According to research by the Graduate Management Admission Council, Big Tech still remains a popular career destination for students, from freshers to newly minted MBAs. Although hiring has cooled off in recent times, there are still plenty of jobs available.

Why? Surely tech companies are only interested in coding masterminds and computer whizzes, right?

Incorrect.

While many of the world’s fastest-growing businesses lean heavily on technical expertise, much of their growth is thanks to innovative breakthroughs from non-technical individuals. From rewriting the rulebook on customer success to rethinking the sales process, developing ingenious marketing campaigns, and strategizing game-changing business models, non-technical minds are responsible for some of the biggest big tech breakthroughs of the last decade.

It’s no coincidence that Apple’s Tim Cook, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, Google’s Sundar Pichai and Amazon’s Andy Jassy all have MBAs from business school.

So, join us as we explore how you can leverage your business school know-how to land a job at the likes of Google, Amazon and Meta.

Types of Non-Technical Jobs in Tech at Google, Amazon & Meta

Big tech firms are different from most traditional businesses in two key ways:

1. They’re very big.
2. They make most of their money by selling technology as opposed to physical products or professional services.

However, once you get past these two differentiating characteristics, the underlying DNA of a big tech firm is much closer to that of a traditional business than you might think. Just as a large grocery chain will have a procurement team to source the best produce, a marketing team to build brand loyalty, a sales team to get the tills chiming, and a customer success team to keep their patrons smiling, big tech firms require this same expertise to remain competitive.

As these businesses continue to grow from strength to strength, identifying highly-motivated individuals who thrive in fast-paced environments and aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty is a key focus for companies like Google, Amazon and Meta.

Sound like you?

Great, let’s take a look at some of the main types of non-technical roles and jobs at Google, Amazon & Meta that would fit the skillset of a business school grad.

Non-tech job: Marketing & Communications

As is the case with almost all businesses, building trust with potential customers and earning their loyalty is a critical success factor for big tech firms. Whether it’s developing persuasive marketing campaigns that encourage people to switch from one platform to another or conservative damage control campaigns to avoid backlash from a technical error, communication is everything when it comes to selling technology.

Specifically, companies like Google and Amazon will look for candidates who demonstrate an ability to combine marketing know-how with data analytics. With data playing such an important role in the decision-making processes of these businesses, understanding the value of experimentation and knowing how to design marketing campaigns around data-driven Key Performance Indicators (KPI) will stand you in good stead for the application process.

Non-tech job: Product Management

Product innovation sits at the core of all successful tech firms. From Instagram’s decision to ‘borrow’ the Stories feature from Snapchat to Google’s launch of its new Pixel phones or Meta's launch of its standalone AI App to compete with Chat-GPT, releasing new platforms and features helps big tech companies move with the times and maintain relevance in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

While tech-oriented talent is necessary to conceive fundamental technical innovations (e.g. Apple’s revolutionary multi-touch iPhone screen or Meta's secret algorithm), Product teams are responsible for packaging this technology into usable and highly-attractive products or services.

If you’re someone who enjoys using technology products and you’re always coming up with innovative ideas about how things could be improved, Product Management might be your calling. Although most entry-level and internship roles won’t provide direct exposure to the product development process, understanding a company's product pipeline and identifying how this ties in with its strategic direction is critical to succeeding in this space.

If Product is something you want to get into, check out this podcast from ex-Spotify and Monzo Product Manager, Benji Portwin. He explains how most tech companies will provide opportunities to hop from one discipline into Product if you show initiative and a natural flair in this arena.

Top Tip: It’s worth noting that many tech firms use a horizontal scrum structure where team members with specific expertise (e.g. Product Owner, DevOps, Marketing, Finance, etc.) are assigned to work on a specific product, as opposed to more traditional vertical structures where teams are organised by discipline. This horizontal approach will give entry-level employees first-hand exposure to the product management process and can be a great way to get your foot in the door.

If you want more information on how to get into product without any product experience or a product background, explore our other article here.

Non-tech job: Chief of Staff

If you’re a person who enjoys wearing multiple hats, working closely with senior executives on business-critical projects across different functions, then Chief of Staff should be on your list.

In the last ten years, the position of Chief of Staff (CoS) has quietly become one of the highest impact roles in the corporate world, and is very popular in the technology industry.

As a Chief of Staff, you're at the epicentre. You learn how the business really works, build allies across teams and build a strategic skill set. You can read more about the role in our dedicated guide, which also includes insights into the Chief of Staff salary.

Non-tech job: Human Resources

If you’re a people person who enjoys managing interpersonal relationships, landing a job in HR or ‘People Operations’ at a big tech firm is sure to keep you on your toes.

The technology space is an inherently progressive environment that tends to attract forward-thinking individuals and welcome unconventional company cultures that strive to improve employee satisfaction. For example, Google’s quest to build highly-effective teams with its ’Project Aristotle’ initiative is a classic example of a big tech firm throwing the rulebook out of the window and embracing innovation to reshape the way things are done.

While the progressive nature and high employee churn rate of the tech industry can present unique challenges for HR teams, there are tonnes of exciting opportunities for new entrants to break the mould and drive the #FutureOfWork.

Non-tech job: Sales & Business Development

Are you someone who enjoys diving into the inner workings of an organisation’s business model and conducting an analysis of their market positioning using techniques like Porter’s Five Forces, SWOT and PESTLE?

If so, Business Development or Sales roles could be a strong fit for your skillset. While the old-school image of Sales might conjure images of Jordan Belfort and phones ringing off the hook, big tech firms take a much more calculated and methodical approach to business growth that draws on lots of the theoretical concepts you’ll learn at business school.

Specifically, identifying market threats/opportunities and developing powerful merger and acquisition (M&A) strategies is a key focus for most big tech firms. Whether it’s Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods to venture into the grocery market or Google’s acquisition of YouTube to dominate the video-sharing industry, market intelligence is responsible for some of the biggest business success stories in recent years. Therefore, graduates who demonstrate strong analytical thinking and practical skills that support their theoretical knowledge are absolute gold dust for big tech firms.

Even if Sales is something you never pictured yourself doing, the opportunity to engage directly with customers and work alongside Marketing teams provides first-hand exposure to customer behaviours and will stand you in good stead if you ever wanted to shift towards a more Product-orientated role. Sales is often the easiest route into big tech and can provide the perfect springboard if you decide to pivot towards alternative business functions such as Marketing, Product or Operations.

Non-tech job: Operations

The word ‘big’ in ‘big tech’ is a clear giveaway for why Operations teams are critical to their long-term success. Large organisations require constant support, guidance and planning from people who understand how the various components of a business fit together to work towards a common goal.

If you’re someone who enjoys process-led decisions, systems planning and organisation, landing an Operations role is sure to keep you entertained!

A golden example of how Operations teams play a significant role in the success of big tech companies is Amazon’s warehouse distribution network. Bezos’ multi-billion-dollar empire uses a web of incredibly sophisticated data-driven fulfilment centres that facilitate fast and cheap delivery of goods across the globe. These warehouses are probably some of the most impressive and efficient systems ever designed in modern commerce and help to power Amazon’s ‘flywheel effect’.

Non-tech job: Customer Success

Another exciting avenue for a business school grad to enter the world of big tech is through Customer Success. Although it might not sound like the most obvious choice, you only need to look at a business like Amazon to understand the importance placed on customer obsession across the entire company.

As Steve Jobs once said: “You've got to start with the customer experience and work back toward the technology – not the other way around.”

Starting with a role in Customer Success will give you first-hand exposure to the needs and desires of your target audience and stand you in good stead if you wish to pivot into another business area within big tech. Customer Success is ultimately a sales role where your mission is to identify opportunities to increase the business’ Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) — be that through improved customer support, tech updates, or product innovations.

Most notably, if you have your eyes set on a career in Product Management, lots of tech companies will be open to ‘career switching’ from Customer Success to Product if you can demonstrate a genuine understanding of how your experience and know-how would translate into developing highly-desirable products.

Non-Technical Business School Programmes for Google, Amazon & Meta

Now that you have a better idea of what kind of roles you might be interested in, let’s take a look at some of the best MBA and entry-level programmes for non-technical jobs at Google, Amazon and Meta. The mere fact that these programmes exist is a clear indication that these big tech companies view non-technical expertise as a critical component of success.

So, let’s jump into it...

Google Full-Time Opportunities for Non-Technical Students

Transitioning from student life to a career at Google is an exciting opportunity to join one of the world's most influential tech companies without needing a technical background. Google's diverse business operations create numerous pathways for non-technical graduates to contribute meaningfully to the company's mission while building rewarding careers.

