I'm a mechanical engineer trying to get out of the auto industry, and find opportunities in #tech . I'm tired of the bureaucratic and non-merit based promotion systems in auto. I have great leadership skills - I've played pivotal roles in winning multi-million USD businesses from Detroit OEM's (for real), and I'm pretty much doing all of my manager's work and part of my director's. Unsurprisingly I never get the credit, nor a promotion or hike. I've waited here for 5 years, and I've been such a fool that it took me so long to realize that my career's going nowhere. So I started looking at opportunities in Tech - EPM, TPM, PM roles. I landed like 25+ interviews over the past two years, and have had no success. These aren't Software related roles, but more on the product design, manufacturing/hardware side, and therefore not completely irrelevant to my background. I cleared a Sr. EPM interview at Tesla, but my offer was later rescinded. I almost cleared another Sr.EPM interview at Apple but a guy who showed up in the 7th round detested me - I seriously could easily tell from the moment he hopped on the call - and I didn't get the offer. The HM pretty much said that she was going to give a go ahead, and later I learned from the recruiter that one person in the 8 person panel didn't agree with my 'HIRE' decision. There were a couple other interviews which I cleared - Canoo, ArgoAI - and I guess I don't need to explain why those didn't workout either. I would really appreciate if anyone here from tech can help by giving me a shot. I'm basically a gearbox engineer but I do a ton of stuff and I'm very capable. I've messaged like 1000+ people on LinkedIn and nobody really cares. Out of the very few people who actually respond, they end up saying that I don't have relevant experience. If anyone here is hiring for roles such as Product Manager, TPM, EPM, or Product design engineer, and is willing to give me a shot I'd really appreciate it. Thanks in advance. TC: 107k YoE: 8.5 #tech #meta #google #microsoft #amazon #tesla #cruise #apple #uber #netflix #autonomousvehicles
You might have to sign up for one of those interview cracking programs or pay for mock interviews with professionals for these big companies
interesting. Any recommendations ?
Look at the interview kickstarts of the world. I'm not recommending IK because I've never used it, but I know they provide those services. Pramp is another one. What I find most beneficial is to have a PM or engineer (depending on your target role) from a faang company telling me what to focus on and eventually mock interviewing me. Cracking faang isn't about being smart or being an amazing engineer. It's about passing the interview with flying colors. Best of luck
Look at product companies in the mechanical engineering space. I’m a civil engineer who focused on companies that make civil engineering products and landed a product management role pretty easily and it was only 2 rounds of interviews and a follow up chat. Currently at 140k TC and have another company currently trying to poach me at 157k TC. Not the insane big tech pay, but way higher than 6 yoe civil engineer would make.
@microsoft will having niche experience in product management limit future possibilities if I wanted to get into more generalized “big tech” roles in the future? My products are mainly computer vision/ML related.
This is definitely useful. Thanks much !
Have you applied to PDE roles?
Yes I have - to many such roles. Not sure if online applications to big tech even work these days!! At this point I've tried connecting to, and have messaged most PDE people at Meta. No one actually responds. They're probably flooded with many such requests and messages - so I can understand I guess.
Dm me, I have a friend who is looking for someone like you
DM'd you. Thanks much!
To make your candidacy stronger, maybe you can try getting a promotion at your current company, or first tap into an auto giant such as the big 3. As far as roles, you are applying to the right ones: TPM, PDE and such. Also try Design Validation, Reliability, Test Engineer roles. IMHO engineer roles are more secure than TPM roles. But TPM roles have more opportunity to pivot into Software domain.
nor is the industry I am in. So I guess I'll have to pick my poison, when, at the end of the day I'll have to overwork anyway