking out but it's almost funny because there's so many people out there that do seek that out that are like this is it for me this is my dream role I don't know or care for

my dream role I don't know or care for anything else this is what I want so I guess what I'm getting at is how did you land a product manager position when from what sounds like at least your experience doesn't or didn't have things and you can correct me if I'm wrong but it didn't have things that are generally attributed to a profile of um a product manager so how did you navigate that and maybe you could also segue into um how you found or converted the Tesla uh you know call back once that happen right um so okay here's the thing I think no matter which which sector you want to dive into you need to focus on skills that are transferable right because across all of the roles that I held

across all of the roles that I held there were a lot of different things that I was doing product specific just because it wasn't specifically like I wasn't specifically a product manager essentially mean that um it had no overlap overlap um and even currently like at Walmart as a product manager I'm really seeing these different overlaps wherein you know I'm able to pick and pluck uh different attributes from my previous jobs as well and yes sometimes your old ways of working also come in the way uh because you know you weren't a product manager exactly right so maybe you were an engineer in the past and sometimes that gets in the way of how you work or how you think right uh so it does help

how you think right uh so it does help if You' have been in that stream but I think companies are focused on the transfer skill sets that you have like especially through my interviews as well what I realized was just being able to translate my transferable skills I'll give you examples right so my first job that I talked about in India in value Labs it had a lot to do with uiux do we have to be concerned about that in product management yes so I do on those Trends and try to like plot them second job with caterpillar as a sap technical consultant right uh sap touches a lot of different modules so there's a lot of cross collaboration that you need to do as a product manager do you really have to do that especially yes right um a

to do that especially yes right um a critical um thing that I did at my job at caterpillar was working on the different requirements that I've received right or uh sometimes even um making a business case for a particular automation per se uh like okay the these are the requirements that I have for my tech team and here's the automation team that's going to help me develop it right um now is that exactly what a product manager does in terms of laying out requirements and and having systems integrate absolutely yes so just being able to plot a narrative is very very essential when you're trying to get into product management and as you said I wasn't quite seeking it I'm an accidental pm and you would be surprised that people in the industry don't really believe that you need to be in that PM

believe that you need to be in that PM field or need to go to school to get this PM experience the people that I've spoken to at Walmart they all agree that PMS are all accidental PMS like you weren't set out to be on this path it's just that your traits collectively really help you build up your skill set into this field and you're a good match for it and that's exactly what happened for me if if product management was the biggest umbrella of rules that you were applying for what was the second biggest right uh so I think I placed product and program at the same level for myself so uh product and program management all were same uh then I think at at the

were same uh then I think at at the second level I had was in fact I would say product program and project these all three were at the same level I don't think I had a lot of experience for project um until unless it was a software company looking for project right um because project is usually associated with construction and uh very very uh different kind of industry yeah it's for sure yeah yes yes so I don't really have expertise in there but I was again like banking on my transferable skills that okay you know um I have I've taken care of processes in the past so if the company is willing to have me sure I can get the work done right uh

sure I can get the work done right uh the second second tier for me was um I think being open to supply chain operations and Logistics position uh because sap again uh deals a lot with Logistics I personally worked with uh reverse Logistics at caterpillar so my experience was there and I was able to draw in um correlation to those jobs as well and I think the third uh third tier uh would be I was also open to you know product marketing sales um those positions as well because there's a lot of again overlap between product sales and marketing as well so uh you know that it's it's not that oh just because your internship was in marketing or sales you're not going to find your way to product I don't think that's the case

to product I don't think that's the case again try and draw parallels on what your interest and what your experience has built upon fair enough did you have I'm assuming you probably had different resumés for those three different layers that you uh just laid out would that be that that's not uh so the the reason being uh I do not have two different resumés I had just one single resume uh the reason being because uh I did try and customize it for certain different positions but what ended up happening is I was just confused and I was applying to positions with the wrong wrong resume and I was like like the next minute after I would click on Summit I would be like man I summitted the wrong draft and

like man I summitted the wrong draft and that was just very timec consuming for me to be cautious about oh which version do I need to pick uh I felt that that was interfering with my just you know focusing on the quantity of applications that I was trying to pour in right um so to tackle that I I did stick to one resume but with all the collective experiences that I'll have in the United States when I do start applying for fulltime I think it is wise to have two different resumes at least three might be a little too much I would say have two one that's more Tech focused and the other which is more operations and

