Landing My Dream Role [Microsoft Program Manager]

My journey by no means is a linear one and that’s fine because I have grown stronger because I failed and faced rejection.

In society, we often take notice of the success but my story highlights the failures and struggles that led up to it

I share my story and overall reflection (at the end) in the hopes that it can help one of you who feels dejected from rejection.

Fall 2016 — The Beginning

Around October, a buzz in the computer science community to apply for internships started going around.

As a second year, I was oblivious and unaware of these “rare” internships at tech companies directed towards first and second years specifically. I didn’t feel as driven and sure of my career path either, but I knew I wanted to be in tech. I crafted a resume based on tips I found online and started applying via our school portal. Then one day, I received this email:

The Microsoft Explorer Program is geared towards 1st/2nd years exclusively to encourage their interest in a technical role by giving them the opportunity to engage in the main phases of product development: Design, Build, and Quality.

I was shocked. I never imagined that I would get an interview yet alone one with such a renown company like Microsoft at the time. I started searching online on best interview practices and asking upperclassmen for advice to prepare.

On the day of my interview, I felt nervous but I made it through feeling that I did the best I could. And then the news came:

A part of me felt defeated. It was one thing to get rejected, but to be told that I couldn’t move forward due to spots was another.

Yet, another part of me was excited. I let bygones be bygones. I looked forward at the opportunities that would lie ahead and held on to hope with the message at the end of the email.

This was just the beginning.

Winter 2017 — Expect the Unexpected

I got an on-campus job at the Office of Information Technology doing Business Intelligence and QA work. I updated my recruiter with what I was up to and received a surprise back:

I knew I’d get an opportunity to interview once more. But, I did not expect it to happen so soon. I was in the midst of my toughest quarter as a Computer Science student taking two weeder courses and this interview had to be a technical screen, my first one too.

Despite that, I was determined to give this my best shot I could.

I reached out to mentor figures to better understand what to expect and skimmed through the classic Cracking the Coding Interview book till interview day.

My 30-minute interview began with quick introductions and moved forward towards the two intense technical questions.

I remember my interviewer saying, “I want to give you this new grad problem because the one I was told to provide just seems too easy.” My heart sank and my nerves began to rise again.

As I stood up to white board with my hand trembling, I took a deep breath. I told myself that I need to just do what I can do and there’s nothing else I can do at that point. I pulled all the knowledge I could and engaged with the interviewer as much as possible to provide a solution to the table.

My interviewer decided to extend my interview for another 20 minutes. I left feeling unsure of what will happen next.

Spring 2017 — Discovering My Roadmap

My winter quarter is finally over and I am looking forward to my final quarter as a second year. However, I also started feeling lost as many of my fellow peers started talking about their future careers.

Many of my close friends in the computer science community seemed all in on the idea of becoming a software engineer. But, for some reason I didn’t see myself as a software engineer and I didn’t know what else to do.

At this point of time, a month has gone by since that interview and I finally receive an email about the decision.

I felt that my hard work paid off and a stroke of luck was on my side reading this email. Nevertheless, this made me reflect on the efforts I would need to make in the months to come to keep my technical skills sharp.

But, before that I received an invite that would change the course of my entire career.

“Codess is a community for female engineers initiated by Microsoft, established to explore ways to promote gender diversity in the engineering field.” (Microsoft)

Without a doubt in my mind, I RSVP’d. This soiree was a chance to interact with amazing women leaders and other women who are young aspirants like myself. This opportunity seemed like the perfect time to figure out why people enjoy the work they do and perhaps help me come to terms with my career.

Event Day

To be completely honest, I felt out of place. My imposter syndrome emotions climbed as I stood amidst high accomplishing peers with strong backgrounds and profiles around me.

But I was here. I couldn’t leave without making something of it.

I took baby steps and started to talk to those with fewer crowds. As I gained a bit confidence with each conversation, I forgot about the comparisons that stressed me out. I let myself speak authentically and by the time, I got to talk to my University Recruiter who I’ve been emailing with forever, Kim, I felt most comfortable.

My only picture with Kim, but it’s iconic and memorable. Fun Fact: I am still in touch with her till today and she is an amazing woman in tech!

She congratulated me for moving forward and asked me about what I was interested in. I didn’t know at the time because I went through the general screening rounds, but for third year summer internships I had to choose a focus.

I shared my doubts regarding if a software engineering role fit me. I expressed how I enjoyed the nature of my extracurricular involvements which was planning, collaborating, and people-facing. That is when Kim introduced me to product management.

