Thinking of Project Management
#3 - How I survived a company meltdown and looked for opportunities to switch careers.
Post-Thanksgiving 2021: I returned from a sabbatical to find my company going under. Thankfully, we had someone interested in buying the company. Zoom meetings multiplied to accommodate the widespread mayhem and rumors. People held unofficial meetings right after the official ones to vent and fret together. But since we were on the cusp of the holiday break, we had little choice but to ride it out until the new year. And for those of us on visas, we had NO choice.
With the New Year, we were officially part of a new company1 - a major automotive supplier in the United States and overseas. Immediately there followed a clash of ideologies. The Autonomous vehicle start-up that was young, innovative and fast vs. an old behemoth automotive company that was.. you know. Those who could quit did so before MLK Jr. Day arrived.
How I handled it (TL;DR: Not great)
I was not immune to the panic in any way. I was equally swept up in the waves of anxiety and uncertainty swirling through the teams. The silver lining was that the new company did an amazing job of processing our visas and I didn’t have to worry about that for at least a couple of months.
And yet, I went down a path I wish I hadn’t - I started looking for Mapping and Localization roles within other robotics and self-driving companies. In fact, I didn’t have to look far. Hordes of recruiters came after us to pick on the remains of the start-up. Many of my colleagues jumped ship. Meanwhile I struggled to crack the interviews. I would go through several rounds and then get rejected.
Frustration bubbled up as I had brushed up on my coding skills and spent days preparing for the interviews. On a subconscious level, I recognized that I wasn’t fully invested in this job search. This was after my whole journey of self-realization and I was extremely aware of how little I was interested in doing the same role. But I continued interviewing out of fear. I was afraid that I would be laid-off (unreasonably). I was afraid of being the last one remaining on my team (I was). And being human, I was afraid of the unknown.
The new company did not have a well thought out plan on what to do with us. We were highly technically folks that they currently did not have and wanted, but they didn’t have a clue on how best to use us. This lack of insight drove several managers away and left several of us second guessing. That was when I learnt how quickly teams can break down and crumble apart. Once a manager left, most of the team would follow within a couple of months2.
After Four Months
My team, or some semblance of it, held on for another four months. This gave me enough time to figure out my next move. The new hierarchy of managers got clearer and I now had some idea of what the work would look like. I quit looking for jobs and decided to do a functional switch within the same company. The entire PM team had dissolved and I spotted an opportunity there. I approached the new site lead and spoke to him of my interest in transitioning. Nothing concrete came out of that meeting but I was happy to speak about my interest. At least, he would now know that he could look to me to help fill that PM void.
Next, my manager left and one of the senior engineers on the AI team got promoted into that role. That happened to become a key moment for me as well. For my new manager, Ajay3 was smart, capable and very thoughtful. I was able to discuss with him at length about my intentions to do a career change and figure out actionable next steps. I was thrilled to have a manager champion me and support my efforts. Without a doubt, I would not have been able to pull off the transition successfully without his backing.
An Observation
One thing I did notice was how easily men got promoted or moved to the roles they wanted within the new org. but women still had to slog and show that they were worthy of those roles. Until experiencing it myself, I did not know that it was a widely known phenomenon4. With my new awareness of how gender plays a role in every facet of life, I started recognizing some of these biases quickly and I thought about how to address them at length. Again, I was able to bring it up with Ajay and he supported me in my efforts to improve DEIB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging) efforts at the office.
Now, almost a year later, I can’t claim that much has changed, But I am happy to note that our efforts did not go in vain. Everybody, from the leadership and HR to my colleagues, is more aware of these issues and are trying their best to check their words and actions. BUT… I digress. I will talk about DEIB in another post, and as my newsletter’s name suggests I do love talking about it!
My Transition to Project Management
Coming back to my shift from a robotics engineer to a technical program manager. It took me a couple of months to officially switch to the new role. Months I used to rebrand myself and show how I could help out this hobbled new organization. I took up small tasks and need-to-haves and created a plan for them. I budgeted scope and resources. I identified two projects that could be done within a month each and handled by just one engineer (me). With those, I showed that I could create a project from scratch and carry it out to completion by doing the actual work myself. This may not be the most traditional way, but it worked!
Slowly, leadership and my colleagues began to see more as a PM than a developer. I was asked to take on bigger, more impactful projects. I was given the freedom to learn and experiment. I laid down the rules for JIRA and project management tools myself. The funny part was that as a developer I used to hate JIRA, but as a PM I became fascinated by how useful it could be and started pushing for its use. How the turn tables.5
To summarize, here is the path I followed to reach PM-ship:
And Most Importantly,
I learnt that you cannot switch careers without help from others. Paradoxical though it may seem, you cannot manage your career solely by yourself.
The best thing is that it's okay to ask for help. In fact, I was surprised by how supportive my colleagues could be and how they all wished me to succeed.
The saying is true: You don’t have to do it alone.
Disclaimer: The above information is solely based on my experience. I cannot guarantee that it will work for everyone but the bare bones of my career switch tips can definitely be adapted to your situation.
Withholding names for safety.
Name changed to protect anonymity.
The Office reference - watch here!
Next week, I will write about my other project of 2022: Applying to Business schools and writing the GMAT.
Thanks again for reading this post and scrolling till the very end. I hope to see you next week!
I love these posts! And so in awe of your perseverance!