other which is more operations and Hardware or process focused interesting that like that's yeah it's a little counter intuitive it's given that I'm sure as you might be aware also we're also recommended that you should take your resume to every position but I really kind of like what you're laying out about like don't focus on what you were doing focus on your skills and if they're transferable then you know it is a one siiz fits all in a way that it normally isn't so it works out in your favor it's it's not something I've heard before but inherently in my head that actually makes a lot of sense yeah yeah so like even during interviews I think I kept drawing these parallels wherein I was giving them examples of exact what I did and a transferable skill that I could absorb from there and then like

could absorb from there and then like essentially try and map it to the one of the skills that they would have quoted in their job responsibilities and they're like oh okay you know there she goes like she proved her point that she's she's done this in the past she can do it now C can you speak to the Tesla interview uh like process and experience a little bit what that was like how many interviews what type of questions were asked absolutely so first internship was with Tesla yeah that was over spring in Polo Alto California beautiful place by the way um so Tesla internships usually uh at least this is again from my knowledge my friends who have interviewed with Tesla uh to the best possible extent that I know I've seen people have either one round uh for

people have either one round uh for internships or at best two in my case in internships or at best two in my case my internship I had I think about five rounds oh boy yeah so that's five rounds uh I I think it's it's the it's for the team that I was joining I think it's uh it's one of one of the uh High rigor demanding teams so I think they just want the candidate to also pass through multiple different layers so I remember the first is where the recruiter sort of screens you uh that's that's basic question basic questions that you got to answer inil yeah yeah super basic where you know also want to check things off in terms of okay what's your background does it really map or not um so things

does it really map or not um so things like that that was the first round the second round was um I I think I think all of the rounds were very mixed in terms of Behavioral and Technical it wasn't like oh we're going to sit and ask you all Hardware questions or oh we're going to sit and ask you all Behavior that's not how it was it was very very interwin yeah what team was this in Tesla yeah so I worked as an engineering program manager it's called EPM which is is slightly different from TPM uh and I worked for their vehicle Hardware team okay vehicle Hardware so what were some of the technical questions like were they like Hardware oriented uh no no I don't think any of those don't think I don't think any of those questions were Hardware oriented so after the recruiter screening I had two

after the recruiter screening I had two more rounds which were as I said very intertwined with behavioral questions wherein they're trying to drive into your dive into your past experiences and trying to see um if there are parallels again if you do have the skill sets to be a program manager in terms of Hardware I was not asked any single question about oh do you know this particular part about a car or do you know this particular um thing about Hardware right I think it was more about um the way that you think that they really wanted to see although the last but one round was about a 40 40 45 minute long presentation that I had to do so I was asked to pick two of my um uh uh professional experiences that I'm proud

professional experiences that I'm proud of and present on that um so I picked a couple of experiences from the past that I shed more light upon uh and I think you need to when when you're asked to do a presentation it's more about oh are you capable of conveying things clearly are you capable of presenting to senior leadership right because as a PM majority of the times you do end up doing that uh so it's a 45 about 40 40 minute long u monologue is what it felt like because I kept talking and talking and and then you're questioned upon those so that was an hourong uh last but one round and prior to that I had two

one round and prior to that I had two different rounds but on the same day so it was back to back wherein again intertwined uh things were intertwined and the final round was um you know because Tesla deals with a lot of high INF Forex stuff uh they want to assure that they're hiring somebody that's capable and mature enough to keep their mouth shut wherever required and not leak um you know uh any IP any IP related information so it's it's just to sort of assess whether you're mature enough to do that or not for the company so yeah these are the five different rounds that I had to go through un like got the final offer makes sense and maybe you already mentioned this and I missed it so apologies but can you give

missed it so apologies but can you give me an example of any of the tech questions that you were asked so not if it was not a behavioral question what was what's an example of a question that you were asked um based on right I think um like for example when I was doing this presentation couple of follow-ups that I had um for those for that presentation that I did was oh can you shed some more light on what were your key process indicators as you were going through this project like what determined the success of this particular project that you're talking about so always having that what to your so what actually helps you uh take a deeper dive into a given scenario so that's what they they took a real deep dive into that I remember to again to try and see if I've thought of it or not

try and see if I've thought of it or not uh or if I'm you know being caught off guard and can I actually tackle something that's thrown um that that's very unprecedented and just immediately thrown at me absolutely uh what can you tell us about negotiations and would you like would you recommend it not recommend it it's risky not risky what's your you know whole take on that right uh so when we talk about negotiations I think the first thing that we think of is salary right um it goes beyond that there are many different things that you might want to negotiate about be it location be it your start date be it your end date right um so here's I I I think I had to do a lot of that through