Whether you're passionate about business strategy, marketing innovation, operations excellence, or people development, Google offers entry-level roles designed specifically for recent graduates ready to make their mark in big tech.

Types of Non-Technical Roles at Google

Google's non-technical full-time opportunities span across multiple business functions, providing new graduates with diverse career paths:

Business Operations & Strategy Roles: These positions focus on driving operational excellence and strategic initiatives across Google's various products and services. Entry-level "Coordinator" positions are generally the entry level positions within the operations and business functions at Google. You'll work on process optimization, data analysis, and cross-functional projects that directly impact business outcomes.

Marketing & Communications: From product marketing to brand management, these roles involve developing compelling campaigns, analyzing market trends, and communicating Google's value proposition to diverse audiences. You'll collaborate with creative teams, analyze campaign performance, and help shape how users discover and engage with Google's products.

Sales & Business Development: Some of the non-technical roles they are recruiting for include business development, marketing, finance, human resources, legal, operations and more. These positions focus on building partnerships, driving revenue growth, and expanding Google's market presence across different industries and regions.

People Operations (HR): Google's People Operations team handles talent acquisition, employee development, workplace culture, and organizational effectiveness. These roles are perfect for graduates interested in human psychology, organizational behavior, and creating positive workplace experiences.

Finance & Analytics: These positions involve financial planning, business analysis, and data interpretation to support strategic decision-making. You'll work with large datasets, create financial models, and provide insights that guide business strategy.

Program Management: Coordinate cross-functional initiatives, manage timelines, and ensure successful project delivery across different teams and departments.

The Google Interview Process for Non-Technical Roles

Understanding Google's interview process is crucial for success. Broadly, however, the structure is the same:

1. Resume review
2. Phone screen
3. On-site interview
4. Hiring committee review
5. Team match
6. Higher level review
7. Offer

Initial Application & Resume Review: Your journey begins with submitting your application through Google's career portal. Ensure your resume highlights relevant experiences, leadership roles, and quantifiable achievements that demonstrate your potential impact.

Phone/Video Screen: During the call, the recruiter will have a non-technical chat with you about your background and why you are interested in the job. You should have answers prepared for questions like, "Tell me about yourself," "Why Google?", and "Walk me through your resume." This conversation typically lasts 30-45 minutes and focuses on cultural fit and motivation.

On-Site/Virtual Interviews: The core interview stage typically consists of 3-4 sessions with different team members and stakeholders. For non-technical roles, expect behavioral, hypothetical, and case-based questions related to the role. For example, if you're a product manager candidate, you might be asked "How would you improve Google Maps", or "If you could implement a new feature..."

Interview formats include:

• Behavioral interviews: Expect questions using the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) to understand how you've handled challenges and demonstrated Google's core values
• Case studies: You may be presented with business scenarios requiring analytical thinking and creative problem-solving
• Role-specific questions: Tell me about yourself? Your biggest achievement (in one of the companies you worked at) Favorite product and how to improve?

Hiring Committee Review: After interviews, your feedback is reviewed by Google's hiring committee, which makes the initial hiring decision based on interview performance and role fit.

Team Matching: If approved by the hiring committee, you'll be matched with specific teams based on your interests, skills, and team needs.

Preparing for Success

Research thoroughly: Understand Google's products, mission, and recent developments. Be prepared to discuss how you can contribute to specific business challenges.

Practice storytelling: Develop compelling narratives about your experiences using the STAR framework. Focus on leadership, innovation, and impact.

Understand Google's culture: Familiarize yourself with Google's values and be ready to demonstrate how your experiences align with their collaborative, innovative culture.

Prepare for case discussions: Practice analyzing business problems and presenting structured solutions. Think about how you'd approach challenges facing Google's various products and services.

Google Internships

Landing an internship at Google is an excellent way to get a taste of various business functions, build practical skills, and kickstart a career in big tech, particularly for freshers.

If you’re coming from a non-technical background, Google provides a number of exciting opportunities for both students and graduates to don their ‘Noogler’ hats and get an insider view of Google life.

Google’s non-technical internships are organised across three separate programmes:

1. Business Internship. Google Business Internships are available to undergraduate and graduate students across a number of locations outside of the US including Berlin, Copenhagen, Dublin, Tel Aviv-Yafo, London and Paris. This is an ideal opportunity if you’re looking to build business know-how across a range of different fields (e.g. Sales, Marketing, Operations) and identify your desired career trajectory.
2. MBA Internship. Google’s MBA internships provide the ultimate opportunity to apply your theoretical knowledge to real-life scenarios. Applications open in September/October each year to anyone who is currently enrolled in an MBA programme. Check out this page to explore location-specific opportunities.

Amazon Launch Programme for MBA Students

Amazon’s Launch Programme provides successful applicants with the ultimate opportunity to transition from an MBA student to an industry professional. In three years, you’ll move between two job rotations and receive expert guidance through various onboarding activities, training sessions, networking events, and dedicated mentorship.

At the end of the three years, you’ll be fully equipped to take your career to the next level and explore higher-level opportunities through Amazon’s internal jobs board.

Amazon’s European Launch Programme is split into two parts:

1. Full-time roles are suitable for second-year MBA students or students on a one-year programme who are available to start in March, July or September.
2. 8-10 week internships providing exposure to specific business areas within Amazon.

As previously mentioned, customer obsession sits at the very core of Amazon’s business model. Their Launch programme provides an invaluable opportunity to learn about a number of business areas including Amazon’s Consumer team, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon Prime Video, and Devices/Alexa.

Internships are up for grabs in the UK, Luxembourg, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands which could provide you with a fast-track route into Amazon’s full-time Launch programme if you impress.

Applications are open now for the full-time roles and applications to the internship programme are also open.

Amazon Pathways — The Fast Track Route to Senior Management

Do you have dreams of becoming a leader in a global corporation where you oversee people, processes, and technology? Are you excited by the prospect of continuously improving customer experiences and developing innovative business strategies?

If so, Amazon’s Operations Leadership Development Pathways programme offers an intense five-year opportunity to climb the managerial ranks within one of the world’s biggest organisations. Pathways members will follow Amazon’s Leadership Principles to nurture their managerial skills and tackle a series of progressively challenging assignments across the company’s expanding supply chain network. Successful Pathways recruits are expected to scale with the growth of the business as they lead large teams, negotiate complex business challenges and develop creative solutions to feed Amazon’s customer obsession.

You can browse Amazon’s Pathways opportunities here. Note that application deadlines are location-specific and applicants are sometimes stationed at different locations depending on the needs of the business at any given time — be prepared to be flexible!

Want to learn more about how to get into Amazon and stand out from the crowd with your application? Check out this podcast from Tom Lawrence — the man who’s done over 1,000 interviews at Amazon.

Breaking Into AWS — Non-Technical Opportunities for Business Students

Think cloud computing is only for software engineers? Think again. Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers an expansive range of business-focused roles that are perfect for MBA students and business graduates looking to break into the world's leading cloud platform without a technical background.

Amazon is committed to supporting diverse and emerging talent from around the world, including military veterans and spouses, through training and development programs that provide alternate paths into tech careers. This commitment extends to business students who bring critical skills in strategy, operations, and customer relationships that are essential to AWS's continued growth.

Core Non-Technical Roles at AWS

Account Management — Your Gateway to Cloud Strategy

AWS Account Managers are the bridge between cutting-edge cloud technology and business transformation. In this role, you'll work directly with enterprise clients to understand their business challenges and translate them into cloud solutions that drive growth and efficiency.

As an Account Manager, you'll develop trusted relationships with C-suite executives, identify opportunities for cloud adoption, and coordinate with technical teams to deliver tailored solutions. The role combines strategic thinking, relationship building, and business development — making it ideal for MBA graduates who want to be at the forefront of digital transformation.

Business Development — Expanding AWS's Market Reach

Business Development professionals at AWS focus on identifying new market opportunities, forming strategic partnerships, and driving revenue growth across different industry verticals. You'll analyse market trends, develop go-to-market strategies, and work closely with product teams to ensure AWS services meet evolving customer needs.

This role is particularly appealing for students with backgrounds in consulting, finance, or strategy who want to apply their analytical skills to shape the future of cloud computing.

Operations and Program Management — Orchestrating Excellence

AWS's massive scale requires sophisticated operational excellence, and that's where Operations and Program Managers come in. These roles involve coordinating cross-functional teams, optimising business processes, and ensuring seamless delivery of services to millions of customers worldwide.

