From Mumbai University philosophy grad to Amazon PM in Seattle. How? Just keep showing up

I think I'm losing my mind. I'm a 32-year-old guy in tech, graduated from IIIT Delhi, earning 78L annually, but I feel like I'm fooling everyone, including myself. It's as if I'm constantly waiting for someone to burst into the office and shout, "Hey, fraud! We've finally figured out you're actually useless!" I know it sounds like I'm humble-bragging, but trust me, I'm not. This feeling is eating me alive. Seven years ago, I started as a regular software engineer. Somehow, I kept getting promoted. Now I'm leading a team of 15 people, handling critical projects, and sitting in meetings with the higher-ups. But every time I'm in those meetings, I feel like a kid wearing his dad's oversized suit, pretending to be an adult. I work my ass off - late nights, weekends, you name it. But I always feel like I'm barely keeping my head above water. When my team comes to me with problems, I'm secretly panicking, thinking, "Why are you asking me? I'm as clueless as you!" The worst part? Everyone around me seems to think I'm some kind of wunderkind. My boss is always praising me in front of others. My team looks up to me. Even my parents are bragging about me to all our relatives. But inside, I'm constantly terrified that I'll make one tiny mistake and everyone will realize I'm a fraud. I see my college batchmates on LinkedIn, and they all seem so confident and successful. Meanwhile, I'm here, earning more than I ever thought I would, but feeling like I don't deserve any of it. I can't even enjoy my success. I bought a nice house last year, but instead of feeling proud, I keep thinking, "What if they fire me tomorrow? How will I pay for this?" It's like I'm waiting for everything to come crashing down. I know it's ridiculous to complain about a high-paying job when so many people are struggling. But this constant fear of being "found out" is driving me insane. I can't even talk to my friends about it because they'll probably think I'm just showing off. Has anyone else felt like this? How do you deal with feeling like a fraud when everyone thinks you're successful? Is this just part of adult life that no one talks about? This is what eats me alive during weekends, realised it's Friday and panic typed this here

I often feel that I am under qualified for my job and have been able to clear all the rounds by pure luck. I think that if I go out in job market I won't be able to again bag such a good offer... Does any one else also feel so... How to overcome with this feeling...

I woke up with a notification that started with “Hope you had a great weekend. Unfortunately…” I didn’t have the courage to open the entire mail. I knew what it was. A little context here, i have been unemployed for the last 5 months. I got laid off from my first job with not even an year of work experience. We all know how bad the market condition is, and how harsh it is for freshers. Me being the optimistic person that i am, ignored all these setbacks and began my hunt for my next dream job. With the help of my friends, I started preparing for interviews. I was lucky enough to get shortlisted for few good companies. But somehow or the other things always went south and i ended up without an offer. I made sure to not get disheartened and keep trying my best with a positive attitude. And then i interviewed with this one company, that perfectly aligned with me. All my interviews went well and made it till the final round. Now it was a call from the leadership. I strongly believed that this is my shot. After months of feeling stuck, I thought this is going to be my moment of relief. Even though this journey was hard i made sure to enjoy every bit of it. But now here i am with another rejection mail. I am now questioning my entire belief system. And not sure what to do next. Any advice/suggestions are welcome :)

Being anonymous gives me a safe space. But life is getting tougher than ever each day. I wish I had a better paying job. I wish I had time to have slow mornings. I wish I could provide for my family and give them the things they much deserve. I wish I had a chance to rewire rewind and restart. I wish I could do more than I wish to do. It's all wishes guys . It's all hopes. . Nothing seems fulfilling. Nothing seems to make me happy. I have forgotten what carefree days were like. Adulting is kinda hitting hard. I am not able to cope up. Can someone relate?

I am 24 F and not currently working. I got laid off from my first job with 9 months of work experience. I did DSA and applied to various companies, got shortlisted and cleared few rounds as well but after facing few heart crushing rejections i don’t feel like preparing any more. I have never been excited by the idea of working for a big MNC(people my age have their dream companies listed and are working towards it). Somehow this isn’t my calling and i am totally lost because i have not been working for the last 5 months. I strongly believe that there are few things we are naturally good at(I might be wrong here). Ever since my school days i have been a hard working person and have taken things very seriously. But now in this phase when i should be working hard, i dont feel like doing it, probably because i am doing something that doesn’t excite me. I somehow feel i am naturally good at networking, meeting new people,connecting with people at once, building things from scratch. Has anyone been through the same phase? I would highly appreciate any suggestions/advice. HELP ME OUT GUYS!!

