This week's episode features Alison Chow, an industrial engineering student who got to work as a product manager at Microsoft twice, as a developer at NVIDIA, and as a business intelligence engineer at a startup called Stylelounge in Hamburg! She had some interesting stories to share from career fairs, travels, and highly varied internships. Notes: 1:15 - Deciding to study engineering (science) because she was good at math and physics in high school, switching to industrial engineering 3:03 - Getting deep into YNCN and the benefits of doing heavy job hunting in first year 5:56 - What product managers at Microsoft do 7:34 - Being sheltered in the first internship, working on a project to grow an app ecosystem 11:18 - Things affecting the decision to do PEY: money, getting a wider set of experiences, trying a "technical" role 14:00 - Getting jobs (Microsoft, NVIDIA) from career fairs, having had experience before that working with her mom at trade fairs 16:44 - Some lowlights from career fairs as well 24:57 - Working at Stylelounge, a startup in Hamburg, doing business development; getting a visa herself! 31:21 - A day in the life doing business intelligence - "improving decision making through data" 36:02 - Adjusting to life in a place where she knew NOBODY 39:11 - Being more trusted the third time around at Microsoft and getting more responsibility - 3 simultaneous projects! 41:09 - Traveling with people you've just met 42:58 - Starting to miss school after a long time away 46:28 - Advice, value of early work experiences (e.g. before 1st year) Music by Shawn Lee
This week's episode features Alison Chow, an industrial engineering student who got to work as a product manager at Microsoft twice, as a developer at NVIDIA, and as a business intelligence engineer at a startup called Stylelounge in Hamburg! She had some interesting stories to share from career fairs, travels, and highly varied internships.
Notes
1:15 - Deciding to study engineering (science) because she was good at math and physics in high school, switching to industrial engineering
3:03 - Getting deep into YNCN and the benefits of doing heavy job hunting in first year
5:56 - What product managers at Microsoft do
7:34 - Being sheltered in the first internship, working on a project to grow an app ecosystem
11:18 - Things affecting the decision to do PEY: money, getting a wider set of experiences, trying a "technical" role
14:00 - Getting jobs (Microsoft, NVIDIA) from career fairs, having had experience before that working with her mom at trade fairs
16:44 - Some lowlights from grinding at career fairs
24:57 - Working at Stylelounge, a startup in Hamburg, doing business development; getting a visa herself!
31:21 - A day in the life doing business intelligence - "improving decision making through data"
36:02 - Adjusting to life in a place where she knew NOBODY
39:11 - Being more trusted the third time around at Microsoft and getting more responsibility - 3 simultaneous projects!
41:09 - Traveling with people you've just met
42:58 - Starting to miss school after a long time away
46:28 - Advice, value of early work experiences (e.g. before 1st year)
Music by Shawn Lee