think I had to do a lot of that through my internships um I I remember um so as I was navigating so as I said so I'm allowed to do spring summer and fall uh my fall internship the the upcoming one I'm going to go to work for ABB now this internship was always supposed to be a summer internship and much like that couple of other positions that I applied to were either meant for some other term but I still went ahead and applied for it I interviewed with them and once they like you that's when you're in a position to to negotiate uh let me let me try and try and maybe explain this a little bit more um so with ABB when I

little bit more um so with ABB when I interviewed with them it was always supposed to be a summer internship position but having interviewed and having gotten a flavor that okay I feel that the interviewer likes me and they want me that's when I I told them that hey um so just to let you know I have something going on for summer already but um given the conversation that we just had I would really really like to come and work with your company and it's just a matter of you know couple of um months that you got to wait and I can make it to fall right um make it I can make it to fall right um and once you have that confidence that they really like you that's when you

they really like you that's when you should go and Pitch this now how does this differ let's say if this is the exact conversation I would have had with the recruiter they don't usually want to go through the hustled right of oh maybe the hiring manager is not going to be okay with it and they would just usually be like okay you know what we're looking just for summer try and apply later for fall so I would say that before they make the decision make things clear for them like this negotiation did not really happen after I got the offer it happened at the end of internship so I told them that hey having gone through all of that what we just spoke about this is what I have planned for summer but I would really like to come and work for you for fall and before you know

for you for fall and before you know they would be really just willing to be flexible for you right and accommodate you uh with that being said they had certain fixed dates for fall I told them that hey you know what um I think I would I I can I can probably start earlier I really don't want to wait uh would you like to have me sooner or if which would allow me to end things uh sooner in December and allow me to travel back home company was extremely flexible and understanding they're like okay sure you know we can move the dates around uh in terms of location as well um I think I got a lot of different options and I was like okay I want to

options and I was like okay I want to stay closer to where my business functionality is going to be there um and be able to network be able to get the most of it all and they were like okay which location do you want and I was like I want to go to Houston and like okay great yep awesome um I guess one thing that comes to mind with that is um I've seen a lot of perspective around this where a lot of people especially you know job applicants sometimes don't realize how many you know like just the magnitude of opportunity cost for companies to have four five rounds of interviews across various teams across various people only to have the candidate not join like that to them is

candidate not join like that to them is a huge deal so I guess what you're really getting at is once you have the leverage where you've proved yourself where you're not just some random Joe or Jane you've you know communicated exactly what you can do it seems fairly obvious now that I think about it that the company would willing to accommodate you because now they don't want to lose you cuz then that just means all of those hours dollars have just been lost for no reason and now they have to restart their entire process so I especially like that call out because it's something that again should be fairly obvious but is not for various reasons the biggest being that we just you know are always almost like on our knees like hey please take me I'll work for you I'm I'm

please take me I'll work for you I'm I'm really good please blah blah but it doesn't need to be like that like you almost need to come from a place of abundance where you're like I am good I am enough if you'll have me that's great if not there will be others that will have me so I'll be fine either way so really appreciate that um really the last kind of segment here that I wanted to touch on a little bit was um your actual internship experience so I know you you've finished one you're currently undergoing one and you will start a third one pretty soon here so what are some tips that you can share for the first week or the first couple weeks of any student starting any internship that will you know serve to maximize their experience and also have you know like

experience and also have you know like maximal gains on what they learned from that if if I would not have really started the work um in in the US and you would ask me the very same question my answer would depend would would be very very different I would be like oh you know first week's all about trying to soak in the culture and uh just just giving yourself the time but I think especially given the nature of the internships that it's it's just very few weeks that you have in hand especially a summer right it spans from like I think anywhere between 10 to 12 weeks spring and fall are usually uh much longer uh but I think it depends from company culture to culture let's talk about Tesla right Tesla is extremely fast-paced and uh there was just no time like completely immediately I was thrown

like completely immediately I was thrown into the project and um you know being able to soak in the culture being able to uh learn things all of that happen simultaneously so there there's a lot that's coming at your way and if you're not trying to keep up with the pace you might be left behind uh with that being said Walmart is a very different organization I think um they the first week was all about oh we want to do a this do this Grand welcome for interns um and you know give them everything that they need uh allow them to just settle in um help them understand uh where they can find their right resources and things like that so that was all the first week that that was that was that the whole thing was about but I think in also the very first week