You'll tackle complex logistical challenges, implement process improvements, and work with stakeholders across the organisation to drive operational efficiency. It's perfect for students who thrive on problem-solving and have strong project management skills.

Sales and Customer Success — Driving Cloud Adoption

The AWS sales organisation encompasses everything from inside sales roles focused on small and medium businesses to enterprise sales positions managing multi-million pound accounts. Customer Success roles focus on ensuring existing customers maximise their AWS investment and achieve their business objectives.

These positions are ideal for students with strong communication skills who are passionate about understanding customer needs and delivering solutions that create real business value.

The AWS Interview Process for Business Roles

There are four steps in the process: online application, assessments, phone interview, and in-person interviews. However, the specific experience varies depending on the role level and type.

Stage 1: Online Application

Submit your application through AWS's careers portal, ensuring your CV highlights relevant business experience, leadership examples, and any exposure to technology or cloud computing concepts.

Stage 2: Assessments

Psychometric test, screening call with direct team manager — you may encounter aptitude tests focusing on logical reasoning, numerical analysis, and situational judgement that assess your problem-solving capabilities.

Stage 3: Phone/Video Screening

Initial conversations with recruiters and hiring managers focus on your background, motivation for joining AWS, and basic understanding of cloud computing concepts. This is also where you'll discuss your salary expectations and availability.

Stage 4: The Interview Loop

Each video interview is about 45 minutes, for a total of about 4-5 hours spent interviewing at the Loop stage. You will have a total of 6-7 interviews. This intensive process typically includes:

• Leadership Principles Interviews: AWS's 16 Leadership Principles are central to their culture. Prepare specific examples that demonstrate principles like "Customer Obsession," "Ownership," and "Dive Deep."
• Behavioural Interviews: Using the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result), you'll discuss past experiences that showcase your problem-solving, leadership, and collaboration skills.
• Case Study or Business Scenario: You may be presented with a hypothetical business challenge and asked to develop a strategic approach or recommendation.
• Bar Raiser Interview: One of these interviews will be with an ISM who is also a Bar Raiser — this person ensures you meet AWS's high standards and cultural fit.

Preparing for AWS Career Success

Understand the Cloud Landscape

While you don't need technical expertise, having a solid understanding of cloud computing concepts, AWS's core services, and the digital transformation trends affecting businesses is crucial. This introductory course is intended for students who seek an overall understanding of cloud computing concepts, independent of specific technical roles.

Master the Leadership Principles

AWS's Leadership Principles aren't just corporate jargon — they're used as evaluation criteria throughout the interview process. Study each principle and prepare 2-3 specific examples that demonstrate how you've embodied these behaviours in your academic, professional, or personal experiences.

Develop Your Business Case Skills

Many AWS business roles involve presenting solutions to senior executives and translating complex technical concepts into business value. Practice creating compelling business cases, analysing ROI scenarios, and presenting recommendations clearly and concisely. Consult these interview tips recommended by Amazon.

Building Your Cloud Foundation

AWS Certifications for Business Professionals

While not always required, earning an AWS Cloud Practitioner certification demonstrates your commitment to understanding the platform and can set you apart from other candidates. As of January 2025, there are more than 1.42 million active AWS Certifications — join this growing community of cloud-certified professionals.

Hands-On Experience

Consider taking advantage of AWS's free tier to explore the platform firsthand. Even basic familiarity with the AWS console and core services like EC2, S3, and Lambda will give you confidence when discussing cloud solutions with customers.

Amazon’s Business Internships for Students

If you want to develop a deeper understanding of how Amazon works and nurture your analytical and problem-solving skills, Amazon’s Business Internship for Students gives successful applicants full ownership of a high-profile project that involves partnering with exciting clients, senior leaders, and a range of internal teams. A typical business internship with Amazon is data-intensive, analytical, and representative of a real business case.

Most of Amazon’s internships cover the following business areas:

• Accounting & Finance
• Operations Management
• Sales & Marketing
• Product Management
• Programme Management
• Retail/Consumer Leadership

While there’s no dedicated programme for Amazon’s Business Internships, they post all available opportunities on their jobs board. Just scroll down to the ‘Category’ drop-down on the left side of the page and select ‘Student Programmes’ to filter your search.

Meta's RPM Programme

A recent study found that Meta posts three times as many job opportunities that state a preference for business school grads compared to Goldman Sachs. Specifically, Meta's Rotational Product Manager (RPM) programme welcomes students to apply for an immersive 18-month rotational programme that provides close-up exposure to three of Meta's core business functions.

Successful RPM applicants get the opportunity to explore everything from product innovations to working directly with designers and engineers to introduce new functionality to Meta's ever-expanding product fleet. You’ll learn how to develop data-driven leadership skills and design around customer preferences across the likes of Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, and even Oculus.

The RPM programme involves a full-time position that aims to nurture forward-thinking product leaders who are passionate about shaping the future. Meta welcomes talented individuals who offer a diversity of ideas, expertise, perspectives, and cultural backgrounds to design powerful products that are representative of the company’s global user base.

Meta hires RPMs once a year for two start dates in the following calendar year. There are five Meta offices that support RPMs (London, Tel Aviv, New York, Menlo Park and Seattle) plus a limited number of remote options for applicants in the US. While there are no specified deadline dates at the time of writing, applications usually open at the end of July or the start of August each year.

Rather cleverly, Meta posts all of its job openings and application updates about the RPM programme on the RPM page...stay tuned.

Remember, Meta caps the maximum number of applications per candidate at three submissions every six months. So, be sure to apply for roles that strongly match your specific skill set and always do your homework before applying.

Direct Applications to Meta

Alternatively, some applicants opt for a less prescribed route into Meta which is to submit a direct application to a specific job opening. While Sales tends to be the most popular direct-entry route into big tech firms, a detailed browse through Meta's career page will reveal a number of exciting career opportunities across a range of business functions that welcome direct applications from MBA students.

Take Brian Colivet, for example. After setting his sights on Meta during his MBA studies, he attended Exactimo’s Digital Bootcamp to get his hands on practical tips and tricks that would help him stand out from the crowd in the application phase. A few years down the line, Brian’s proactivity paid off. After securing a job at Meta through a direct application, he now heads up an entire team as their Global Gaming Business Lead.

Microsoft's Aspire Track

Launch your career at Microsoft with the Aspire MBA program! This two-year development initiative equips a select group of 200 global MBA hires with the tools they need to thrive. Through the program, you'll gain a deep understanding of Microsoft, hone your leadership skills, and build a network of accomplished professionals. To find out more, watch this video.

Practical Application Tips

How To Boost Your Chances of Getting into Google, Amazon & Meta

So you’ve now got a pretty good idea of what kind of opportunities are out there, but what practical steps can you take to increase your chances of getting into big tech from a non-technical background?

With big tech being such a competitive space for business school students, preparing for application and interview stages is absolutely critical to stand out from the crowd. Specifically, demonstrating a genuine interest in the companies you’re applying for and understanding the key drivers behind their success will give you a winning edge.

We’ve prepared some quick-fire tips to help you nail your application and crush the competition.

Practical Tips: How to Get into Google

• Understand where Google is heading. Sundar Pichai says Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the future of Google so it’s important to have a solid idea of how this technology fits into the company’s wider ecosystem and how existing products/services could harness the power of AI.
• Prepare. If you're interviewing for Google’s Ads team, come prepared with sit-up statements that will grab the interviewers attention and help you stand out from the crowd. To name a few...
• • Mentioning the history of BackRub (the first iteration of Google) and the academic paper that started it all is always a good way to get their attention.
  • The Ads team will also want to hear about relevancy and see that you understand the role of flywheels in Google’s business model.
  • Mention Quality Score and explain how Google is a meritocracy that ranks content based on its value to users.
  • Mention why Google's search platform is all about fulfilling demand as opposed to generating demand which makes Google different to most advertisers.
  • Mention that Amazon is Google’s biggest rival when it comes to paid digital advertising.
• Have a view. Be sure to do your homework on some of the other businesses in the Alphabet family (like Calico) and memorise some metrics from their latest investor report.
  
