Aditi Prabhudesai

I had been at a financial services company for more than 15 years. I'd built consumer-facing products, rep-facing products — I moved into a new role and a new challenge about every three years, so I had the relationships and could jump internally easily. I wasn't searching because I'd lost a job. I already had one. I wanted something with more global scope that would stretch my product mind in ways it hadn't been stretched before.

What I was looking for in a program was the network, because without it it's almost impossible to land a role in today's market, and help with the fact that I was very rusty at interviewing. When you take that comfortable internal track and turn it into a global job search, it becomes incredibly intimidating. Big companies want specific skills you may have, but you don't have the practice telling your story — why should they pick you over a thousand other people with big names on their resumes? IJS let us hone in on the one or two things that make us stand out.

The moment I'll never forget: I thought I was a good communicator until my first review. I was all over the place, watched the recording and thought, what did I just do? Recording yourself and listening back is the biggest power move you can make. It's cringe at first, and it was painful, but it was the best investment in myself. Practicing until you can do it in your sleep shifts your confidence, and you come across differently in interviews. The coaches gave very blunt feedback — at the time you think "how dare you, you don't know what I've done" — but that's exactly what a recruiter would think. I also had to make the frameworks my own so they came out naturally instead of sounding recited.

I started out fixated on FAANG. Then I zoomed out and looked at where my core strengths were. For senior roles, a Google or a Netflix wasn't going to entertain me unless I'd done a closely matching job. So I got strategic, narrowed my focus to what made me different, and realized fintech companies had a bigger appetite for my skills. It wasn't "never" for big tech, it was "not now." Once I made that pivot the interviews started coming and got easier to crack. Early on I'd talk to recruiters at Meta, Coinbase and LinkedIn and never make it to the loop. Once I was clear on what I'd drive, I got through to the panel rounds at both Intuit and PayPal.

PayPal was the third big interview I cracked, and the role resonated most: a platform role at global scale, in open banking, a space I knew inside out from building on open banking APIs on the experience side. I never compromised on level, which narrowed the pool but made me more intentional. It took about 18 months, and over that time I saw the growth in myself — the structure, telling my story convincingly, projecting confidence in a 30-minute window. I also moved from Boston to the Bay Area for the role.

The way I describe the program: it's like the extra classes in 12th standard in India that actually got you the 95th percentile. It's the accelerant. You go through the motions of real interviews and fail and get polished there, because you only get one shot at your dream company.

My advice: you own your career, and if you think long term the investment is worth it. I've tried Claude and ChatGPT — they'll always agree with you. You still need a human with relevant experience and real insight into what's working in the market right now to give you the hard feedback.