Hey GV folks, long-time lurker, first-time poster here. I'm a product leader at Zomato, managing a team of 8 PMs. Today, I want to share a practice that's become the cornerstone of our product philosophy - and it all started with me being "punished" by my first manager. At the cost of self praising, this is some really good advice so I hope you’re able to extract the maximum value out of this. Five years ago, I was a cocky new PM, fresh out of a fancy consulting gig. I thought I knew everything about our users based on data and surveys. My wake-up call came when I royally screwed up a feature release. Instead of firing me, my manager did something unconventional - she made me spend a week as a delivery partner. I was pissed. Riding around Bangalore in the March heat, navigating traffic, dealing with hangry customers - how was this supposed to make me a better PM? But on day three, while waiting for an order outside Truffles (fellow Bangaloreans, you know the wait I'm talking about), I struck up a conversation with a few seasoned delivery partners. What I learned in those 30 minutes blew my mind. They shared hacks they'd developed, pain points I'd never considered, and insights about customer behavior that no amount of data could have revealed. I realized I'd been building features in a vacuum, completely disconnected from the real world our app operated in. That week changed everything. I rewrote our entire product roadmap based on what I learned. The results? Our delivery partner satisfaction scores shot up, and our order completion rates improved significantly. Since then, I've made it a point to spend one day every month doing deliveries. It keeps me grounded, provides constant insights, and reminds me who we're really building for. When I started managing other PMs, I knew I had to institutionalize this practice. Now, it's mandatory for everyone on my team to do a delivery day once a month. No exceptions. At first, there was resistance. "We have data for this," they'd argue. "I can't waste a whole day delivering food!" But after their first experience, they got it. Now, our team meetings are buzzing with insights from the field. Here's why I believe every product manager should regularly step into their users' shoes: 1. Data doesn't tell the whole story: Numbers can show you what's happening, but not why. Real interactions reveal the context behind the data. 2. Empathy drives innovation: When you experience user pain points firsthand, you're more motivated to solve them creatively. 3. It challenges assumptions: Nothing humbles you faster than realizing your "brilliant" feature is actually a pain to use in the real world. 4. It builds credibility: When you can say "I've done this myself," your team and stakeholders listen differently. 5. It's a reminder of impact: In the daily grind of KPIs and metrics, it's easy to forget that we're affecting real people's lives. This practice keeps that front and center. Some practical tips if you want to try this: - Don't just observe. Actually do the job. - Engage in conversations. Users (and front-line workers) are usually eager to share their experiences if you show genuine interest. - Look for workarounds and hacks. These are gold mines for product insights. - Pay attention to the environment and context in which your product is used. - Reflect on the experience immediately after. What surprised you? What frustrated you? To my fellow PMs out there: when was the last time you truly stepped into your users' shoes? If it's been a while, I challenge you to give it a try. You might just find your next big product breakthrough while waiting to pick up someone’s 1 am order from Empire :) P.S. Took a photo while waiting for my order, would probably have been fired long back had it not been for this evening!

Was having morning chai and realized I should write this somewhere. Not sure if there’s anything to learn here. Just one guy’s story Years 0 to 5: Small town child Was born in Bhubaneshwar, father had a government job. Very average middle class life. Middle class values. Parents always wanted me to study hard so I did. Used to be most excited about playing cricket and football very day Years 5 to 15: The studious class kid We shifted to Jaipur - dad had a transferable job. Took time adjusting to a new school but eventually made some friends. Realised I do not have any music/sports/artistic talent, but I can work hard. So I started working hard on my studies and started being top 10% of my class every year. Maths came easy to me. I am not in touch with any of my friends from this period but they have all gone on to do good things as I see from their LinkedIn profiles Years 15 to 22: IIT years

 Worked super freakin hard - gave the JEE and made it to one of the top 7 IITs in the Mech department, soon realised I do not love Mech and there weren’t any jobs as well. Started learning to code and made a few projects. Did an internship at Microsoft and another at a startup from a college alum. Ended up realising becoming an engineer is not my cup of tea long term. Took a hard turn to working on non engineering skills and jobs. 

