Prashanth Sharma

My journey into product management took the typical route — software engineering at Qualcomm and Ericsson, then transitioning through technical marketing into platform product management at Teradata for about eight years. When my role was eliminated in a large reorg, I tried to go it alone. In previous job searches I'd been fairly successful, but this time I wasn't making progress beyond the first or second round of interviews. That's when I realized this market was quite different.

The IJS program is specifically for product managers. The placement programs in my layoff package were generic for all kinds of roles. Understanding the nuances of how a PM recruitment process works and being able to support through each specific phase — that's what differentiates IJS.

My first aha moment was the structured approach to building a Tell Me About Yourself — refocusing from everything I've done to a concise introduction highlighting my most valuable recent accomplishments, with conversation openers that direct toward my strongest stories. The second was how the coaches helped me prepare presentations for case studies and panel interviews.

The large network of students and alumni was something I leveraged to connect with people whose companies had opportunities matching my profile. Both my roles came through personal connections and referrals.

The program is professional help from actual product managers, a support community for retaining your sanity through rejections, a group of interview and resume coaches, product design workshops, and compensation negotiation help.