Her tenacity landed her a role at Grab

A career switch is one of the toughest things to do as a working professional. It often requires leaving a bulk of what you’ve learned behind and picking up a whole new set of skills to be an attractive hire.

Nirusha Shetty – now a lead product manager at Grab – made three career switches before landing a role at the Singapore-headquartered tech giant.

On this episode of How to Get a Job at a Unicorn, she talks about her journey working in companies like Bosch and Boston Consulting Group, and shares tips for anyone looking to switch careers and work for a billion-dollar company.

Timecodes:

00:00 – Switching careers is tough
01:40 – How to switch careers and get a job in a unicorn
02:26 – Nirusha Shetty’s fascination with technology
03:46 – Scoring a job at Bosch
05:35 – Ambitions in product management leading her back to school
08:20 – Joining the consulting world with Boston Consulting Group
10:00 – A desire to work at Grab
11:27 – Attaining the product manager role
13:11 – What it’s like to interview for a job at Grab
15:30 – Plans for the next five years

Host:

• Peter Bithos, CEO of Seek Asia, the parent company of JobStreet and JobsDB in Southeast Asia

Featured Interviewee:

• Nirusha Shetty, lead product manager, Grab

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JobStreet by Seek Asia is Southeast Asia’s leading online jobs portal. Visit JobStreet now to find your dream job.

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Episode Transcript:

Peter Bithos (VO):
You know, one of the toughest things to do as a professional is deciding to do a career switch.

For one, you’re basically deciding to leave a bulk of what you’ve learned and become proficient in totally behind you in pursuit of a completely different path. On top of that, you have to learn a whole new set of skills to be even considered a potential hire in your new desired field.

And that’s what makes Nirusha Shetty so impressive. Today, she’s a lead product manager at what I think is Southeast Asia’s sexiest company – save mine, of course – Singapore-headquartered super app Grab.

Nirusha Shetty:
I’m currently a product manager at Grab where I build features like insights for our merchants where they can view their business performance, where we recommend them on how to improve their business. I’m also working on marketing products for our merchants to join campaigns on Grab, both on-app and on our website.

Peter Bithos:
Ah, so when I open up the Grab app and I see, like, promotions from partners, that would be a platform you worked on, right?

Nirusha Shetty:
Yeah, most probably, yeah. Some of it, yes. I think Grab is huge, but I play a small but pivotal role in all the promos you see on the GrabFood app, yes.

Peter Bithos (VO):
But how she got to where she is now is quite interesting. Prior to this, she’d been a software engineer, had a stint as a consultant, and worked in a product and strategy role.

Correct me if my math’s off, but I count three career switches. Here’s how she did it.

From JobStreet and Tech in Asia, this is How to Get a Job at a Unicorn, a podcast where I talk to employees at Asia’s top tech companies to find out exactly how they landed their gigs.

I’m Peter Bithos, CEO of Seek Asia, parent company of JobStreet, and in this episode, I’m going to tell you the story of how Nirusha switched careers – not one, not two, but three times – and ended up working for one of Southeast Asia’s hottest tech startup.

Back in 2013, Nirusha graduated from university in India with a computer science degree. And sure, every parent wants their kid to take up computer science, but this was something that Nirusha desired on her own.

Nirusha Shetty:
By the time I was growing up in India, computers were a part of some households – at least my household – so I was very exposed to computers and technology and programming at an early time, and that was my goal.

Even before my university exams, I intently worked very hard to get a computer science course in the university. I used to participate in a lot of competitions. At that point, I was pretty confident that I am going to be a software engineer and that is what I’ll be for the whole of my life.

I enjoyed the fact that, just by writing a few lines of code, I could change the way someone worked at their company or I could change the way the cars would operate. So I like the fact that computer science, as abstract as it sounds, its impact is very practical.

Peter Bithos (VO):
And that excitement, enjoyment, and curiosity for how things worked translated into pure proficiency. Right after graduation, Nirusha got to work for Bosch, a leading German engineering and tech company.

But what you need to know to understand how much of an accomplishment that was exactly is that, for fresh graduates in India, you don’t get to choose to work for Bosch – Bosch chooses you.

Nirusha Shetty:
So Indian universities operate very differently from international universities. So the companies come to college to hire students versus the other way around. So Bosch is a day-zero company, like, the companies that come on day zero or the first day of the placement program. So Bosch was a sought-after company because there were very few R&D international firms in India. I think around 1,000 students had applied for the role, but I only, I think, 10 people got the offer eventually.

Peter Bithos (VO):
If you’re doing the math at home, yes, you’re correct: that makes Nirusha among the top percent of her graduating class – she is a high-flier.

Anyway, Nirusha began working for Bosch as a software engineer, achieving the goal she’d set out to achieve since she was a kid.

In her first two years, she worked on automotive projects. But then, opportunity came a-knocking.

