The Chip design industry is the backbone of new technologies that will fuel our future !
Shivangi Agrawal, our next pathbreaker, Technical Product Manager at Arm (Austin, Texas), works on envisioning the needs of chip designers in the server and datacenter space.
Shivangi talks to Shyam Krishnamurthy from The Interview Portal about the opportunity to work on the strategy of the company, by being a part of driving the vision and future product roadmaps that will accelerate tech growth.
For students, with India poised to enter the semiconductor industry, now is the right time to be a part of this disruptive sector !
Shivangi, Your background?
I was born and raised in Vadodara, Gujarat. Since early childhood, I was naturally excellent at anything Math, logic, and creativity. Hence, I decided to pursue a career in Engineering. I studied Electronics and Computer Engineering. My dad is a professor of Accounting and Business Administration, a CA and worked on his family business as well. My mom had completed her Masters in History.
What did you do for graduation/post graduation?
I did my BTech in ECE from NIT Surathkal and recently graduated with my MBA in the US.
What were some of the influences that led you to such an offbeat, unconventional and uncommon career?
Mainly my parents, and some mentors I met while I worked in India for 7 years as a chip design and verification engineer
My approach was to just talk to a lot of people that I met at work, even those I never directly worked with. I also connected with people on LinkedIn and took inspiration from their professional journey
Tell us about your career path
I started my career just like any other Indian student - wrote a bunch of competitive exams and got into a good engineering college. I landed an internship in the summer after 3 rd year of my BTech with Qualcomm Bangalore as a chip design engineer. I returned to join them full time after my BTech and took that up as my career path. I switched some companies around in Bangalore but worked in the same role. After Qualcomm, I worked at Samsung Semiconductors on camera sensor designs, at Arm Ltd on CPU designs and at Intel on Type C module.
After a few years, I realized that growth in India was slow, there were a lot many opportunities in the US and moving to management/business side leads to a lot of opportunities in the future. Hence, I pursued my MBA from the University of Notre Dame in the US. During that time, I worked with some startups on campus as Technical Market Analyst where I would do a detailed market research, understand the technology and advise on its commercialization scope. I also worked as a Product Manager Intern with Micron technology and very recently started full time as a Technical Product Manager at Arm working on their Neoverse line of products.
I never had any personal contacts or a lot of support from home. But I made sure that wherever I went, and whoever I met, I built effective relationships with people. It was the guidance and support from all these people that helped me reach where I am today.
I did receive good scholarships in my undergrad and MBA that helped me finance my education.
How did you get your first break?
In India, I got my first job through campus placements.
In the US, it was just applying through LinkedIn and reaching out to people via cold emails.
I would send cold messages on LinkedIn to a lot of people. I would say around 1% of those responded but that was my only way of moving ahead in my career in the absence of any personal connections that generally help you with information, and even landing a job.
What were some of the challenges you faced? How did you address them?
Challenge 1: I faced a lot of stereotypes wrt what women can and should do and not do
Where do you work now? What problems do you solve?
I work as a Technical Product Manager at a chip IP design giant, Arm. I work on understanding what the needs of the chip designers look like in the server and data center space and what would their needs be 5-10 years down the line, and then build the strategy and execution plan for our products
What skills are required for your role? How did you acquire the skills?
Technical - my undergrad degree in ECE and 7 years experience working as an engineer in the HiTech/Chips industry.
Management/Business - MBA degree
What is it you love about this job?
I love that I get to work on the strategy of the company, driving the vision and future product roadmaps. I get to interact with many in the senior management level and look at the "why" behind building the product.
How does your work benefit society?
I work in designing and managing chips that fuel any technology that one can name.
Tell us an example of a specific memorable work you did that is very close to you!
In one of my MBA internships, I worked on a very critical time-sensitive project for the company which laid the foundation of a completely new methodology. Though I worked remotely and along with my MBA, I did a fabulous job which saved the company a huge amount.
Your advice to students based on your experience?
Even if you do not have any personal connections in the field that you want to be in, do not stop. Just reach out to people. You will be surprised to see help come from the most unexpected directions.
Build effective relationships with every person that crosses your path. I do not hesitate to have a good conversation with some professional sitting next to me on the plane, learning about him/her and connecting with him/her on LinkedIn
Future Plans?
Take up and lead more senior positions in the business world !
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