Dipayan Ghatak is a Senior Product Manager at Walmart. He leads the enterprise productivity product suite within Walmart, which means leading productivity applications for all Walmart associates globally. Previously, he worked for Expedia and Microsoft. Dipayan earned his Master’s of Science and Management Information Systems at the University at Buffalo in 2021 after earning his undergraduate degree in computer science and working in India.
How did you become a product manager?
I started my career as a software developer right after my computer science degree, but then slowly realized that coding is not actually my cup of tea. I wanted to stay close to technology products, so that’s when I made the decision to transition to product management (PM). Since then I have remained in this space because I love two things: interacting with people and building technology products that solve people’s real-life problems.
Can you share your experience getting an internship in the US?
I was supposed to start school in the fall, but COVID hit and I had to defer my admission by six months. Ultimately, I began in spring and did a summer internship. Since I was preparing myself to come in the fall, I understood what the internship recruitment cycle was, and I started to apply for internships before landing in the US so that I could hit that fall recruitment season. Many companies in the US will recruit from July to October, or even early November. It’s the time when most companies will be opening up their early careers or university recruitment positions.
I wanted to jump the ship early so I could give myself the most opportunity. I didn’t think about what would happen if I applied for this job. I am used to applying for all the relevant internship positions that I come across. With that determination and perseverance mindset, I was able to hit quite a large number of applications that ultimately allowed me to get one.
Do you have any tips for job hunting as an international student in the US?
A lot of my classmates during my master’s program came directly to study here right after their undergrad. I did come from India with work experience in my field, but I have realized that even having a brand name on my resume or having some work experience in my resume wasn’t the only factor to get a job. For example, I used to work at Microsoft in India, but I wasn’t able to get a Microsoft internship or a full-time job here.
What really stood out was being able to sell your experience in a transferrable way. That’s the beauty of product management. Let’s say you have been doing data analysis and you want to grow as a product manager. You can actually sell your data analysis experience around how you love it, why you do it, and how your data analysis helps end users of your products. That shows your intent to grow as a product manager and is the key to how you articulate your experience during the interviews.
During an interview conversation, I love to be succinct, specific, and give examples that allow the interviewer to understand my profile and experience. I always refer to the STAR framework for answering questions. In fact, I actually do it as a START framework:
- Situation
- Task
- Action
- Results
- Takeaways
Another thing that I did during my job hunt was to google the Fortune 500 list. I went to each and every company’s career webpage and looked for a product manager position. That allowed me to apply for companies in that Fortune 500 list which wouldn’t have usually shown up in my LinkedIn because of how I have chosen the industry and how my profile is set up.
Just by going through that list, I was able to get a list of a handful of companies that I could have only ever imagined. As part of the Fortune 500, they are very reputable. There is a whole variety of resources available. I’m not saying these are the only methods that will work for you, but these are some things that I did.
What are the key points recruiters are looking for on a resume for a product management role?
In a resume, the key thing that is primarily looked at by the recruiters is the impact that you have created. It could be an internal or external impact. Doesn’t matter if it impacts one hundred customers or one million customers. Highlighting that impact is really necessary. So whenever you are writing your resume bullet points, showcase your impact, and when you are giving your interviews, be sure to showcase two major traits. One is your curiosity or empathetic nature. Your empathetic mindset shows how you are listening to your customers or users for your product to make your product better. The second trait is around your execution skills because as a product manager, you need to drive.
Do you have any advice on how to best network with large companies that sponsor international talent?
We all know about LinkedIn and Indeed, as those two are the most common portals to apply for jobs. But, there are a couple of unconventional ways, which I had realized over the years that actually helped me get interview calls when I was in school. Clubhouse was a hot app during those days. Everyone was crazy about Clubhouse. I used to jump in those recruiter conversations in the clubhouse apps, and I ended up speaking directly with recruiters from Meta, Google, and Adobe. They were hosting live public conversations.
You just need to do a little bit of research and find those channels or groups and jump in there. I remember there was a portal which I stumbled upon through some newsletter. I don’t remember exactly the portal name, but it was primarily for project managers. When I went into that portal, I was able to find amazing opportunities after joining different communities. Some communities have either their own Slack channels or their own Discord communities. Just jump in. If you Google the top 10 product communities to join, Google will itself give you the most popular communities.
I personally used to attend networking events in my region even with companies that didn’t used to sponsor. When you are networking, you are not looking for a first-degree connection. You’re really looking for that second-degree and third-degree connection. That person in that company may not be hiring, but may connect you with someone in their network who is hiring an international student.
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