Hey Reader,

Yudi here,

I did a live session with Aman - an AI Product Manager who got laid off on OPT and landed a new role in 40 days in one of the toughest hiring markets we've seen.

You can watch the full session here → Podcast Link​

But if you want the distilled version with everything that matters - keep reading.

This is Aman.

AI engineer background. Published researcher. Came to the US with zero PM experience - didn't even know what a product manager was before grad school.

He worked hard. Switched into an AI PM role. Got his first full-time offer in the US.

And then, 7 months in - he got laid off.

Same day he found out. Same day his termination was effective.

No grace period. And he was on OPT.

90 days. Clock ticking. H-1B uncertainty everywhere. Amazon layoffs being announced. The 100K rule freezing international hiring.

The world felt like it was collapsing at the same time his career did.

He got a new job in 40 days.

Let me break it down.

Before he applied for a single job, he built a map

Most people's first move after a layoff: → Open LinkedIn. Start applying. Panic-apply to 50 roles.

Aman's first move was different. He opened an Excel sheet.

And built what he called a networking web - 80 to 90 names. People from his previous company. Connections from Seattle meetups. Senior engineers. Principal directors. Relationships he had deliberately built over just 6 months on the job.

He mapped:

• Who they were
• Where they currently worked
• Who they might know

Because he understood one thing clearly early on:

Mass applications weren't going to work in 90 days.

He didn't have time to be applicant #347 on a cold listing. He needed warm intros. Internal referrals. Real conversations. This is where most international students fail before they even start.

They treat networking as something you do after you need a job. Aman had been building it since day one.

The mindset shift that changed everything: Think like a PM - about yourself

Aman had already made the mental switch from engineer to product thinker.

He applied that same lens to his own job search. Here's the core problem most technical people run into when targeting PM roles:

Engineers speak in:

• Model accuracy
• Latency
• Technical architecture

PMs speak in:

• Business goals
• User impact
• Company metrics - MAU, DAU, revenue, retention

The resume that gets you an AIPM interview is not an engineering resume with a PM title on top.

It's a story of how your technical work moved a business outcome.

Even if your background is 100% technical, the reframe is possible.

Aman's exact words:

This is not about exaggerating.

It's about translating your value into the language hiring managers are already using.

Most candidates lose at the translation layer - not the skill layer.

What's actually being hired for in AIPM roles right now

One insight from the session that I think a lot of people are sleeping on:

The market right now is generating a new category of roles that barely existed 2 years ago.

Aman called them AI Enabler roles.

Think: building internal AI workflows. Automating processes across teams. Deploying agentic pipelines for real business use cases. Not research. Not model training. Deployment.

He saw a role at PlayStation literally titled "AI Enabler" - focused on productivity automation and cross-functional AI implementation.

This matters because:

Most people are still targeting traditional PM roles and trying to add "AI" to their title.

The smarter move is targeting roles where your specific combo of technical depth and business thinking is the exact requirement - not a bonus.

That's where the competition is thinner. That's where international candidates with engineering backgrounds have a genuine edge.

The 5-step roadmap for breaking into AIPM from zero

Whether you're in India, just landed in the US, or pivoting from a purely technical role - Aman laid out exactly how he'd approach this today.

Step 1: Audit your past work first

Don't start with courses. Start with what you've already done.

Look for anywhere you've touched AI, automation, data, or user-facing products - even as an engineer.

That's your raw material for storytelling.

Step 2: Build something real and put it out

Deep dive into agentic tools. Pick a workflow you actually find painful. Automate it. Build a small app. Solve something.

Then post it. LinkedIn. Anywhere public.

Visibility is not content creation. It's signal amplification - helping the market understand how you think before you ever apply.

Step 3: Go deep on how LLMs actually work

Before interview prep. Before learning PM frameworks. Before the jargon.

Watch Andrej Karpathy's LLM masterclass on YouTube. Free. 3-4 hours.

It's the clearest ground-up explanation of how large language models work that exists. Without this foundation, everything else is surface.

You can't talk credibly about AI products if you don't know what's actually happening under the hood.

Step 4: Get into PM-specific interview prep

Product design questions. Metrics. Strategy. Execution.

Pick products you use every day and break them down completely.

Break down Claude. Break down ChatGPT. What's the core loop? What's the monetization? What would you change and why?

Go deeper than most people are willing to.

Step 5: Mock interviews - communication, not just content

Not just frameworks. Not just "I would first clarify the goal."

Practice thinking out loud. Practice the pace. Practice what happens when you don't know the answer.

The interviews that convert don't reward fast answers.

They reward clear thinking under pressure.

The thing no one talks about: persistence is the actual filter

Aman was clear on this.

The three pillars of his 40-day run:

1. Networking
2. Interview prep
3. Persistence

And he said persistence was the hardest.

When LinkedIn felt depressing. When the market felt frozen. When every signal told him to slow down.

He pushed through day 4. Day 5. Day 20.

Because on OPT, you don't get the luxury of waiting until you feel ready. You build the plane while flying it.

Here's the real takeaway from his story:

The 40 days aren't about being extraordinary. They're about not stopping.

The students landing roles right now are not always the most technical.

They're the ones who:

• Network before they need it
• Translate technical work into business impact
• Build in public and let their thinking be visible
• Prepare for interviews before the calls come in
• Stay consistent when the market feels impossible

That's the system.

If any part of this resonated, reply and tell me where you're stuck right now.

I read every response.

– Yudi J