Most importantly made so many friends, had so much fun. These are still some of my best friends and we still meet each other and stay at each other’s houses. Picked up a deep obsession with E-Sports (Counter Strike mostly) Years 22 to 24: First job Joined one of the top 10 consulting companies at a good salary. Moved to Mumbai - started wearing suits and living a great life from hotel to hotel. The job was good, but not engaging enough. Decided I should quit. But was scared to do it for 8 months. Started studying for my CAT Years 25 to 28: MBA and marriage CAT went sweet. Joined a top MBA school - the most formative years of my life to be honest. Almost close to my last 2 years at college. Met my wife there to whom I got later married at 28. I still keep in touch with a few people from MBA but not as many as I do from college. Years 28 to 32: Making it onto Tech My campus placement happened as a Product Manager at famous tech company in Bangalore where I have been for the last 4 years now. Got a couple promotions. I love my work and its impact. I still sometimes get to play my Counter Strike. As I look back on all of life, I guess the most important things I have learnt are to just stay happy and do something useful EVERY DAY. Be diligent, work hard and you’ll get where you want to. Do not stress over it. Just stay in the game. Don’t tire out. Anyway. That’s it folks!

A little background: I started coding properly from Nov’21, started with C++ and gradually leveled up and began full fledged problem solving in vacations as there was nothing else to do exams were over. I did problem solving with the intent on fetching a job offer. Overall during my entire preparation I solved more or less 450 problems (leetcode & others). Then came the placement session. I somehow secured two offers on the same day and the TPO office decided to give my name only for a single company which was Amazon. Present: As offers get rescinded to Jan’24. I somehow got an off-campus offer in a PSU where I am currently working. Here I am working in s/w development team, and till now: 1. I have developed two modules (by looking at already implemented code and figuring out how it can be used in my modules). 2. Some generic classes to format all reports generated in the entire project. (object, constructor and methods, fairly easy although understanding the requirement was the tough part). The problem is that I always take time to figure out the things and I have this solid impostor syndrome. I take time in understanding the requirements and how to get started and what to do next. This may be due to the fact that I didn’t get converted into full time from my internship (In retrospect this was seriously my fault, I was too much occupied with my final year thesis, the project itself was too hard and complicated and the mentor was mostly busy and no-one else in the team of entry level from whom I could discuss more, also other college issues). Sometimes I think that I could have done it better. Dilemma: Now as my joining date is coming close I’m super confused and nervous (given the present scenario) a bit scared to leave the current job and join Amzn or not. I am starting to feel that I am not prepared and have not solved any problem for the past 5 months. Read some reviews regarding Amzn and it all seems that the pressure is going to be too much and I'm not sure

My previous company shut down a couple of months ago. Interviewed a bunch leading up to it and landed an offer 20% below my previous comp. The offer felt exploitative and I even posted about it on Grapevine. A lot of folks told me my salary was being corrected and I was overpaid in my previous role. But what felt wrong felt wrong. Ended up letting that offer go -- had decent runway, and hence, was able to do so. Interviewed with 6 more companies, Faced a bunch of last minute rejections as well. But finally landed better offers with teams I'm way more excited to work with. Key takeaways: 1. Gut > Market Data > Subjective Opinions when it comes to assessing offers 2. Runway = resilience, save up for rainy days -- going to take this way more seriously moving forward

During my B.Tech, I balanced my studies with active participation in clubs and committees, and also engaged in sports and exploration. Aspiring for a non-core placement, I didn't participate in hackathons or apply for internships. After graduation, I pursued various paths, including preparing for the CAT exam with only three months of preparation time, but I didn't succeed. I then applied to several companies for data analytics roles but kept making new mistakes in each attempt. In one instance, I was rejected for oversharing my passion for data science in a final interview. To improve my chances, I optimized my resume and completed significant projects, but these efforts haven't yet yielded the desired results. Realizing the challenges of relying on a single target, I also started preparing for the GATE exam. Reflecting on my journey, I recognize that I should have applied for on-campus opportunities, as off-campus job hunting is challenging and unpredictable, regardless of one's preparation. Tell me your story? In order to get some hope that we can make it and it's never too late