Career Path of a Senior Technical Program Manager at Microsoft
Kartik's career journey began with entrepreneurial ventures in high school and college, progressing through diverse roles in geotechnical engineering, including "field work...construction observation, and report writing," culminating in project management at AECOM. This experience, coupled with an MBA and software product management, ultimately led to their current position as a Senior Technical Program Manager at Microsoft, managing multimillion-dollar data center projects and global telemetry deployments.
Project Management, Career Development, Technology, Leadership, Overcoming Challenges
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Kartik Atyam
Senior Technical Program Manager
Microsoft
UCLA
UC Berkeley
Engineering - Civil
Architecture, Construction & Design, Technology
Real Estate
Scholarship Recipient, Took Out Loans, Worked 20+ Hours in School, First Generation College Student
Video Highlights
1. Kartik's entrepreneurial spirit, starting a tutoring company in high school, showcases initiative and business acumen.
2. His diverse work experiences, ranging from geotechnical engineering to software product management, demonstrate adaptability and a willingness to learn new skills.
3. His career progression highlights the value of continuous learning and pursuing roles with increasing responsibility, culminating in his current position as a Senior Technical Program Manager at Microsoft.
Transcript
Could you walk me through your career path, starting with your experiences in college? Please include any internships or jobs you had before your current role.
I started working in high school with a friend. We started a tutoring company that lasted about a year. We hired high school seniors to tutor elementary school students.
The summer before my first year at UCLA, I interned at a natural stone company that imported and exported wholesale goods. During my first year at UCLA, I worked in a call center and then took on other jobs.
Before senior year, I interned at a geotechnical engineering company. I was pursuing a civil engineering degree and converted that to part-time during the school year. I did that during senior year and then converted it to full-time after grad school.
I completed my undergraduate degree in civil engineering at UCLA and my master's at Berkeley. Afterward, I worked in Los Angeles at a medium-sized geotechnical firm for about two years. Then, I moved to the Bay Area and worked at a small geotech company with five people for about a year.
Next, I relocated to Sacramento and worked at AECOM, a large global engineering company, for about six years. My initial work involved a lot of fieldwork, including soil investigations on drill rigs, construction observation, report writing, and lab work for soils.
At AECOM, I transitioned to project management. I took project management courses and training and practiced these skills at work. I also got to sell and bid on work.
I realized I wanted more and pursued an MBA part-time from Berkeley. While doing that, I finished my work at AECOM and started at a mid-size tech company as a software product manager. This was an internship that converted to full-time.
After about a year, I graduated and sought to work at a larger company. I found a job at Microsoft as an end-to-end program manager, focusing on data centers. This unique opportunity involved working with 25 different subject matter expert teams.
My role was to take data center capacity from the initial Greenfield stage to handover to operations. Each site represents hundreds of millions of dollars, and many teams work on developing them through a two-to-three-year lifecycle.
I enjoyed that role and managed a couple of different regions. I then sought to expand into a global role, taking on a telemetry deployment position. This involved electrical and mechanical telemetry, collecting sensor data from all our data centers.
The goal was to improve efficiency, environmental friendliness, and consistency. That is my career progression up to today.