  For example: If you were asked to give your opinion on the idea of Google charging users an annual fee of $20 to use their services, what pros and cons could you discuss?
• Think like a Googler. If you’re ever asked a question about budgets or how you would approach a campaign, think about how you could use data to your advantage to experiment, learn and improve. For example, if you have £100 million to spend on the new Pixel campaign, how would you spend the money to maximise your return on investment (ROI)?
  FYI, the answer they’re looking for is that you wouldn't spend it all at once — you would run a series of mini experiments. Try something, review the data, and iterate.
• Be aware. It’s important to identify the kind of characteristics and personality traits that Google tests for:
• • General cognitive ability. Google interviewers will ask open-ended questions to understand your thought process. Remember, there’s no one right answer. Your ability to explain your logic and demonstrate the use of data to inform your decisions is key.
  • Leadership. Be prepared to discuss how you have used your communication and decision-making skills to get the most out of the people around you. This could be anything from stepping up to a leadership position at university or using an example from your personal life where you took the initiative to mobilise people and solve a real-life problem.
  • Role-related knowledge. Google is interested in how your personal strengths combine with your experience to make a positive difference. They don’t just look at how you could add to the business today, but also how your skills could evolve with time and (potentially) morph into an entirely new role in the future.
  • Googleyness. Demonstrate how you can work effectively both as an individual and as part of a team. The ability to help others, navigate ambiguity, and push yourself out of your comfort zone will get a big thumbs-up from Google’s hiring team.
  • Predict the future. If you’re sufficiently prepared, the vast majority of the questions you’ll be asked in a Google interview won’t catch you by surprise. Questions like “Why do you want this job?” and “What’s a tough problem you’ve solved?” should roll off your tongue once you enter that interview room. To prepare, start with a simple Google search for “common interview questions” and write down a range of answers for the top twenty results. Practice reeling off your answers to a friend to make sure you can recite them fluently. Failing that, speaking to yourself in the mirror can be a useful technique to help the answers stick in your brain.
  • Have a backup plan. Interviews don’t always go the way you expect them to. Luckily, you often get more than one shot to impress as Google tends to conduct a number of interviews for each applicant. If you find that your answers weren’t very well received in one interview, it’s important to come prepared with a backup plan so you can try something different to build rapport with your next interviewer.
  • Be data-driven. Supporting all answers with data is critical to demonstrate your appreciation of data-driven goals. If the interviewer asks you to give an example of an achievement that you’re proud of, it’s important to include measurable numbers in your answer. It’s also important to include data-driven metrics in your CV to justify any claims you make about yourself.
    For example: If you state that you’re a competent marketer with a proven track record of delivering high-impact campaigns, you should support this claim with something like “I launched a guerrilla marketing campaign in 2021 that increased weekly sales by 15% in the first two months after launch.”
    Check out this short video to learn more about how to include metrics in your CV.
  • Clarify. Google will deliberately present open-ended questions to expose the candidate’s ability to engage with a problem and develop an effective approach to solve it. If anything is unclear, don’t be afraid to ask for clarification on specific points. Interviewers like to see thorough applicants with a curious nature and an eye for detail.
    For example, imagine you’ve transported back in time and you’re about to pitch Google Chrome to Larry and Sergey. What are the benefits? How would you quantify the potential impact of your idea?
  • Think Out Loud. Awkward silences aren’t going to get you very far in a Google interview. Thinking out loud and explaining your thought process to the interviewer is a great way to demonstrate critical thinking and will place less weight on your final answer. Even if your final answer isn’t perfect, at least you’ve demonstrated how you got to that answer. If you’re really struggling, start with a bare-bones solution and refine it — just let the interviewer know that's what you're doing and why.

We've also recorded this interview with Thomas Ropel, an ex Googler who provides some great tips on how to get a non technical job at Google.

Practical Tips: How To Get into Amazon

The #1 piece of advice that any Amazon employee would give to an applicant is to swot up on the company’s 16 Leadership Principles.

We recorded an interview with Tom Lawrance, who built Amazon's recruitment team from the ground up, where we discusses how to impress in an Amazon interview with a focus on the Leadership Principles.

As we mentioned previously, Amazon lives and breathes these principles and almost all Amazon interviews will draw reference to them. You can think of them as a set of instructions that explain how to think like an Amazonian and how to align with the company’s wider vision.

So, let’s jump into the leadership principles and explore how you can use them to your advantage to optimise your interview performance.

1. Customer Obsession. Amazon employees are taught to always start with the end customer and work backwards. Customer obsession sits at the heart of everything Amazon does and holds the key to much of the company’s success. Demonstrating an understanding of how to gather insights from users and harness this knowledge to build better products/services will stand you in good stead for almost any Amazon interview.
2. Leaders are owners. Amazon leaders never say “that’s not my job”. They take pride in the company as a whole and will always work with long-term goals in mind. In the context of an interview, it’s important to show that you’re a genuine team player and that you align with the company’s long-term vision. With Amazon being such a fast-growing company, it’s important to stay up-to-date with its strategic direction and to understand how this links to the specific role you're applying for. Ask yourself “how could my individual input contribute to achieving Amazon’s big picture goals?”
3. Invent & Simplify. Innovation and the ability to simplify complex problems into practical solutions are absolutely fundamental to Amazon’s success. If you’re ever asked to provide an example from your past that demonstrates innovative thinking, be sure to explain the process of understanding the situation, identifying a complication and finding a resolution. The McKinsey Situation-Complication-Resolution (SCR) framework is a simple yet powerful way to overcome challenges with inventive solutions.
4. Are Right, A Lot. Amazon Leaders are right a lot. They have strong judgement, a natural instinct for success, and they seek diverse perspectives to disconfirm their beliefs. Demonstrating openness to new ideas in an Amazon interview is critical. While lots of applicants make the mistake of presenting themselves as ‘know-it-alls’, the best applicants are those who strike a modest balance between assertiveness and inquisitiveness.
5. Learn and Be Curious. Amazon employees never stop learning. Asking questions in an interview is a great way to show that you are interested in a given topic and that you have a personality that is open to new ideas.
6. Hire and Develop the Best. Amazon leaders develop other leaders and are serious about their role in coaching others. Remember that the person sitting in front of you in the interview room is someone you might share an office with one day. Conducting yourself in an engaging and personable manner is the first step towards building rapport with an interviewer. While it’s important to demonstrate your technical expertise and communicate why you think you would be a good fit for a role, don’t overlook the importance of connecting with the interviewer on a human level.
7. Insist on the Highest Standards. Quality is everything for Amazon — they don’t tolerate corner-cutting or half-hearted responses. Be sure to do your homework before you enter the interview room and prepare for a range of different scenarios so you can adapt your answers accordingly.
8. Think Big. You don’t become one of the largest organisations on the planet by sticking to what you know. Amazon promotes bold thinking and ambitious decision-making to drive the company on an upwards trajectory. Don’t be afraid to approach your interview with your own observations about a particular business function or to pitch innovative ideas about how this could add value.
9. Bias for Action. Amazon isn't afraid to take calculated risks if it’s in the interest of speed and getting ahead of competitors. Giving examples of a time where you took a calculated risk to achieve a given goal will get a big thumbs up from Amazon interviewers. Try to explain how you assessed the risks and what backup plans you had in place to neutralise the worst-case scenario.
10. Frugality. Amazon is all about accomplishing more with less. As we already discussed in the context of Google, using data and running a series of mini experiments can be an effective way to demonstrate your appreciation for frugality and maximising ROI. As Jeff Bezos puts it: “Frugality drives innovation, just like other constraints do. One of the only ways to get out of a tight box is to invent your way out.”
11. Earn Trust. Amazonians are encouraged to be vocally self-critical, even when doing so is awkward or embarrassing. As Amazon candidly explains: the best leaders do not believe their own body odour smells of perfume. With this in mind, it’s important to approach your interview with a level of humility. You’re not expected to have all of the answers or to respond to every question with complete confidence. If the interviewer asks about your weaknesses or biggest failures, the worst thing you can do is deny that you make mistakes or try to frame a positive attribute as a negative one. The old cliché of saying that you’re “too organised” or “too empathetic” will earn you a one-way ticket to the door. We all have our shortcomings — the important thing is to acknowledge them and find ways to grow.
12. Dive Deep. Leaders at all levels of the Amazon machine stay connected to the details and know how to interrogate data to spot inefficiencies or errors. If you’re presented with a hypothetical scenario in an interview and you’re asked how you would tackle it, remember to draw reference to the value of data at every stage of the decision-making process to measure, learn, and iterate.
13. Have Backbone. Amazonians are obligated to respectfully challenge decisions when they disagree. While most interview environments demand a certain social etiquette that can make it difficult to assert your opinion, providing confident answers and supporting your responses with hard evidence will usually be well received. If the interviewer interrogates your answer, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s wrong — they just want you to explain your reasoning.
14. Deliver Results. The ultimate goal of any leader is to have a positive long-term impact on the business. Using data-rich examples from your studies, personal life or previous work experience where you’ve achieved measurable goals will show interviewers that you can walk the walk.
15. Strive to be Earth's Best Employer. Amazon’s leaders are committed to creating a safe, productive, and diverse work environment. They lead with empathy and want to see their employees grow with the company. In an interview scenario, remind yourself of this leadership principle. While it’s easy to let the pressure get to you, knowing that the interviewer is ultimately looking out for your best interests should take the edge off things.
16. Success and Scale Bring Broad Responsibility. Amazon asks all of its employees to begin each day with a mission to make better, do better, and be better for the world around them. Showing an awareness of Amazon's social, economic, political and environmental responsibilities as a global powerhouse and staying up-to-date with world affairs will help you answer questions maturely and confidently.

