This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Abhijay Vuyyuru, a product manager at Google. He lives in San Francisco and is in his early 30s. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
My goal was always to work in Big Tech, but the journey wasn’t easy — even with a Harvard degree.
After earning my bachelor’s degree in India in 2017, I worked in data science and product manager roles in Europe until 2022, when I moved to the US to pursue an MBA at Harvard Business School.
When I graduated from Harvard in 2024, I was pretty bummed. It felt like all my classmates had fancy jobs lined up, while I was still searching.
I really believe in manifestation. In my Harvard application, I wrote that I wanted to work at a Big Tech company like Apple or Google — and I eventually did both. But the path to get there wasn’t straightforward.
I realized the US job search was all about networking
After enrolling at Harvard in 2022, I started thinking about landing a summer internship. I assumed the process wouldn’t be too difficult, so I waited until December to start actively looking. I applied to a lot of roles, but I was mostly getting automated rejections.
It took me some time to realize how different the job search process was compared to India, where companies often visit campuses and evaluate candidates directly. In the US, the search felt much more network-driven — I had to reach the right person to have a chance.
I decided to change my strategy by identifying hiring managers on LinkedIn and reaching out directly. Out of 100 messages, maybe eight people would reply, and one might turn into a legitimate lead.
One LinkedIn message to a hiring manager at Apple led to a response and ultimately helped my application get a closer look. I started a three-month product manager internship at Apple in May 2023, which I was really excited about.
After finishing my internship, I was interested in working for Apple full-time after graduation, but I was informed there was no head count available on the team. I was told to stay in touch in case circumstances changed, but I assumed that probably wouldn’t happen anytime soon. So I started actively looking for a full-time role to begin after graduation.
I graduated from Harvard without a full-time job
Around the time I graduated from Harvard in May 2024, the job market felt extremely challenging. There didn’t seem to be many openings for the product manager roles I was targeting, and I struggled to gain traction with my applications.
In January of my final semester, I started an unpaid externship at a venture capital firm, hoping it might help me land a full-time role. Despite feeling I did well in the role and that the company liked me, I didn’t get the job.
As my search dragged on, I decided to expand beyond product manager roles. I’d taken out a big loan for graduate school, and my family was also coming to the US to celebrate my graduation. It was a weird feeling not to have a job lined up at that point.
My visa clock was ticking after graduation
While I didn’t have a full-time role after graduation, I’d secured a product management internship at a private equity firm. I didn’t realize it at the time, but that three-month internship proved to be a game changer for several reasons.
As an international student in the US, I had 90 days to find a job after graduating, or I’d have to leave the country. The internship bought me time to figure out what I wanted to do without worrying about my 90 days running out yet. It also allowed me to build work experience in the US that I could leverage as I looked for other roles.
While I was eager to land any full-time role that interested me, I still had one eye on Big Tech. It felt like I’d applied to every Big Tech role possible without breaking through, but part of me still thought, “Hey, is there some way I could make it happen?”
One day, a friend from Harvard who had previously worked at Google shared in a group chat that their former manager was hiring for a product manager role within Google’s YouTube division. I said I was interested, and they told me they put in a good word for me with the hiring manager.
After five rounds of interviews, I landed the role and started at Google in November 2024 — six months after graduating from Harvard.
AI has changed job searching and content creation
My job at Google is a dream role for me, and I’m able to work on products that impact millions of people. As the company continues to invest heavily in AI, it feels like a very exciting time to be here. I’ve heard people say that Google has become so large that its employees are just cogs in the wheel, but I disagree. As a product manager, I’m expected to own entire business areas and think holistically about tech solutions. That’s not a cog-in-the-wheel role.
My journey to Google has taught me a lot about navigating careers, and I now share advice on Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube, where I’ve built an audience of more than 750,000 followers across platforms.
If I were looking for a job today, I’d use automation tools like n8n to track job postings and automate parts of the outreach process, such as identifying hiring managers and drafting personalized messages to them. I used to write dozens of messages a day on LinkedIn, but a lot of that can be automated now.
While I haven’t made money from my posts and see the biggest benefit as helping others, building an online following can also increase visibility and create new professional opportunities.
People in my circles who used to only share updates on LinkedIn when they got promoted now post much more regularly. I think one reason for that is that it’s become easier to create content, partly because of AI tools. I also think there’s some FOMO at play. People see their friends posting on LinkedIn and other platforms and don’t want to be left behind.
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