Stoa Digest #67: Life Goes On

Never let the fear of striking out get in your way, amen!

Oct 04, 2022

(What is motivation if not fictional quotes XD)

🎉 Fellow Success Story 🎉

Utkrasht Shrivastava from Cohort 4 recently joined Fynd after a long growth journey of transitioning career paths. Here’s to his resilience and inspiring story.

After being in the Tech space for 7+ years, what led you to switch your industry?

I haven’t left tech and probably won’t in my career. Tech has helped me in sailing on the journey to becoming a product manager. Before I was a PM, I did a lot of things that eventually helped me in succeeding as a PM. I worked as a mainframe application developer, data engineer, tech, and functional consultant previously. However, I was missing something to grow holistically. And that gap is filled by my choice to pursue a product management path as it gives me high decision-making powers and RnD prowess for problem-solving.

Is cracking a product role difficult? If yes, how so?

It’s a cliched answer- it depends. But even before getting into official PM roles, there are ways to learn PMing. Shadowing actual PMs at work, doing product teardowns, creating proof of work and pitching it to other PMs in the industry, and seeking feedback. I tried some of these methods.

How was your experience of finding a new job in this industry?

Finding a job is a tiring process. I had faced a lot of biases from recruiters as I was part of services industry throughout my career. I used to get rejected in the first round at the start. Fortunately, I have mostly worked on in-house products in the IT industry which has helped me in understanding the problems that one could face.
I was very keen on doing assignments most times where I could explain the depth of my understanding. At times it happens that you don’t have a structured response to a question in interview. Assignments and case studies helped me in creating a structured approach and bettering my articulation.
After giving 4-5 interviews, I had answer to multiple questions. Not only from interview pov, but also it gave me clarity on what and how I want to create an impact as a PM.

What are some of the things you learned during this transition process?

It gets worse before it gets better. This sums up my transition journey. I had put myself out there with a brave face. I goofed up multiple times but didn’t give up. I checked with Priyal a lot of times on all my doubts, asked all the silly questions, and checked with a lot of folks in the Stoa community even if they aren’t from my work area - freshers, veterans, from all sorts of people. Once I started to put myself out in open, there was no going back.
This helped me in understanding different viewpoints on how people in a team think differently and how to align them on a core vision.
Basically, your curiosity will always be the core element that will make you enjoy whatever you do. I am inherently curious. Be curious and ask a lot of questions.

Throughout our transition phase, you kept upskilling yourself. Why and how?

Case studies have always helped. I used to read certain newsletters 3 times a week without fail. I enrolled in GrowthX CBC focused on product and growth. I used to read and learn various things like psychology, consumer behaviour etc to think from different perspectives.
I would suggest everyone to not just consume, try creating something. This is one area where I was not paying attention. And execution suffered. Don’t do this mistake and you will be there. All in all, enjoy the process. And yes, hope is not a strategy. So work towards it. I am doing it and so should you.

You can find Utkrasht here on LinkedIn✌🏻

🐝 Community Buzz 🐝

Anjika Jain from Cohort 9, a passionate writer eager to start her blogging journey has taken her first step. Check out her blog and show some love, fam!

👀Community Sneak Peek👀

To address a very big question- Where is Marketing as a profession headed? We have fellow Stoans hosting an honest conversation about the marketing tactics, strategy and inner reality of working in marketing with on Friday, 7th October, 8 PM onwards on the 🏟┃Stoa Amphi.