This article is also really useful on Amazon's future, featuring an interview with Amazon's new CEO, Andy Jassey. As is this one laying out why Amazon is wanting its staff to return to office post Covid.

Want to dive even deeper into Amazon’s Leadership principles? Check out this podcast from an ex-Amazon recruiter who built the team responsible for hiring business school graduates into Amazon’s European Consumer and Leadership programmes.

Practical Tips: How To Get Into Meta

Routing back to Zuckerberg’s fascination with behavioural psychology and how to influence the way people think, behavioural interview questions play an important role in Meta's non-technical hiring process.

While many candidates make the mistake of improvising this phase of the application process, those who take the initiative to prepare ahead of time and understand what characteristics Meta looks for will shine the brightest.

Meta uses behavioural interviews to evaluate applicants based on their previous experiences and their ability to explain why they made certain decisions. Most questions will start with something like “give me an example of a time where…” and they are designed to interrogate a range of soft skills such as leadership, problem-solving, communication and grit.

The best way to approach behavioural interview prep is to split all possible questions into one of four categories:

1. Personal. Meta wants to build a general picture of your personal character and will use questions like “tell us about a time where you overcame failure” or “tell us about your greatest achievement”. While these questions might fill you with dread, remember that the interviewer cares more about how you approached a certain scenario and less about the scenario itself. Whatever you do, don’t try to invent a fictitious event to impress the interviewer — they will see straight through you. Once upon a time, these people were sitting where you’re sitting so they’re not to be fooled.
2. Teamwork. Almost all Meta interviews will include some kind of reference to teamwork and ask you to provide an example of a time where you worked effectively with others. Whether it’s a university group project or a sporting achievement, the important thing is to communicate what role you played in the wider group dynamic and explain what strategies you used to overcome challenges.
3. Leadership. Meta's hiring team aren’t just looking for candidates to fill current job openings but they’re also looking into the future by identifying talented individuals who show promise and could evolve with the company. With this in mind, make sure you prepare a number of examples where you’ve mobilised a group of people to work towards a common goal.
4. Role-specific. With Meta (or should we say Meta?) being such an enormous organisation that covers everything from social media to virtual reality, it’s important to demonstrate skills that are tailored to the specific business function you’re applying to. For example, if you’re applying to join Meta's Rotational Product Manager (RPM) programme and you’re asked to describe your favourite features of an app that you use every day, remember to answer the question through the lens of a Product Manager. Think about how the app makes you feel as a user and explain why or how certain features encourage different behaviours.

Alumni Profiles

We’ve also collected some application tips from students working in big tech.

Note: we also profile smaller tech companies such as Airbnb, Uber, Deliveroo, Mastercard, N26, Revolut and Scale AI.

Varun (Amazon)

Name: Varun

Role: Product Manager at Amazon

Academic Background: MBA at Imperial College

What do you do in your role?: Amazon has a complex transportation network, which consistently experiences optimisation driven changes. The impact of these changes need to assessed based on different KPIs which is where my product comes into play. Solving for a complex space involves strategic and tactical nuance, which is what my day-to-day within network design as a PM entails.

What are the best things about your role?: Very challenging & complex space, scale of impact is big and work with smart folks.

How did you become a Product Manager?: Stumbled upon it by chance. Was working in marketing when my former company decided to spin up a new tech firm, and I became the de facto PM. Had no idea what it entailed but learnt on the fly and really enjoyed it because every day was a new challenge.

What are your tips for the application process?: Be very rigorous and thorough in your preparation. You also have to understand what product looks & feels like at the organisation. The interview process is a reflection of that very expectation. Be curious, and always lean on support when you can - people are awesome & are always willing to help!

What knowledge and skills are relevant for the role?: I think structure and organization, in your thinking and writing, is paramount. Say more by saying less. Prioritisation is critical - being able to cut through noise & ambiguity. Ability to dive into details and have a 30,000 feet view on problems is also important.

Charles (Amazon)

Name: Charles

Role: Senior Business Manager @ Amazon

Academic background: MBA @ IESE

What do you do in your role?: Help companies realise and understand their future innovation journeys.

What are the best things about the role?: Getting to work with senior stakeholders at amazing companies (household names) across a range of industries and help them transform their business.

What are your tips for the application process?: Really understand the Amazon leadership principles as you’ll be asked about them at interview.

What knowledge and skills do you think are relevant for your role?: Curiosity to learn new things, and acting fast on new ideas. Basically embracing all Amazon leadership principles day to day.

Silvia (Amazon)

Name: Silvia

Role: Head of GenAI and ML for Financial Services - EMEA&APJ Global Accounts

Academic background: MBA @ London Business School

What do you do in your role?: I am responsible for shaping and implementing the GenAI and Artificial Intelligence strategies for the Financial Services industry. I play a crucial role in assisting customers understanding the nuances of these innovative technologies and their applications, as well as providing guidance on large-scale implementation.

What are the best things about the role?: Working closely with my customers and helping them solve problems and create innovative solutions.

What are your tips for the application process?: Prepare the interview well if you want to work for Amazon, it's a cultural fit mostly but there are lots of YouTube videos on the questions that are asked.

What knowledge and skills do you think are relevant for your role?: AI, Machine Learning, Cloud, and industry specific experience is beneficial

Katrin (Google)

Name: Katrin

Role: UK Head of Measurement & Effectiveness

Academic background: Master's at Warwick Business School

What do you do in your role?: I lead the measurement & effectiveness strategy for Google in the UK. Me and my team help advertisers prove the effectiveness of their media investment to help them drive long term growth for their business.

What are the best things about the role?: Working at the intersection between Google's product and sales teams, bringing new measurement solutions to customers and helping shape new innovations with our partners in the industry. Also, I get to work with so many talented and inspiring people on a daily basis.

What are your tips for the application process?: Do your research: about the company & role but most importantly what your unique strengths and experiences are that make you a great candidate for this role (important: have specific examples on hand to bring this to life.

What knowledge and skills do you think are relevant for your role?: Whilst I often hire people with a specialist skillset (in my case in the area of marketing effectiveness), I see some common skills needed to be successful when working in tech: strong communication & stakeholder management skills, adaptability and having a growth mindset!

Milo (Meta)

Name: Milo

Role: Product Manager

Academic background: Master's at Oxford University

What do you do in your role?: I lead the AI efforts in WhatsApp Integrity, which is the platform's commitment to maintaining the accuracy, reliability, and security of its services and user data. This includes features like end-to-end encryption, spam detection, and security alerts to protect users from harm and ensure the platform's functionality.

What are the best things about the role?: Making the world a better place, working on a fun intellectual challenge, working with smart motivated people and having impact at scale.

What are your tips for the application process?: Practise a lot. I answered 20 mock interview questions and videoed myself under timed conditions.

What knowledge and skills do you think are relevant for your role?: Product strategy, technical knowledge, alignment, verbal and written communication.

Roy (Uber)

Name: Roy

Role: Growth and Expansion Lead, Mobility, Uber UK

Academic background: MBA @ London Business School

What do you do in your role?: I lead the strategy behind expanding and growing Uber's Mobility business across the UK.

What are the best things about the role?: The role is super exciting as it blends so many different elements of the business such as strategy, operations, policy, regulations, marketing, and much more. There are multiple layers of complexity when it comes to launching new markets or growing existing markets which make this role challenging and exciting. This also means that I am leading a team and large set of stakeholders towards a shared view, and managing all of this comes with great learning opportunities.

