Our guest is Stanley Lam, Senior Technical Product Manager at Amazon. Stanley is an experienced business and technology professional with experience in engineering and product management. At Haas, Stanley was a Dean's Fellow and the VP of Careers for the Haas Technology Club.

Stanley was born in Hong Kong and moved to the US alone when he was only 15 to study high school in a boarding school in Missouri. Here, he learned how to be independent, and he considers this experience one of his life's pivotal moments.

In this episode, Stanley shares his journey of moving from a small town to a big city, his experiences studying in every major college in California, and his career pivots.

Stanley also tells us why he decided to pursue an MBA, commuting experience, the importance of networking, and the value of jumping out of comfort zones and challenging the status quo.

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Episode Quotes:

On moving from a small town to a big city for college

“That was challenging for me actually, just getting myself out there. Although I have everything that I learned from college, you just have to throw yourself out there, knowing that you probably don't know what you're getting yourself into, but you just have to believe in your gut feeling that this is what you want to do and where you want to be and just do it. Just that experience of jumping out of my comfort zone is something I'd take with me.”

Transitioning from being a student to a professional right after grad school

“It's definitely different. There's a lot of responsibility that, as a student, you don't have to deal with. Getting yourself situated with all the financial stuff, just one thing, and then just getting to be responsible. It's not late for homework anymore, or late for an exam. This is actual business. There's actually a business impact for you not living up to your expectations or doing what you're supposed to do. So, that's a big change. But I think, again, going back to my high school experience, just being independent, that helped me a lot in transitioning to the real world pretty quickly. Especially, getting exposed to very diverse people really early in my life helped me. It's just easy for me to get along with a lot of other people. That helped me a lot at work, honestly. Just to understand different cultures really quickly in my life is pretty good.”

A piece of advice for everyone

"Don't be afraid to step out of your comfort zone. You only have a finite amount of time. And everyone dies. You just got to get out of your comfort zone. You will always remember when you get out of your comfort zone. You probably won't remember when you are in the comfort zone."

Show Links:

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• clever.fm/haas

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