Nirusha Shetty:
So I used to talk to people – pre-Covid days, when you would get all these tidbits – and the team was starting a healthcare vertical, a global healthcare vertical, and it was being ideated in India. So they were looking for people to help with the pilot for a short period of time. I was primarily a software engineer, but I felt that, OK, maybe I can just do this for fun, just for good exposure, and it also might help me in my career in the future.

Peter Bithos (VO):
So Nirusha joined this healthcare team, supporting them as they built an IoT product, getting involved in product ideation, solutioning, proposing it to the sales team, and, of course, software development. Within three months, the team managed to build a working prototype, and that experience had sparked something deep in Nirusha.

Nirusha Shetty:
I was extremely impressed with the amount of challenges we went through and how we reached it. And I was working with this guy who was, primarily, a product manager. While I was supporting him, I felt like this is something I want to do more.

I enjoyed code, definitely. In fact, three years back, that was all I knew. But when I started doing this, I felt that a lot of my strengths came into play very well here, like, say, getting things done, execution, talking to multiple stakeholders – these were the skill set that came into play – and that was when I was, like, OK, I want to really try this role.

Peter Bithos (VO):
But Nirusha realized that she couldn’t just jump into product management. After all, like she said, software engineering was all she knew. She needed to learn all the other aspects of what makes a product – finance, economics, marketing, and so forth – and she wanted to broaden her perspectives beyond what she’d learned in India. So she decided to go back to school.

Nirusha Shetty:
Because I was primarily a science and math student throughout my life, I felt that I needed more formal education in other aspects of running a business. So I eventually went on to do my master’s in business administration.

Peter Bithos (VO):
Before we go on, as a senior business executive who never got an MBA myself, look, here’s how I feel. MBAs are great if you’re young and have only ever been in something radically different from business because the opportunity cost at that point – all things considered – isn’t that big and you could benefit from the more structured environment that MBAs provide. That said, these days, there are so many avenues by which you can gain the experience that you’d learn in the classroom, that there are many paths. But for Nirusha, an MBA just made perfect sense.

Nirusha Shetty:
I was, what, 22, 23 then? So I felt that going to university and… I was OK to spend a certain amount of money on that – and time. So for me, I think MBA made a better sense. However, if you’re at a stage in your career, which is six years, seven years down the line, you’re not comfortable spending a lot of money, I definitely don’t think MBA is the end goal.

There could be multiple ways, you could do an executive MBA, you could do rotation in your company, if that exists, you could join a startup and then move up to business. So say someone like me, if I wanted to learn finance, there are a lot of websites that cover it.

Peter Bithos (VO):
So yeah, don’t get disheartened that the first step in Nirusha’s plan to do a career switch was to get an MBA – you can find your own way. I did.

Anyway, Nirusha went through her MBA, did a short internship at Apple in 2017 – as you do, by the way – and graduated in the following year. But instead of going straight into becoming a product manager, Nirusha got herself a job in consulting.

Nirusha Shetty:
So after my MBA, I started with a consulting job at Boston Consulting Group in Germany. So –

Peter Bithos:
Germany? You went to Germany?

Nirusha Shetty:
Yes, again. So I think Germany keeps coming back into my life. I work for Bosch –

Peter Bithos:
Do you speak German?

Nirusha Shetty:
I had even proficiency. I tried building upon it, but yeah. It’s a tough language to learn, but an amazing language.

Peter Bithos (VO):
And despite having to face a language barrier, Nirusha enjoyed her stint at BCG.

Nirusha Shetty:
I loved working at BCG. I think I was surrounded by some of the smartest people in Germany at work, post-MBA… and especially, as in, like… you saw my journey, right? I was an engineer, then I did my MBA. The best launchpad post-MBA, there couldn’t have been any than BCG, I would say.

I think that one year is probably the most pivotal year in my 20s, mainly because… in fact, when I landed in Munich, I just landed with two bags and me. I didn’t know a single person in Munich, Germany. I started my career as the only Southeast… only two South Asian women in BCG. So there were a lot of newness. So what I really learned, first of all, is if I make up my mind to do something and to make a mark for myself, I can do it.

Peter Bithos (VO):
But BCG turned out just to be a pitstop in Nirusha’s journey to becoming a product manager. Where she really wanted to work was Grab.

Nirusha Shetty:
So I lived in Singapore from 2016 to 2018. So during that time, I was using Grab’s services, and I was extremely intrigued. I was, like, what is this startup in Singapore, building these great transport products, making me feel safe as a student? In fact, what is this startup, miles away, doing this amazing work? I was always intrigued by Grab. I, in fact, tried for some roles in 2017, but nothing really worked out.

So when I decided to leave Germany for good, Singapore was my first option, and Grab definitely ended up being another first option of mine. So I actually just applied for Grab through a jobs board.

Peter Bithos:
Is it JobStreet? I have to ask.

Nirusha Shetty:
Yeah, I think so.

Peter Bithos:
Wow, that’s great! That’s a great story.

Peter Bithos (VO):
Forgive me there for being so excited, but who, really, doesn’t love a good success story? Especially one that starts with failure and ends with success!

