Instacart Take-Home and Rejection Impact

Nina had an MIT CS degree, a growing online presence, and still called her job hunt the most stressful time of her life.

In this episode she breaks down consulting burnout, back to back rejections, and how she finally landed at Apple as a PM — plus exactly how a software engineer can make the same pivot.

Computer science students, new grads, and software engineers…want to land your dream software engineering job or internship? Click here 👉 https://www.amanmanazir.com/coaching/?utm_source=transistor&utm_medium=podcasts_description&utm_campaign=NinaAppleSWE&video=-BYuU6Q6hWc

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I’m Aman Manazir, a career coach and software engineer. I interned at companies like Amazon, Shopify, and HP in college, and the day I graduated I landed a $168,000/year* full-time software engineering job. I help you make it as a computer science student & software engineer and get your dream job offer.

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👉 Nina's YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/@nnxwang
👉 Nina's Podcast: https://youtube.com/@hotyoungurbanprofessionalspod?si=Qr-SxYRLux83Iyj_

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⏱️ Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction
02:03 The Most Stressful Job Hunt Of Her Life
04:15 Sneaking Interviews While Fully Employed
07:32 Growing Up With No Real Passions
09:50 The Rhythmic Gymnastics Era
12:26 What Sports Actually Taught Her
13:53 The MIT Career Fair That Changed Everything
17:00 What MIT Culture Is Really Like
19:06 Imposter Syndrome At The World's Best School
20:49 Building Your Own Category Of One
24:30 Why She Chose A Hybrid Major
27:00 Should You Do A Hybrid Major
29:13 Software Engineering Accelerator
31:41 The Consulting vs PM Decision
34:09 The Brutal Truth About Consulting
36:26 When The Client Owns Your Time
38:48 The Two Mice Parable
40:28 So What's Even The Point Of Consulting
43:04 The Prestige Trap
45:59 When She Knew She'd Picked The Wrong Path
47:12 Pivot Now Or Tough It Out
49:20 What Rejection Actually Teaches You
1:01:00 How The Apple Opportunity Appeared
1:03:00 Manufacturing Confidence In Interviews
1:08:50  Product vs Project vs Program Manager
1:13:50 Are You Cut Out to Be a PM
1:20:39 What She'd Tell Her Freshman Self
1:23:39 Outro