I felt intrigued by this role that was technical yet solved problems in a fashion differently than writing code. The fears I had about my career began to go away. I left the soiree feeling inspired and motivated with this new hope.

Summer 2017 — Facing Reality

Learning about product management (PM) allowed me to pivot my career roadmap as I started to read about the role online.

Sadly, I didn’t have many peers or upperclassman who were seeking PM careers that I was close to at the time to learn from. I relied on my own to figure things out about PM. I started with the Cracking the PM Interview book and the resources I gathered online.

I kept in touch with Kim, but she was no longer the university recruiter by the time my final round rolled around.

My final round interview was scheduled at the end of summer before I began my third year. I was anxious as I realized that Microsoft was flying me out to their HQ in Redmond, Washington for the final round.

PM Internship Interview

I went into my first on-site interview not realizing the mental toll a full day of interviews back to back can have.

I felt confident in my ability towards behavioral questions, but as I received product sense questions, my overall confidence dwindled.

I started stuttering, feeling uncertain in my responses. I can guarantee the interviewer felt my nerves in the room.

Each passing round dealt a blow to my mental health with my imposter syndrome rising. At the final interview of the day is where I realized that I have so much room to grow and learn.

The interviewer asked me a question about the process to introduce a new feature. My mind went blank. I intuitively felt like I knew stuff but in that moment I couldn’t recall anything.

This interviewer was amazing, she sensed my nerves and provided guiding questions to help me. She walked through the process with me and I started taking the rest of the interview as a learning experience. Using the white board to map out the whole process, I ingrained that flow into my mind.

I was escorted to the entrance and looked at the sign one last time before heading back.

Upon my return, I immediately re-created that flow from the whiteboard as a reminder of the events of that day, the knowledge I seek, and the place I want to be.

My gut deep down knew I messed up and as expected, I received my rejection email within the following weeks.

Even thought I saw this coming, I felt devastated and incredibly disappointed at myself. It was the closest I was at an opportunity to gain experience in this lucrative field. I let myself cope with my feelings for a bit and pushed myself forward.

2018/2019—Rejection and Redirection

The next two years of my college career were invested in gaining experiences close to PM. I was rejected or ghosted from every product internship I applied to for the 2018 summer. I started interning during the summer as a Project Manager/Data Analyst at Panasonic Avionics.

Although it wasn’t the role I was looking for, I realized that I was getting warmer towards my ideal career.

Fall rolls in and I’m in my final year thinking about full time roles and grad school. I realized that there was a gap I wanted to fill and explore. Thus, I applied to one graduate program that aligned with an area of interest I had.

I also applied to Microsoft once again and received a phone screen. I felt okay about my first round, but received news that I did not move forward.

That year many opportunities did not go as I anticipated. My future felt bleak as rejections for all product opportunities rolled in.

My peers kept insisting that I should give up and pursue software engineering first then product later. I started losing hope and then I got my letter of acceptance to the University of Southern California.

I took it as a sign that I needed to build new foundations and gather more experience. Pursuing my Masters gave me the chance to apply for more internships and thus I began my journey as a Tesla intern.

2020 — A New Approach

I discovered the power of networking as it helped me gain product management experience during my Tesla internship.

This only exemplified once the pandemic hit and remote work became our new normal.

I began activities to strengthen my abilities such as:

• I started my remote summer internship at Splunk where I networked with various PMs on a bi-weekly basis.
• I started creating content on LinkedIn about my experience and build rapport online.
• I joined online communities, created product case studies, and engaged in coffee chats/mock interviews to learn and hone my skills.
• I created an interview questions cheat sheet to strengthen my articulation for behavioral questions.

My LinkedIn Profile — I created a personalized banner and include #AuthenticAmi for anyone to easily follow my content.

Fall recruitment season rolled in and although I felt the shadow of the past, I knew I was stronger than before.

Round 1

Once again, I applied to Microsoft amidst other companies as well. I saw success stories on LinkedIn and wondered if that would be me eventually.

It’s mid-October and I’ve seen numerous Microsoft success stories by now. At this point, I assumed they’ve completed their first round interviews and I probably didn’t make the cut. That’s why receiving this email came as a true surprise:

I reached out to my peers and Microsoft people I’ve networked with to prepare for this first round.

For this first round, I spoke with a program manager where we spent half the time on behavioral and the other on a product sense question.