but I think in also the very first week what's very very crucial for and for you to do as an intern is to sit down with your manager and lay out your goals very very clearly like call them out like hey uh like lay it out for like midpoint and for your final point the reason that I say that is because sometimes you'll find yourself in a situation that oh I've been doing a lot but it doesn't seem to satisfy my manager or sometimes it could be like oh I don't think I'm getting to do to do enough in my duration right so for you to eliminate all of those ambiguities uh it's very very crucial for you to give a give a clear call out to these required um assessment points

to these required um assessment points essentially um and it also helps you to like you know be like hey these are the points that we both agreed upon and now that the internship has concluded boom boom boom I have accomplished the them all or even if you haven't you'll have like a percentage like okay three out of the four tasks that I was assigned right so there you go um I I have finished um you you you'll be able to quantify it very easily like in in fact this was a suggestion that came to me by a friend that hey I sat my manager down and I told them that um that this is this is exactly uh what I perceive the goals to

exactly uh what I perceive the goals to be do you agree let them disagree but like refine it along with them yep I see so yeah that's that was going to be my followup to that is like I've done internships in the past and a lot of times in my first week I had no idea what I was signing up for or like sure they give you a job description when you interview but I think between you and I we we know that a lot of times that job description was last updated 3 years ago and since then things have changed but yeah so I think but what you said around that just have placeholder goals that's

that just have placeholder goals that's fine but as long as you make your intent known that I'm trying to quantify what I do here and so that by the end of my stint I know exactly what I accomplished and yeah the only way to do that is by having concrete go RS that you can refine along the way I think would would would you agree that that's a fair um assimilation of what you said absolutely and I will say that in a program a product manager role it's very difficult sometimes to quantify things so you're not really going to have numbers in terms of oh I'm going to save a number of manners or um I'm going to improve

of manners or um I'm going to improve the process by blah blah blah percentage right going to have 75 hours worth of meetings no that's probably not that's not a good go at all for you yes yes so it really depends on the nature of the work as well but um uh I think the one thing you can surely quantify is hey n number of goals that I was able to accomplish out of the x that I laid out for myself like that's something that you can easily quantify right um so so get started with that first week is meant for that like even if your manager isn't being proactive go put the schedule with the agenda that hey we are going to set our goals uh I I

hey we are going to set our goals uh I I think would appreciate that y yeah exactly I was just going to say like if I did that or if I were a manager and my new intern did that that's a huge huge you know point in their book where I'm like okay this person actually cares like they have fixed agendas and they're not here to just by time so yeah U love that amazing Deep dive on the whole you know internship space uh quote unquote um I guess my last question for you Maya is having you know done dance for a year now and I know you will continue to um what are some takeaways and I know you

what are some takeaways and I know you briefly touched on one of them but what are some takeaways that you have in mind that you're planning on implementing for your full-time search having done all this having had all of these experiences would you say largely the game plan the blueprint is the same or do you think that it changes and you one needs to adapt to you know that different requirement if you think of it as a different requirement right right I think it's going to look a little different for full-time just because um for internships as I said right there's a defined period so you know what you're targeting but full-time positions are very dynamic they are rolling uh so a position that you see up there could be meant to be filled in the next 15 days versus in the next 90 days versus a year

versus in the next 90 days versus a year from now so so that that really confuses me even for now because I'm like okay I'm graduating in a year do I already start right but like when I start now I'm like so so this is what I what I wanted to do I'm like okay I have this version of resume I really want to start testing out if it's working or not right but um I as of now I haven't I haven't quite seen um callbox for full time now it could be because my resume is not working or it could be because it clearly calls out my graduation days is May 2025 exactly yeah probably the latter if I were to guess I should hope so but uh with that being said there is

so but uh with that being said there is no concrete way for me to like really test things out uh the best thing that I can do uh in this given time given that you know I'm I'm I'm relaxed in the sense that I do have internship planned and like I have this I have a road map for me until at least like May 2025 what I can do is genuinely Network because at this point I don't really have a ask off of them so just try and meet people try and understand what they're doing and I've been doing that and uh and once you start developing that you know like um genuine

developing that you know like um genuine networking and also when we talk about networking don't just stop at that first call have a followup I would in fact recommend if you really click with a given person like test that out because you're not as an individual you also might not really click with every single person that you network with if you really do click and if you feel that they can serve to be a good Mentor uh if they can prove the purpose that you're seeking set up set up a 15 minute recording call ask them for it and like even when you really don't have the energy to show up to a one-on-one that calendar invite that sits in there it's going to remind you that hey you have this coming up you're going to prepare an agenda you're going to go meet with them you will update them of the

