Recruiting Journeys | Technology and Retail: Shashank Ghiria ’24, Amazon

In this series, recent Yale SOM graduates break down the recruiting process that led them to their current roles.

What was the recruiting process like for you?

Like many people, I decided to recruit for consulting when I started at SOM, but I didn’t find an internship that was a fit. So, I started looking for internships that would make use of my private equity and investing background. Through the CDO portal, I found an opportunity in M&A for the pharmaceutical company Bayer. That was the first application I submitted through the portal, and luckily, I got the internship.

In my second year, I was more mindful about transitioning into an operational role, something that would combine my finance and strategy experience with business operations work. I spoke with a lot of alumni in product management and strategic finance roles. That’s how I found out about Amazon’s vendor management program, which straddles the tech and consumer product world. In January of my second year, Amazon opened up several vendor management roles to university students. I applied through that program and got an “incline,” which meant that I had cleared the interview process but needed to find a team with an opening. I then reached out to several hiring managers in vendor management roles to pitch myself and learn about their teams. After my fourth conversation, which happened in May, my current manager extended me an offer to join the home and kitchen team.

What classes at SOM prepared you best for your current role?

Hands down, it was Professor A.J. Wasserstein’s two classes, Entrepreneurship through Acquisition (ETA) and Leading Small and Medium Enterprises. At Amazon, I manage my own profit and loss (P&L) of the vendors, or brands, I work with, so my work is like running a small business within a large company. The skills he teaches in those classes are focused on entrepreneurship but are applicable to any role in which you want to be an intrapreneur. The course involves a high level of ownership and responsibility, and I apply his teachings in terms of how I look at my own business, objectives, and problem statements—not to mention managing my overall work.

Which SOM resources helped you during the recruiting process?

The Tech Club has a great resource bank of interview questions. For Amazon particularly, their sample behavior questions were very helpful in my preparation process and put me in a good position for my interviews. An underrated benefit of participating in the club is the camaraderie. When you’re out and about, you might see a lot of people who already have jobs, but the club reminds you that you’re not alone and that plenty of students are in the same boat. It provides a strong support system.

What advice would you give current students recruiting in this field?

I would suggest speaking to as many people as you can—not because you need a certain number of coffee chats to land a job, but because you want to understand what the day-to-day of a given role will look like, and whether this is something you actually want to do. I’m extremely happy with what I’m doing, but that journey wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t have over 70 conversations with people in different roles. Don’t be shy when reaching out to people, and don’t take it personally if some people don’t respond; if you cast a wide enough net, you’ll get the knowledge you need. In a recruiting process that doesn’t necessarily have a lot of structure, these conversations will help provide the guidance you need.