Welcome to my Substack where I share the best of my week. Think of this as a catch-up between friends with life hacks & advice sprinkled in. Take what serves you and leave what does not. Grab your beverage of choice and let's get started ☕️
Highlight of the week🔥
Hello, hi, konnichiwa 🍵 😘 This past week I did two massive hikes to seal in the good vibes for my 28th birthday. She said MILEAGE #naturebarbie 🥾 I visited my family’s home this week to spend my actual birth date in the pacific northwest. I grew up in New York my entire life, but my family packed up and sold my childhood home in 2020 and moved to the west coast. I love it here and I don’t think I’d ever go back to live on the east coast (well, at least permanently). I have many thoughts about west vs. east coast - LMK if this is something you’d want me to explore in depth.
12 miles roundtrip on Tunnel Falls in Oregon (see photo below)
10 miles roundtrip on Ape Canyon Hike in Washington
What’s cooking 🥘👩🏻🍳
In this episode, I interview my friend, Emily Tang, senior product manager at LinkedIn, who she leads teams of software engineers and designers. Emily gives tips to break into product management, talks about dealing with imposter syndrome, and shares her story of high pressure situations of presenting to LinkedIn’s CEO recently.
When I joined LinkedIn’s APM program in 2017, I didn’t know where my career would lead. I’m lucky to have thoughtful colleagues like Emily because not only did we work on the same team for 3 years, but she’s a dear, dear friend who I turn to for career and life advice. In some ways I feel like we “grew up” together in our professional new grad careers. Living proof that work friendship are a thing ❤️ I hope you enjoy this podcast episode!
💅🏻 ICYMI: What I posted on IG Reels
🎓 Interview Advice for Aspiring PMs
📚 What I learned in my VC internship [TBT]
What I’m consuming: Matcha 🍵👀
I’m headed to Japan in a few weeks (wow it really hasn’t sunk in yet and just writing that feels weird) to work on a matcha farm for a month. Be prepared for Day In My Life as a GSB Student Working on a Matcha Farm videos. No, that is NOT a joke. And yes this is real and here are the details: Every Stanford MBA student has as international requirement to fulfill. This requirement can be fulfilled in a myriad of ways (Global Study Trip, certain classes, etc) and I am fulfilling it through a second summer internship. I’ve never done 2 internships over the summer before and it feels extra because maybe it IS extra.
The Stanford Global Management Immersion Experience (GMIX) is a program that has been running for over 20 years. It lets students gain practical experience in international management by working with organizations in a foreign country over the summer. The program includes 92 countries and helps organizations complete projects where they might lack in-house expertise for or require knowledge of different markets or industries. My classmates are headed around the globe for their GMIX programs like in Kenya, Hong Kong, Italy, Mexico, China, Indonesia, and Japan to name a few countries. Some students apply to organizations within the internal GSB system and some students “self-source” their own GMIX program, kind of like a build-your-own international internship.
The family-owned matcha farm is near Kyoto. I’ll be working on their external marketing strategy. In addition to spending time on the farm, I am personally so stoked to spend more time in Japan. I visited Tokyo in 2018 for work and I loved my time exploring the culture, the food, and the history. I never studied abroad in college (one of my biggest regret), so this feels like a chance to get that vibe. I’ll be exploring Japan all throughout September and excited to see more of the beautiful country 🍣 🇯🇵 Let me know if you have any recs.
Meme Reminder
Swag YOLO
XO Cherie
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