What are your tips for the application process?: Roles at Uber can be quite competitive. Some top tips to help you through the process include: 1) make your application and CV as relevant as possible to the role you are applying to. This can make a big difference as recruiters screen hundreds of CVs, 2) speak to people in the business to understand what they do and where you think you fit best, and 3) Uber is a global business and the company encourages internal mobility across markets - if you can't find the exact role you want in the location you prefer, aim to get into another role or another location and then later on move teams (provided you are flexible).

What knowledge and skills do you think are relevant for your role?: The most common roles for business school students are in Operations, Strategy & Planning, and Product (more US based). The most important skills in my view are 1) problem solving and data analysis (and being comfortable with SQL), 2) strong business acumen, and 3) stakeholder management and communication (Uber is a highly collaborative business!).

Jorge (Uber)

Name: Roy

Role: Head of Inside Sales @ Uber Eats

Academic background: MBA @ IESE

What do you do in your role?: As Head of Inside Sales at Uber Eats Spain, my role focuses on two core pillars:

1. People management at scale – I lead a team of 45 Sales Representatives through a structured setup that includes 5 Team Leaders. My main focus is coaching and empowering those leaders to drive performance, ensure team development, and create scalable processes.
2. Sales strategy & execution – I define the commercial strategy for our segment and ensure it's translated into actionable plans that deliver impact across key business metrics.

What are the best things about the role?: The most rewarding part is having a tangible impact on the business’s topline through scalable sales execution. Equally fulfilling is the opportunity to manage a large, diverse team and contribute to people’s personal and professional growth.

What are your tips for the application process?:

1. Show a 360° understanding of the business and how your function contributes to growth.
2. Be ready to explain how you would deliver impact fast in your area.
3. Share concrete examples of how you’ve managed tough team situations and influenced outcomes through leadership.

What knowledge and skills do you think are relevant for your role?:

1. People Management – leading through others is key in high-scale teams.
2. Stakeholder Management – working cross-functionally with high-impact teams.
3. Sales Lifecycle Mastery – understanding acquisition, activation, and retention.
4. Strategic Thinking – prioritizing levers that drive long-term business value.

Ezinne (Amazon)

Name: Ezinne

Role: Senior Product Manager, Alexa AI

Academic background: MBA @ Judge Business School, University of Cambridge

What do you do in your role?: AI Product Management which involves Product Roadmapping, Product Strategy and Product Launch.

What are the best things about the role?: Being able to combine creativity, strategy and AI Technology to create products that directly impact the lives of millions of customers.

What are your tips for the application process?: The role is not about you, it’s about your customer. Get close to your customers and make decisions everyday that get your Product product closer to fulfilling their needs. You’ll be making decisions of varying impact every day. It’s important to develop a strong product sense to increase your chances of being right (a lot) in your decision-making.

What knowledge and skills do you think are relevant for your role?: Stakeholder management, prioritisation, strategy, technical knowledge of your product infrastructure, leadership, empathy, bias for action.

Alessandro (Amazon)

Name: Alessandro

Role: Business Development Associate, AWS

Academic background: BSc @ Warwick Business School

What do you do in your role?: As an Account Management Rep at AWS, I drive new business opportunities with a strong focus on AI and machine learning solutions in EMEA (specifically the German and Swiss SMB sectors). I own the full end-to-end sales journey, from initial prospecting through to opportunity qualification and handover, helping businesses understand how they can leverage AWS's cutting-edge AI services to transform their operations. Essentially, I work with CEOs and CTOs to help them leverage AI in the most effective way possible, tackling projects like implementing AI-driven personalization for a major airline's loyalty program to boost customer retention, and introducing IoT solutions to digitalize sports venues across Germany and Switzerland, enhancing fan experiences and operational efficiency. My role is crucial in identifying and nurturing opportunities that contribute to both immediate territory revenue goals and long-term AI adoption strategies.

What are the best things about the role?: The best thing about the role is the ownership you get to directly deal with clients yourself. You lead calls with CEOs, CTOs and other C-suite execs by yourself or with your account manager, while managing your own pipeline and determining your own success. Everything is in your hands to shape in a way that works for you. Amazon as a company is a very fast-paced environment, and in short, you feel alive - so very often, on a Sunday I can't wait to go into the office on Monday as I really just want to make the sale for an important client meeting.

What are your tips for the application process?: Understanding how to break the ice in any setting is crucial - it's what will get you into a company like Amazon and especially a sales role. Be yourself, be proactive in life, and most importantly, be prepared. Being outgoing in the interviews, making a joke (based off of active listening), and showing confidence is the first step, but being prepared is the final and most important one (don't underestimate this).

What knowledge and skills do you think are relevant for your role?:

1. Knowing how to break the ice in any setting you find yourself
2. Seeing failure, rejection, and not being on track to hitting your target as a reason to stay in the office until you find a solution to ensure you hit your target
3. Confidence
4. Persistence

Max (Amazon)

Name: Max

Role: Head of Trade Advisory @ Amazon

Academic background: MBA @ INSEAD

What do you do in your role?: I build, deploy and manage trade advisory services for Amazon Customs and Trade. International trade is full of moving parts, and always evolving: what was correct today may not be tomorrow. We work with companies of all sizes to make this process simpler, faster, and more reliable. How can you future-proof your international operations? How can you turn challenges into opportunities? Those are the things we work on every day.

What are the best things about the role?: By definition, this field will never be completely mature. My role is to build solutions to problems which may change at any point: it is about improving the way we solve for them, more than it is about finding our answer and calling it a day. In addition, international trade is at the intersection of many complex, compelling fields: operations of course, but also law, regulation, compliance, public policy and geopolitics. It is difficult not to find learn something interesting every day.

What are your tips for the application process?: There are two main ways to join a team like mine. The first is to become a customs broker – to build domain expertise, and move from there. The second is to build functional expertise: we have product managers, program managers, finance managers, data scientists… All of them have two things in common: they are great at their job, and they have a genuine interest for international trade. The ideal candidate will be able to demonstrate both. It's worth noting that I joined Amazon after my MBA, through the EU Launch program: while many of my peers went through an internship, it is entirely optional – and I personally skipped that step. I started as a Senior Vendor Manager in Softlines, which is an incredibly satisfying role, at the crossroads of business, product, and program. After a couple of years, I moved to this new position in international trade, by directly reaching out to a hiring team.

What knowledge and skills do you think are relevant for your role?: My role sits between business, product, public affairs and finance: in order to work with every function, I need to understand them all. The core skills: PnL management, product management, a fundamental understanding of geopolitical currents, and a willingness to make calculated bets. However it is just as important to recognize the things that I do not know, and to be willing to learn – that requires a degree of humility.

Nicole (Airbnb)

Name: Nicole

Role: Senior Manager, International Marketing

Academic background: MBA @ HEC Paris

What do you do in your role?: As Senior Manager of International Marketing at Airbnb, I help drive the brand’s category leadership across international markets.

In this role, I focus on aligning brand values and product truths with the diverse cultures of APAC, and ensuring scalable, effective connections with our communities through the right media mix.

What are the best things about the role?: I love the exposure to diverse cultures 🌍— it’s fascinating to see how universal values like connection & exploration take shape differently across societies, especially through the lens of travel and community.

I also appreciate the access to rich data that a tech company like Airbnb provides, enabling us to uncover insights that drive smarter, more impactful and meaningful marketing.

What are your tips for the application process?: The one thing that makes a difference: Take time to understand the company culture.

In tech—where teams are often diverse and remote—building a shared culture across different backgrounds is essential as it makes collaboration smoother and the work more enjoyable. 👉Showing that you’ve invested in understanding and embracing the culture during the application process really goes a long way.

What knowledge and skills do you think are relevant for your role?: First and foremost: learning as a skill. In tech, roles are often fluid and evolve as the business shifts—being able to learn fast and adapt is key to staying effective and adding value.

Other important skills include: Data comprehension, Project management, Storytelling and presentation, and Cross-cultural agility.

Trish (LinkedIn)

Name: Trish

Role: Customer Success Team Lead - Implementations

Academic background: Master's @ Dublin City University

What do you do in your role?: Lead a team of senior implementation consultants

What are the best things about the role?: Providing value to fortune 500 companies who are going through large scale change and providing time saving solutions for them.

What are your tips for the application process?: Connect the job description to your skill set and experience. Leverage the power of your soft skills for any role. Soft skills are the future!

What knowledge and skills do you think are relevant for your role?: Project and program management skills, communication, ability to absorb complex problems and simplify and explain to others. Coordinate meetings and lead meetings across multiple internal and external stakeholders.

