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How an Indian-born Silicon Valley professional’s ebook is helping aspiring program managers crack the interview

Sep 22, 2020 04:31 PM IST

Saurabh was born and brought up in Lucknow, and he is a Computer Science engineer besides having done a General Management Program from IIM, Bengaluru and having a Management 101 certificate from the Harvard Business School.

A Program Manager’s (PM) job is diverse and focused, both at the same time. While a PM needs to handle multiple programs at the same time, he is also responsible for the end-results in each case. Despite that intimidating job description, there is no dearth of professionals looking to settle themselves in the dream-job of a Program Manager & are also willing to work hard to reach there. And who better person to guide them in this journey than an ace Program Manager with 18+ years of experience in this field. Guided by this mission, Kumar Saurabh, a self-made and accomplished man who has worked with major tech giants, took his years of experience and gathered it into an e-book titled “27 Program Management Interview Techniques to Ace that Dream Job Offer.” With this book, Saurabh wants to help and inspire aspirants who want to land that dream job that requires them to do the duty of a Program Manager successfully.

How it all began

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Saurabh was born and brought up in Lucknow, and he is a Computer Science engineer besides having done a General Management Program from IIM, Bengaluru and having a Management 101 certificate from the Harvard Business School. Today Saurabh is known for his exemplary Program Management skills and the success that he has garnered through the numerous projects brought to fruition under his able guidance. However, it was while studying at IIM Bengaluru that he happened to come across the massive prospects held by program management, the most significant of which is how it helps businesses “transform a client experience.”

Speaking about his initiation into Program Management, Saurabh shares, “My company sent me to work in London, to spearhead a large project for a major company in Insurance sector. My journey into Program Management began from there. For about 8 years, I worked for major organisations in the UK. This is also where I received my PMP certification and have seen myself evolve as a program management professional. In due course, I was transferred to Silicon Valley headquarters of ‘Apple Inc.’ to take care of a critical assignment in 2015. Since then, I have been associated with major tech giants here to revolutionize their program management and take it to the next level. I currently work for “Intuit”.” Having worked with the best of the professionals instilled in Saurabh a passion towards learning and mentoring, leading him to score the prestigious management certification from Harvard Business School and, eventually, that led him to mentor budding program management aspirants for their excellence in interviews. In a way, the ebook is an extension of the same!

Why Program Management?

A Program Manager’s main task is to “nurture an environment of physiological safety”, which should help his team or teams to continue innovating without having their voices or opinions stifled. Thus, a Program Manager’s role entails a diversity that is rarely seen in other roles in an organisation. No wonder then that a PM not only works as a binding force within his team but also acts as a connecting thread between his team and its final impact on the users, who may be spread across the globe. Though Saurabh is quite enthusiastic of the present of Program Management in the current business scenario, he is particularly vociferous when it comes to the future of this skill. He says, “Program Managers of the future will need to be multi-faceted and multi-skilled. The new professional reality demands a combination of technical and project management skills, leadership skills and strategic and business management skills – along with the ability to learn and keep pace with technology. So, in one word, the program manager would need to be an all-rounder.”

The motivation

Thus, Saurabh was motivated to write this ebook after having dealt with scores of interviewees whom he interviewed over the years. He observed that people even with an amazing skill-set often failed to either organise their thoughts into a coherent response or lacked the charisma required to make it big as a Program Manager. He took almost a year to write this ebook, which he considers his gift to the PM community globally. The book boasts of 27 incisive questions, whose comprehensive answers will not only impress a prospective employer, but will also help the aspiring Program Manager to succeed beyond the job interview.

As for the future, Saurabh is waiting for testimonies of the readers of his ebook before he plans for his next book. Once a Program Manager, always a Program Manager!

Get Your Course Today - https://www.udemy.com/course/program-management-interview/?referralCode=0BBF7C6FF1569AE81889

Website : https://pmoaspirants.com/

Disclaimer: This is a company press release. No HT journalist was involved in the creation of this content.

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