Rajitha Girijadevi

My situation was a little different than others. I was pretty happy with my status quo — same job, same people for 13 years, great work-life balance. But the problems I had to solve became less challenging. I'm a person who needs new things in life. I wanted to be in a challenging environment where I can think more, contribute more, and grow as a person.

I was watching every single YouTube video on product management to educate myself. I knew if somebody could help me and guide me correctly, it would make things much more structured and faster. What I was also missing my whole career was a mentor. One day I was in the kitchen and Shobhit's video started playing. He said, 'If you feel stuck in your product management' — that was my number one problem. After that, I didn't think — I just scheduled a call.

One major change was learning to speak for myself. Being in the industry for a long time, your brain is set to 'let your work talk for you.' But the program forced me to think: what was my contribution? They're not hiring my team — they're looking to hire me. That shift in thinking was where the magic happens.

I applied for Amazon, I practiced with both behavioral stories and product strategy with IJS, and when I went in for the interview I had tremendous confidence. Amazon has six interviews in one day, all around their 16 leadership principles. I was able to repurpose my six to eight stories with different entry and exit points. I did it with ease.

I got the offer for Amazon AWS as a senior product manager — working on a product that improves catalog quality using machine learning models. It was my dream role in three ways: it helped me transition from program to product management, it was with Amazon, and it was in ML.

The process is proven. It is trusted. Do not question if this process is going to work for you — yes, it will.