them you will update them of the progress that you have had up until now be it in school work or be it in your internships that'll just allow you to like build up this relationship and before you know probably when you're trying to apply for full-time positions if if there's an opening in their particular team or somebody that they know of right they might just end up reaching out to you I'll give you an example so I had interviewed with am as well I just developed like really genuine connections and I had this uh person reaching out to me saying that hey there's this opening like would you be interested uh you know I have somebody that's looking for it and I'm like my bad I don't graduate until May 2025 and she's like don't worry I'll keep you in mind and you know if something similar comes up I'll

something similar comes up I'll recommend people uh and that's the sort of thing that you want to be doing right yeah yep I guess just just being again proactive in that sense ktie who I'm sure you know Katy hudel from PDM was on this podcast also and she basically were btim had also shared that very parallel advice that you don't always need to network with that instant gratification mindset y it's okay to actually Network outside of the you know carrot the dangling carrot of a referral like it's okay to genuinely want to make form connections and go from there um one last Quick hopefully small followup to that is do you have um any mentors currently for with whom you have these things with or is that something that you're planning to do going no I've had

you're planning to do going no I've had mentors I've I've always been very focused on having mentors uh and I think a good starting path this is something that I've started new for myself as well finding mentors in your professors um and that's that's that's a really really good thing to do because especially professors that are uh you know out there getting industry projects and things like that networking with them and finding a mentor in them because one you've been in their class so they really sort of know you already yeah hopefully you did well and you weren't sleeping yeah I I I wasn't I might have been applying to jobs sometimes in class but besides that I was attentive that's like 10x worse but uh but yeah Jokes Aside um I think finding a mentors in your professor is something truly truly amazing that you

something truly truly amazing that you can do uh for yourself uh besides that through all of these internships uh I think I've reached out to people just to like try and get their their take on the career path that I am on or just suggestions right and sometimes you will get conflicting suggestions as well so be cautious enough to filter out what's applicable to you and what's not you need that right like sometimes certain suggestions might not be the best for you and it's completely okay for you to say yes you're my mentor you did suggest this but maybe this doesn't really align the best possible way for me yeah Nel ravikant I'm not sure if you're aware um is my mentor even though he doesn't know me and he will probably never know me

me and he will probably never know me but he has a really famous quote where he said that 95% of the advice you receive is and I will believe this but and a true great person or the path to Greatness is realizing what that remaining 5% advice is which is applicable to you and which you should apply so I yeah it just I just it made me what you said made me think of that exact thing where yeah like even in this particular conversation you've said so many things that have seemed counterintuitive to me but they've worked for you so stuff around not having three different versions for your resume like if you picked a random linked influencer and ask them to pick they would probably you know rip our

they would probably you know rip our heads off they would be like that's blasphemy you cannot even dare to do that but you did it and it worked so you know who's to say like it's it's funny World lots of different perspectives and at the end of the day it's just about you know what you do and and what you're capable of actually accomplishing so Maya thank you so much for taking the time to sit with me here and talk about your amazing experiences and sharing the wealth really that you've accumulated in such a short time it's remarkable talking to you because like having spent if you were to rewind me to when I was a

if you were to rewind me to when I was a year deep in the US I mean it's it's honestly embarrassing how and again not to compare but of course we compare with humans I was not even playing the same league that you are when it comes to this stuff so no no I'm genuinely being as honest as I can be right now so but again in a way that it's so nice for me to see that you know there's people like you that are so driven that know exactly what they want and that are willing to do what it takes to you know get what they want so hopefully I'm sure for our listeners I'm sure they will be you know deriving that same value um that I just did as well and thank you so so much for

did as well and thank you so so much for taking the time today thanks for having me already said do it was it was a great pleasure and I hope the listeners have something valuable to take away uh but yeah like if you're taking one thing from this conversation I would say stand up for yourself which also includes being extremely critical of yourself because only when you do that will you be able to fetch the best results for yourself so um don't get too comfortable always be on your toes always try and be proactive and be on top of your game in terms of timeline yep thank you Naman it was great chatting with you that brings us to the end of episode 21 of The Ready

us to the end of episode 21 of The Ready Set do podcast thank you for sharing these episodes with those that continue to benefit from them the outpouring of comments on my last video is still something I'm recovering from if you would like to support me the easiest way to do that is by subscribing to my YouTube channel and by leaving me up to a Fest star rating on Spotify new episodes every Wednesday catch you all in the next one