Angela (Microsoft)

Name: Angela

Role: Security Specialist at Microsoft

Academic background: MBA @ Judge Business School, Cambridge

What do you do in your role?: Helping customers secure their IT environment and acting as a regional trusted security advisor

What are the best things about the role?: Working with amazing clients and the team. And of course, winning deals!

What are your tips for the application process?: 1. Know your own strengths and what you want to achieve in this role 2. Network to get more insights on how you can contribute 3. Practice

What knowledge and skills do you think are relevant for your role?: Enterprise selling experience, security solutions knowledge

Kai (TikTok)

Name: Kai

Role: Global Product Marketing Manager @ TikTok

Academic background: MBA @ Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University

What do you do in your role?: Manage product Go-to-market strategy and activation, formulate inbound research to navigate product development.

What are the best things about the role?: This role gives me the opportunity to understand market needs and transform them into impactful solutions. It allows me to build products from the ground up, taking a business strategy and turning it into a profitable, market-ready offering.

What are your tips for the application process?: Strong business acumen is crucial for success, but truly listening to your customers' needs is far more valuable than relying solely on your own ideas. Equally important is staying open-minded and adaptable to emerging technologies. See yourself as an influencer among your stakeholders, capable of turning business insights into actionable strategies that drive meaningful results.

What knowledge and skills do you think are relevant for your role?: Go-to-market Strategy, Inbound Research, Project Management, Stakeholder Management

Sharif (Apple)

Name: Sharif

Role: Regional Planner, Apple

Academic background: MiM @ INSEAD

What do you do in your role?: Supply Demand Planning.

What are the best things about the role?: Analytical and fast paced environment due to supply chain constraints and changes.

What are your tips for the application process?: Be confident in how you share your thought process to solving a problem or case you’re discussing.

What knowledge and skills do you think are relevant for your role?: Be comfortable with numbers, eager to learn as each situation is different, and ability to gather information from team.

James (Deliveroo)

Name: James

Role: Senior Commercial Manager, Deliveroo Editions

Academic background: MBA @ Judge Business School, Cambridge University

What do you do in your role?: I work specifically within the Deliveroo Editions team— which looks after our network of delivery-only kitchens that help restaurant brands expand into new areas. My role is a mix of strategic account management, business development, and commercial growth, where I work closely with some of Deliveroo’s most well-known restaurant partners to help them scale successfully. This involves developing data-driven strategies to increase sales, optimise marketing efforts, and expand restaurant brands. I also work on identifying high-potential restaurant partners and managing the end-to-end sales process to bring them into the Editions network.

What are the best things about the role?: Having a tangible impact—helping restaurant brands launch in new markets and watching them thrive. It’s also an incredibly fast-paced and dynamic environment, where no two days are the same. Whether it’s working on expansion strategies, negotiating partnerships, or solving operational challenges. On top of that, the exposure to different aspects of the business—from sales and marketing to analytics and operations—makes it a great place to learn and grow.

What are your tips for the application process?: Understanding the company’s business model and broader industry trends will give you an edge. Deliveroo operates in a fast-moving, competitive space, so showcasing analytical skills, strategic thinking, and stakeholder management is key to navigating complex challenges and driving impact. Be proactive—engage with employees, ask insightful questions, and be sure to tailor your application to highlight relevant experience.

What knowledge and skills do you think are relevant for your role?: The role sits at the intersection of strategy, sales, and operations in a dynamic industry. Having a strong blend of commercial acumen, data analytics, stakeholder management, and business development is invaluable. Being able to interpret performance data and turn it into actionable strategies is invaluable. Relationship management and negotiation skills are also essential.

Brian (Meta)

Name: Brian

Role: Global Gaming Business Lead at Meta

Academic background: MBA @ IESE

What do you do in your role?: Supporting the VP of Global Gaming in a Chief of Staff role - covering strategic project, business operations, comms and everything and anything else where someone was needed to pitch in!

What are the best things about the role?: Having a front row seat to learn\ What are your tips for the application process?: Focus on your strengths. You won’t meet every one of the requirements on the job spec but think hard about the areas you do excel and provide specific examples of the impact you’ve made

What knowledge and skills do you think are relevant for your role?: Relationship building, proactivity, ability to learn quickly and engage confidently on a broad range of topics

Leslie (YouTube)

Name: Leslie

Role: Head of Partner Engineering Program Management at YouTube

Academic background: Master’s @ Grenoble Ecole de Management

What do you do in your role?: Manage a team of 20 program managers that supports a ~280 people Media & Platform Partner Engineering & Operations team

What are the best things about the role?: We get to work on ensuring YouTube is Ops ready for high-profile launches (shorts, dream track, YouTube TV, etc). We also had to shape what the future of operations should be in the next few years by identifying areas of opportunities (low maturity, high risk, foundational investment etc).

What are your tips for the application process?: Referrals are still the best path so have your contact email the hiring manager as it happens quite often that HR doesn't properly route them. The hiring manager can talk to the recruiter to ensure the referral is added to their pipeline YouTube is hiring more junior overall (L3/L4), locations are restricted to offices that are approved YouTube hubs (no flexibility on location or remote), don't apply if the location doesn't work for you. Only apply if you meet 100% of both required and preferred skills. Its a highly competitive market, nearly all pipelines have 10+ candidates in the pool who meet/exceed all job requirements. Best to spend more time selecting the right opportunity, applying to everything won't pay off.

What knowledge and skills do you think are relevant for your role?: Green flags: adaptable, thrive in fast-paced environment, double if not triple specialization (vs generalist), data skills, AI literacy, growth mindset, accountability, resourcefulness, fast learning / red flags: entitlement, cruising or coasting mindset, victim mentality, fixed mindset

Eoin (Google)

Name: Eoin

Role: Head of EMEA & LATAM Sales at Google

Academic background: MBA @ UCD

What do you do in your role?: Leading 60 person EMEA & LATAM sales team across Dublin & Helsinki offices - full sales cycle SDR, Inbound, Outbound & Existing Customer AEs

What are the best things about the role?: We help our customers to turn their marketing data into a superpower, helping them to make better decisions and grow their business. There's never been a better time to work in this space - the multitude of channels (online and offline) means effectively measuring, analysing and planning your marketing efforts has become extremely complex. I get to work with funny, smart and driven people on a daily basis - what's not to love!

What are your tips for the application process?: Big Tech is a space where opportunities are endless, and, where landscapes and market dynamics change and evolve constantly. When scouting for new talent, 'Hungry' and 'Humble' are my guiding principles. Hungry - I look for examples of times where you've been successful in the past and times where you've worked effectively as part of a group. I want to understand your motivation for the role and what sets you apart. Show me how you are going to drive impact. Humble - The best hires are those who have a keen sense of self-awareness and understand the importance of constantly learning, adapting and growing. Honesty is truly a virtue and will set you apart, be honest about your strengths but also your areas for improvement.

What knowledge and skills do you think are relevant for your role?: I've spent years selling digital marketing / SaaS MarTech solutions to brands and digital marketing agencies where buyer personas were mostly marketing and data / analytics teams. This industry experience has been a real plus. Outside of this, experience in managing different international teams and understanding the diverse cultural and regulatory landscapes has been crucial. Finally and most importantly, remembering that people are people and deserve to be treated with kindness and respect. Hire the best talent and look after your team, without them you have nothing.

Mahima (Mastercard)

Name: Mahima

Role: Product Manager, Mastercard

I'm currently part of an MBA rotation program that lets me take up three different roles across the company within a span of 1.5 years, including an international role. It’s a unique chance to gain diverse experience, work with different teams, and understand the business from multiple angles.

Academic background: MBA @ London Business School

What do you do in your role?: I work on Mastercard Send, a global payments solution that enables near real-time money transfers across multiple endpoints, including bank accounts, digital wallets, cards, and cash-out locations. We collaborate with a range of customers, from issuers and acquirers to fin-techs like Revolut as well as digital platforms like Uber. As a Product Manager, I’m involved in every stage of the product lifecycle - shaping the vision, validating hypotheses, testing the product, and driving go-to-market strategy. Right now, I’m working on a P2P payments project aimed at making peer to peer transactions as seamless as tap-to-pay at merchant outlets. This means developing a strong business case, working closely with customers to understand implementation needs, coordinating with internal teams on technical feasibility, partnering with regional teams to navigate market-specific nuances, and structuring the right pricing strategy. The role is a balance of strategy and execution - ensuring we build solutions that align with customer needs while advancing the goals of Mastercard.