Anyway, back to Nirusha, when she joined Grab, she took up a role leading product and strategy initiatives. But still, the itch to become a full-time product manager kept hitting her.

Nirusha Shetty:
So when I moved from BCG to Grab, I joined a product and strategy role. I was there for a year. During that period, I worked with product managers to build strategy envisioned for GrabFood products. I was also part of building some ML and automation tools. Around that period, I felt that this is a time to use my engineering skills as well as my business skills to better use and, from a more long-term point of view, I decided I wanted to go to product. That’s when I tried to explore the internal mobility program at Grab.

So internal mobility program allows you to shift between roles. There are also other programs where you can do smaller rotations in a particular role and then decide to move to that role. In my case, because I was doing a similar job, I went through an interview process with my new team and then moved on to this new role.

Peter Bithos (VO):
It’s at this point I just have to say I love that about Nirusha. Throughout her career, the consistent theme that kept jumping out at me was that if she wanted something, she went for it with zero hesitation whatsoever.

And I also gotta give props to Grab’s leadership – they had an amazing talent in Nirusha, and they saw that and enabled her to do her best by giving her access to multiple opportunities. If that’s not the mark of a great company, I don’t know what is.

But we’re not done yet. I’m sure many of you are wondering about Grab’s interview process and what the company – which, by the way, is always hiring, it seems – looks for in a candidate. Luckily for you, Nirusha walked us through just that.

Peter Bithos:
You’ve hired people at Grab, right? And then you got hired at Grab. What is interviewing for Grab like?

Nirusha Shetty:
When we interview people at Grab, the questions are very case study-focused, at least the interviews I took or the interviews I gave.

Let me give you an example. A case study could be something like, “The number of users coming to GrabFood app in Singapore is decreasing, how would you improve it?” So that would be one of the questions. There would be a bit more detail, but this is the genesis of case study. Or the other question could be, “The drivers are canceling a lot more on Sunday of a particular week. Why do you think it’s happening? How would you fix it?” So it is a problem we solve on a day-to-day basis at Grab, and a similar type of questions are being raised to interviewees just so that… to understand their problem-solving skill sets.

Peter Bithos:
And aside from the logical thinking and problem solving, thinking about when you built your own team at Grab, what else do you look for in people when you hire people into Grab?

Nirusha Shetty:
So Grab has these four principles called honor, hunger, humility, and heart. So these four principles drive a lot of decisions in the company and, when I’m interviewing someone, I would look for someone who has strong mix of EQ and IQ, emotional quotient and intelligence quotient.

You could be the most smartest person in the room, but I want you to be also the nicest person to all your stakeholders because only way Grab can grow so fast and get things done is because people collaborate together to solve a single problem. And that’s only possible because there’s a lot of positivity, there’s a lot of teamwork, and great stakeholder management among people.

So when I look for any candidate, other than the intelligence stuff, I look for a lot about emotional intelligence of the person – how they deal with stakeholders, how they are under stress, how they are under pressure. So I think these are very important and, in fact, more important since we went to remote working post-Covid, right?

Peter Bithos:
So we’re coming to a close to the end of our conversation. Just a couple of last questions. So amazing journey so far, if we were having our podcast conversation five years from now, Nirusha, what do you… what will Nirusha five years from now be doing?

Nirusha Shetty:
I wish I had this answer. I’m a strong proponent of plan is nothing, planning is everything. So I see myself… I want to work towards being in a place where I’m still solving problems that makes an impact not just for me in my career point of view or my company but also people who use that product. I want to see myself as someone who is a problem identifier. I think I was in phase of my career where someone told me to solve a problem, I went all out to solve the problem. I think I established myself as a problem solver. However, where I see myself five years from now is someone who identifies problems even before people knew the problem existed. So that’s the direction I see myself in.

Peter Bithos (VO):
Like I said earlier, what really stood out to me about Nirusha is her tenacity. Sure, she’s smart, graduated in the tenth percentile of her class, and has an outstanding resume, but what really got her to where she is today is her ability to go all in on what she wants and snatch those opportunities that come her way. So I’m really excited for what the future’s got in store for her and I hope you learned a thing or two from listening to her story.

Anyway, that’s all the time we have for today. Thank you so much for listening. How to Get a Job at a Unicorn is a podcast by Tech in Asia, produced in partnership with us over here at JobStreet. If you’re looking for a job, find us at jobstreet.com or jobsdb.com, depending on where your geography is and, hopefully, we can help you grab the job you want.

Special thanks, of course, to Nirusha Shetty for telling us all about her amazing career journey. If you wanna reach her, we’ll include some links to her LinkedIn profile in the show notes down below. Special thanks to Nat Fetalvero, our podcast producer today.

And while I have you, give us a follow and rate us five stars on whatever app you’re listening on. Also, check out our other episodes – we’ve got people from GoTo Group and Lalamove talking about how they landed their gigs and sharing some tips for anyone who wants to join them.

But that’s it for this episode. My name’s Peter Bithos. Thank you for joining, hope you join us again soon.