From: Date: April 8, 2021 Subject: HTC News: Notion is here!
Notion is here!
Hi First_Name, I hope you had a great Easter weekend. This week we have lots of exciting stuff for you so lets dive right in.
Firstly, have you checked out Notion yet? We launched Notion a couple of days back as an all new HTC internal site for members to network, prepare for interviews, get involved with the club, and get to know other classmates. We know that you’ll love it, so go check it out right now!
In the spirit of Easter, we also have an Easter Egg Hunt within the Notion website. We have hidden 6 Easter eggs ƒÑÜ in different parts of the Notion. All participants who find the location of all 6 eggs have a chance to win cool HTC swag and a $50 Amazon voucher! Submit your entries here.
Give a big round of applause ƒæÅ to our Co-Presidents Nik Bretschneider
& Alyssa Zhu for this awesome initiative!
Wait...That's not all. We've got more for you! Thanks for submitting the HTC member survey. You asked and we listened. We are also excited to announce:
NEW HTC Lunch & Learn Series for April - Fridays 12-1pm!
Get to know Jody, Corrine, Michael, and Rosa over lunch as they share their experience with us and teach us most important things to know about wireframing, data visualization, and project management tools!
April 16, Wireframing w/ Jody: Jody will share her experience as a Senior Product Manager at Tailored Brands and will show us how to get started in Miro.
Business Development role with Tundra (Full-Time): Tundra is looking for a multi-talented candidate to help cultivate and grow their business via partnerships. You will bedirectly responsible for the growth created by their partnerships, and share the responsibility to update the strategy to create the most meaningful partnerships. You will work directly with their executive team. The role is shared by our alumni, Sarah Papoff, MBA '12, Head of Supply. If interested, please reach out to Sarah directly at sarah.papoff@tundra.com.
That's one way to do it. Go get it!
Upcoming
4/8, Session 1 - Ideation and Market Definition - (Journey of an Entrepreneur): Join the launch of "Journey of an Entrepreneur" series with two stellar speakers - Rhonda Shrader, executive director of Berkeley Haas Entrepreneurship & NSF-I Corps Bay Area, and Chinmay Malaviya (Forbes 30 under 30), co-founder Ridepanda and MBA’18. They'll talk about identifying problem and target customers, generating and evaluating startup ideas and more!
4/9, YouTube Panel: Roles in Entertainment: This panel will feature employees of YouTube across a variety of roles in entertainment. To create an engaging experience, we'd love to hear from you! Please submit any and all questions and topics you'd like to discuss here. Panelists include:
Saurabh Verma, Product Lead, YouTube Music (EMBA '16)
4/9, Eat Data: Business value from AI in Uber Freight: This Speaker Series will feature Matt McKinney, a Data Science Manager from Uber, who will share his experience on how Artificial Intelligence creates business value in operations such as Uber Freight. If you are enthusiastic about AI or Operations, this talk is for you! Matt is also happy to share his general experience at Uber such as the Uber work culture, so if you are interested in Uber and want to network with Matt, please feel free to attend!
4/23, HTC Alumni Chat Series: Demystifying Compensation Packages w Alex O'Reilly: Come listen to Haas Alum Alex O'Reilly ('19) break down what he wish he knew about salary and overall compensation when he was full-time recruiting while at Haas. Alex will give insight to overall packages offered at (general) tech companies as compared to their non-tech counterparts. Q&A to follow.
Conan seems excited about the upcoming events. Are you?
Brain Power
NASA's Ingenuity Set to Begin Test Flights on Mars: When NASA's Perseverance rover landed on the red planet in late February, it was carrying a stowaway: a small helicopter called Ingenuity. In the coming days, Ingenuity is set to begin a series of test flights that scientists are hoping could lead to breakthroughs in space exploration. Science writer Robert Lee Hotz joins host Amanda Lewellyn with the details.
Swipe to Unlock: The Primer on Technology and Business Strategy: Authored by 3 Product Managers at Google, Facebook, and Microsoft, Swipe to Unlock is a comprehensive guide on the must-know concepts of technology and business strategy. It is a must-read for anyone pursuing product management, design, marketing, consulting or business strategy roles in the tech industry.
Career Tip of the Week: Leverage CMG’s Wednesday Wisdom to ensure that you know all about the amazing resources that CMG offers. They'll provide you with guidance on how you can utilize different tools to reach your career goals every week! The Career Management Group has 43 industry and career advisors! Over 209 students have scheduled appointments with them to discuss their career goals this year. Read bios of these impressive coaches here and schedule an appointment through BEARS today.
Mind blown with all the great resources out there!
Spotlight on Lutong Yang
Lutong Yang, EWMBA 23, Senior Product Manager at Amazon, AWS
1. How does your day to day look like as a Senior Product Manager at Amazon?
I work on the AWS side of Amazon and the products I manage include Cost Explorer and Cost Anomaly Detection. The products help customers understand how much they have spent with AWS and automatically detect any anomalous spend. My day-to-day mostly revolves around meetings and writing. I meet with customers to understand their pain points and use cases. I also meet with internal teams to discuss the tactical aspect of our features like new design mockups or adjustments to our machine learning algorithms. Amazon has a strong writing culture, every decision and idea starts with documents. I also dedicate a significant amount of my time writing new ideas and business requirements documents.
2. What are some of the biggest challenges you have faced in your role?
I constantly struggle with time management. There are more things to do than there are hours in the day. Trying to balance between multiple urgent and important tasks can be very challenging. I am learning through trial and error on how to be more productive and efficient.
3. What has been your experience with Amazon’s company culture?
Amazon has a very fast paced and entrepreneurial culture. Anyone can submit ideas to leadership and if the idea is good, then the project can be funded as early as next year. The people I work with are collaborative, driven, and smart. I have been able to learn a lot from observing those around me.
4. Any advice you have for students who are interested in Product Management or Amazon?
Know what you are passionate about and what you are good at. As a PM, you will end up managing different products and work with different departments (i.e. UX, marketing, engineering, legal etc.). You are not expected to be the expert of every area, but you are expected to work well with every stakeholder. Knowing what you are good at will help you standout and gain trust from your stakeholders. You can always work on your weakness with mentors or your managers.
5. What do you like to do in your spare time (when you’re not juggling being a student a full-time employee!)?
I love sports; I enjoy skiing, biking, and playing tennis. Although lately, my time is mostly spent building a wedding website with my fiance and looking for a wedding venue. My guilty pleasure is to re-watch romantic comedies like Pretty Women and the Proposal.
Thanks for sharing Lutong! ƒæÅ
If you would like to be featured in an upcoming HTC Newsletter or would like to nominate someone else, please reach out to Sachi Holla or Pulkit Agrawal!