What are the best things about the role?: The impact. The changes we make aren’t just minor improvements - they shape how millions of transactions move across the world. I felt something similar at Uber, where even small tweaks had a direct effect on drivers and riders in different markets. There’s something incredibly fulfilling about that kind of impact. Then there’s the variety. One moment, I’m thinking about long-term strategy, the next, I’m deep in market research, figuring out customer pain points. Some days, I’m refining how we position the product and on other days, I’m working with different teams to solve operational challenges. The constant switching between big-picture thinking and execution keeps things interesting. But what really makes this role stand out is the people. Mastercard is one of those places where collaboration isn’t just a buzzword - everything and everyone is interconnected. Since I joined, I’ve met so many colleagues who’ve been incredibly generous with their time and insights - making it easy to learn, collaborate, and drive meaningful change together.

What are your tips for the application process?: If you’re applying, make sure you develop a real interest in the company and the role. Go beyond the surface level - understand Mastercard’s place in the payments ecosystem and how different business units contribute to its strategy. That deeper knowledge makes a difference in interviews, helping you ask smarter questions and show that you’ve done your homework. And honestly, this applies to any company, not just Mastercard. Talk to people who work here. Most people (myself included) are happy to speak with the candidates and provide insights into the company/role that you won’t find in a job description. And don’t forget your alumni network - it was a game-changer for me during my own recruitment process. Use it.

What knowledge and skills do you think are relevant for your role?: In my current role, I'm constantly talking to multiple teams across different levels, and the key is being able to distill complex information into something that's easy for the audience to understand. Every team has its own priorities, so managing those expectations also comes with the job. Like most PMs, I'm juggling multiple projects simultaneously. Being able to organize and prioritize work is absolutely essential. If you can't keep track of everything and ensure nothing falls through the cracks, you're going to struggle. In my previous roles at Uber, data was a critical part of the Product Manager's toolkit. Understanding how to collect, analyze, and draw insights from data was fundamental to making informed decisions. While I'm not as data-focused in my current role at Mastercard, that skill is still valuable. When it comes to technical skills, they're definitely role-specific. Right now, I need a deep understanding of payment infrastructure and how transactions flow amongst different customers. But that's going to change depending on the project and the company. What remains constant is the ability to connect the dots and see how our product fits into the bigger picture.

Allison (Apple)

Name: Allison

Role: Communications Lead, Apple

Academic background: MBA @ Said Business School, Oxford University

What do you do in your role?: I manage communications strategy for Apple Education. This role is really about making sure the Education Sales organization is effectively communicating their priorities both internally and externally. This role involves some creative design work for enablement resources, as well as overarching strategy and thinking through comms cadence and feedback loops.

What are the best things about the role?: What I love about this role, is the opportunity to balance both big picture longer term initiatives, and also work on individual deliverable design layouts. Both matter. I love thinking through how someone is going to interpret information, and how to get a message across as succinctly as possible. Sometimes the way we understand things at a glance is very subconscious, so it's an interesting area to be in.

What are your tips for the application process?: Talk to people. Learn about different roles and how they overlap within an organization, reach out for informational interviews, build your network. My second tip would be to use a standard resume format. I used to think that in a creative field I should try to jazz mine up or be unique, but over time I've found that the most successful resumes are super simple, just keep to the basics.

What knowledge and skills do you think are relevant for your role?: I come from a marketing and communications background, so I'm always thinking about how to tell the story. And the best way to tell the story is to really understand the product and how people use it. Understanding customer sentiments and roadblocks is so useful across many functional roles in any company. Another skill I'd mention is being aware of how to measure impact regardless of what you're working on. It's great to try new ideas or approaches, but always keep in mind how you will know if they are successful in order to keep iterating.

Maysam (Scale AI)

Name: Maysam

Role: GenAI Operations Lead, Scale AI

Academic background: MBA @ University of Hamburg

What do you do in your role?:

• Design & iterate agentic task suites - I scope real-world, multi-step browser tasks (e.g., researching flight options, filling webforms) that push LLM agents to reason, plan, and act.
• Own data quality at scale - I define labeling rubrics, review sampling strategies, and run spot-audits so we hit both statistical coverage and edge-case depth.
• Orchestrate human-plus-AI workflows - using Scale’s orchestration layer, I blend scripted agents with expert human validators, optimize the hand-off logic, and monitor latency vs. quality trade-offs.
• Analytics & experiment cadence - I track coverage, pass@k, and reward-model alignment in SQL-driven dashboards; weekly I propose experiment tweaks based on those numbers.
• Stakeholder communication - I translate ops metrics into product-level insights for research leads and external model partners, driving roadmap decisions.

What are the best things about the role?:

• Front-row seat to cutting-edge models – you test brand-new agentic releases weeks before the papers drop.
• High leverage on model trajectory – a single clever rubric change can produce data that shifts model behavior for millions of users.
• Fast feedback loops – Daily eval dashboards let you see the impact of an ops tweak almost in real time.
• Cross-functional breadth – you collaborate with research scientists, infra engineers, product managers, and annotator communities—all in one sprint cycle.
• Continuous skill-building – because the field is evolving, you’re always learning: new browser-automation APIs, alignment methods, or synthetic-data tricks.

What are your tips for the application process?:

• Show systems thinking - bring a story where you built or refactored a data pipeline (doesn’t have to be in AI) and quantify the win (latency ↓ 30 %, quality ↑ 15 %).
• Demonstrate analytical grit - expect a take-home case that asks you to slice a messy dataset with SQL and reason about failure modes; write crisp assumptions and sanity checks.
• Highlight cross-team influence - prepare an example where you aligned engineers and non-technical stakeholders around a metric or process change.
• Speak to frontier-model curiosity: Read recent work on tool-use agents (e.g. WebArena, ReWOO).
• Come ready to critique a paper figure and suggest an ops experiment.
• Be JSON-literate: In live screenshares you may need to read or edit nested JSON from an LLM telemetry log—practice thinking aloud while you do it.

What knowledge and skills do you think are relevant for your role?:

• Data & Automation SQL for slicing eval logs
• Python & TypeScript for writing browser automations and quality-control scripts
• JSON schema fluency for agent action traces.
• ML / RLHF Basics Prompt & policy optimization, reward modeling, offline evaluation metrics (pass@k, cumulative regret).
• Web & Tool Use DOM inspection, XPath/CSS selectors, network throttling—so you can craft trajectories that are both realistic and reproducible.
• Experiment Design A/B testing, power analysis, error-budgeting, so you iterate with statistical confidence.
• Project & People Ops: Sprint planning, async documentation, annotator onboarding, conflict resolution.
• Security & Compliance PII redaction, differential privacy considerations, because browser tasks often touch sensitive data.

Prithvi (N26)

Name: Prithvi

Role: Head of Product @ N26

Academic background: MBA @ ESMT

What do you do in your role?: Leading a cross-functional team of PMs, UX, user researchers and engineers among others to generate business value, aligned with the company's goals and strategy - ultimately tracked by the concerned KPIs that I own. So in short, I am accountable for some KPIs.

What are the best things about the role?: To me the best things are: being comfortable with ambiguity - breaking down a complex problem, carefully dissecting different aspects of it with the available data and exploring solutions to ultimately experiment and try them out (and hopefully be right more often than not!). This entire process has always been exciting. That aside the spirit of raw ownership and leading cross-functional teams towards a wider product vision is something I greatly cherish.

What are your tips for the application process?:

1. Read the job description carefully, try to understand the role and what the hiring manager is looking for
2. Tailor your CV and highlight relevant skillset, problems managed and experiences better
3. Focus on fundamental product principles - they are always most important to showcase during the interview process
4. Prepare examples from your past experience that demonstrate core product management stuff such as ownership, KPI impact, etc. For entry level product roles, focus on first principles and how you demonstrated them in your previous roles
5. If applicable, prepare past examples relevant to the role
6. Last but not the least, be very 'you' during the interview - that works best for interviews, otherwise in all likelihood the interviewer could call your bluff

What knowledge and skills do you think are relevant for your role?: Well, generally speaking in product management the most fundamental skills include - ability to understand and explain a problem, breakdown complex problems, be very structured in your approach, build hypothesis and corresponding solution options, data is your best friend - so data analysis is key, ability to experiment, fail, learn and iterate until you're close enough to your target state and in the whole process - be comfortable with ambiguity! For product leadership roles, it is important to understand the company vision and build a product strategy to bring that to reality, and, build and inspire your teams and excite them about pursuing that strategy to achieve the goals.

To get more tips, you can also view our interviews with Thomas Ropel (on getting into Google) and Padraic McMahon (on getting into Google and Hubspot).

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