Uzma Arjuman

I consider myself a hardworking person. I also, whatever I'm working on, I care very deeply about it. I have been told by previous managers and mentors that I have very strong ownership skills. It's one of the leadership principles at Amazon, so yeah, I have strong ownership and bias for action, which I think has taken me this far, and I'm super thankful for it. Of course, like, I've had mentors and sponsors who supported me in multiple milestones in my career. Also, coming from an army background, I think really helps because you move around us so much, it really instills that resilience piece in you. To adapt to new environments all the time, and really find your way in different cities, situations, whatnot. So, I think growing up, I had that privilege, and that has helped me quite a lot. Like, I moved to the US without having any support here, or any, you know, like, anybody known to me and I thought that was a pretty brave step to take. So, I have been able to do that because of all those qualities instilled in me coming from an army background, so I attribute my success so far to those things.

What I'm going to say probably sounds cliche, but I think it's very true. I would say, like, they should not be discouraged with all the changes that are going on right now. The market is tough, especially for recent grads. It's become very hard to find a job, because, you know, for each application, they're getting so many applicants. I've personally seen, like, 500 to 700 applicants for a single opening that is put out. Yeah, so a lot of good people get just ignored. So it's a tough market, but my advice would be, like, human skills, like, resilience and perseverance are still very, very important, so please, like, it's so important to be on top of your AI skills, not be discouraged, and keep at it. You will succeed if you are resilient and you persevere. We are in a time of change, but talented people can still make it, so don't be disheartened, keep going, and learn AI skills and keep updated.

Biggest challenge, I think, is, again, to find your footing if you are a recent grad, like I talked about. And for people who are already in the industry, the biggest challenge is to adapt. The expectation to be productive is so high now, right? Because AI is an amplifier. It can make you get things done so fast, but making sure the quality of those things is high enough is the difficult part, which is where the engineering skills that people like me have developed all these years come, are very, very crucial. So, adapting to this change, and suddenly, like, meeting all these new expectations, that, I think, is the biggest challenge that I'm hearing from many people, and I've seen myself as well. It's also a time of change, like, I'm seeing a lot of people just like me, you know, like, taking this founder step and trying to build something on their own, which was not possible a few years ago. So that's exciting, and that's also a challenge, so that brings me to the opportunity part. It's, AI is an enabler, so to build something new would have required a team of multiple people depending on what you are trying to build, but now even a single person can do a lot. For example, you might have heard recently news, like, one person is, he built an app for those GLP medications, I'm not sure if I'm getting the term right, but, he's on track to make a billion from that, and all he did was, like, build an app on his own, involve his brother, and hired a few contractors, and that would not be, that is, that was unthinkable, like, 5 years ago. So that's where the opportunity lies. AI, yeah, AI is enabling so much. I actually joined a Stanford course a few months ago, and the people who had enrolled in it, out of, sorry, 120 people, only, like, 6 were from computer science background. Everybody else was non-computer science, and they were trying to build an app. Can you imagine like the amount of change we are seeing. So, that is the opportunity bit. Yeah, like, anybody can build an app, but doing it well is the hard part.

I think integrity is very important. And what do you call it? Like, camaraderie? Like, having good relationships with your coworkers. And being honest about your skills and your, what you don't know. I don't know if I described it well, but I think those are very, very important. Because technical skills, yeah, can be learned, but these human skills are what take you far. If you're not doing these things, yeah, like, you can get success in short term, but it will hurt you long-term. So, I think integrity, honesty, and having good relationships with your coworkers are very important skills.