Varun Kulkarni
- Varun Kulkarni transitioned from consulting to a senior product manager role at Cisco.
- He spent about eight months preparing for the shift in industry.
- He tailored his résumé to highlight skills that apply to tech more than they do to consulting.
Varun Kulkarni was five years into his consulting role at Deloitte when he realized he wanted a change.
It was 2022, and he had started getting involved in artificial intelligence-related projects at the company. He knew he could do more with his expertise and interest in tech products.
“AI really started coming into play and I started seeing how AI products really made a bigger impact in the market,” he said.
Big Tech, which creates products that reach millions of global users, seemed like the answer.
Even though most skills from consulting seemed transferable, making the jump took Kulkarni about eight months.
He spent three months preparing for tech interviews, which included taking higher product usage into account and unlearning aspects of consulting such as moving quickly. Next, he spent about two months cold-emailing and networking with people who had made a similar move from consulting to tech. He allocated 15 to 16 hours a week preparing for interviews, well before he started applying.
Once he felt ready to interview, landing a job — a senior product manager at Cisco — took two months. It came with a starting pay of $180,000.
This is the résumé Kulkarni used to apply to the company.
Looking back on his 2022 résumé, he said three things worked well:
Tailoring to the industry: Kulkarni left out achievements or responsibilities that related to corporate strategy or marketing, because they were relevant only to management consulting. “The whole focus here is on product management.”
Showing growth: Kulkarni was promoted twice at Deloitte. He said he considered listing his various titles within the company on his résumé but decided against it to keep things simple. Instead, he wrote about his contributions, starting with the most recent. “There’s a gradual transition, which is there inherently to show that: ‘Hey, as I was taking on more responsibilities and more work, I was doing more things which were more impactful, which I will do in a PM career as well.'”
Customizing smaller sections: Kulkarni selectively picked what would go into a section titled “tools.” He only picked skills that would overlap with a product management role, such as “defining strategy, working across stakeholders, and building relationships.”
Two résumé changes
He would also change two main parts of his résumé today:
Data-focused approach: He would include details about how he used his data and statistical analysis skills. “If you look at this, there’s no mention of AI or anything in here. It doesn’t talk about more data-oriented techniques like running AB experiments,” he said. For product managers “in any industry, that’s very important.”
Projects outside work: Kulkarni is an advisory board member at his alma mater, participates in AI societies, and writes scholarly articles about project management for an online publication.
“It’s a very key aspect of how I’ve grown in my career,” he said. Learning about a new technology externally gives him an opportunity to discuss it with his team.
Kulkarni is currently a senior product manager at Cisco’s Seattle office. Business Insider has verified his employment and compensation history.
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