Originally, I anticipated this call to be full behavioral and the old me would start panicking as I did before. But, I believed in the efforts I made this time around.

I spoke confidently in regards to my thought process and broke the ice as best I could by making small talk when I found common ground with the interviewer. I ended the call with a satisfying feeling that I put out everything I could.

Anticipation

I followed up with the recruiter to determine my status and sadly there was a pause in scheduling final rounds as the number of available spots needed to be evaluated.

Instead of brooding over this, I felt accomplished because the recruiter noted that I am eligible for a final round. This small win reaffirmed my confidence that I felt from the first round.

I took this with me in my other interviews for other companies at the time.

I received an offer from Cisco and felt relieved that I finally got a job in my career interest. That same day, I got an email inviting me for my final round interview for Microsoft.

I was at a loss for words. To be in this situation is something I was grateful for.

I prepared an interview guide and re-iterated key points to touch on for each style of questions I’d be asked.

My Interview Guide doc I created to study for my interview.

I again believed in the culmination of efforts I made as I went into the final round.

Final Round

There were four back to back interviews with 15 minute breaks between each slot. Each interviewer focused on a set of targeted situational questions or product sense questions. The one commonality was, tell me about yourself, which I knew by heart because it’s my story.

I broke the ice by mentioning how I started a small business making handmade ornaments and the interviewer seemed more vested into who I was behind the resume.

I took notes during their introduction to ask a detailed question at the end and show them that I was attentive.

By the third round, I felt mental fatigue slowly kick in and played music for my 15 minute break to rebuild my energy for the second half.

I asked for 30 seconds to think when my mind felt scattered to gather and deliver a cohesive response.

Finally, it ended.

I reflect back on how I performed and I couldn’t be happier with how far I’ve come since my last final round with Microsoft. This time around I knew I delivered my best self by treating the interview as a conversation and not overwhelming myself.

And it turns out my efforts paid off. I made it.

Reflection

Phew, it’s been a long journey but it’s because of all these events that I am who I am today. As you read my story, you may notice my mistakes, persistence, and more. I hope this inspires and motivates you to avoid the mistakes I made, accept and move past your mistakes, and keep going despite the rough times.

As I reflect back there a few points, I hope you can takeaway.

Acknowledge your Shortcomings

Choosing to deny your mistakes or areas of improvements, especially from a rejection will prevent you from moving forward.

I don’t deny that it can be a tough pill to swallow, but whether it’s fear, pride, denial, or any other emotion, I believe that making this realization will help you grow even more.

Once you accept them, you can begin working on improving yourself.

Educate Yourself

There are countless moments in the beginning of my journey where I was seeking information and didn’t muster up the courage till later to break out of my comfort zone and seek it.

• Learning about the various Microsoft internships
• Talking to people outside of my close friends about career paths aside from software engineering
• Finding a mentor who’s done PM interviews to learn from when preparing for my internship final round (2017)

Networking

Going off of educating yourself, networking is a great way to gain insights from professionals in the area. If I didn’t talk to Kim at the soiree, I would be still be a bit lost on what career path to take.

Building rapport and credibility is another bonus of networking. The earlier you network in your career, the stronger and longer connections you can build. These very connections can later vouch for you and help you prepare to put the best foot forward during the interview process.

Confidence

I cannot emphasize enough what a game changer your confidence is in an interview.

When you feel confident about yourself, that energy is felt in the room. It will be heard in the tone of your voice and how you present your thoughts. Feeding this energy to your interviewer will make them feel more engaged and interested in what you have to say.

All of my interviews where I’ve felt the most confident and was true to myself resulted in very strong, positive feedback.

Perseverance

This has been my word for years now as it means the ability to continue persisting despite difficulties or delays.

This is the same paper I created after returning from Seattle that I’ve kept over the years plus the books I’ve studied.

We all experience happy and sad days and the same is for success and failure. As people, we find it easy to brood on the negative side internally and highlight the shiny glory on social media.

The real reason why we enjoy success is because of the journey it takes to get there. Perseverance is something I choose to live by because I don’t believe things will happen by simply wanting it to happen.

There is work that needs to be put it and with time, those efforts will be rewarded. Don’t let rejection stray you from your goals and aspirations. Let them guide you towards a new path that may change your perspective and open new possibilities.

Thank you for reading my story.

Hello! I’m Ami and I’ll be an incoming Program Manager at Microsoft this summer (2021). Follow me on LinkedIn to hear more about my journey and experiences.