Stepping Outside Her Comfort Zone, Tiara Griffith ’20 Lands Dream Job at Facebook
Landing a good job, let alone your dream job, after college can seem intimidating. Tiara Griffith ’20, however, cracked the code.
It began with the most essential element – she got uncomfortable.
“Going into college, I knew that if I wanted to be successful, I had to step outside of my comfort zone,” she said. “As uncomfortable as it was, it was necessary for me to grow and it allowed me to receive so many opportunities which have led me to where I am today.”
Today, Tiara is a rotational product manager (RPM) at Facebook, where she collaborates with engineers, data scientists, and product designers to develop new products and features for Facebook and its family of products.
So, how exactly did she land her dream job at one of the most well-known brands in the world? Tiara said that the journey began at Iona, in the Hynes Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation.
It was her involvement in the Hynes Institute that pushed Tiara to step out of her comfort zone and try new things, such as becoming founding president of Iona’s entrepreneurship club. She also traveled to Turin, Italy to study abroad at the European Innovation Academy (EIA), a three-week intensive entrepreneurship program that took her through the real-life process of building a startup from conception to launch.
During the program at the EIA, she led a cross-functional team in the development and launch of a mobile application prototype – similarly to what she does now at Facebook.
Once her vision was clear, Tiara took the steps necessary to make it a reality.
She used LinkedIn to learn more about what the career was like and ask for advice. She also joined a community of aspiring and current product managers, where they conducted mock interviews to prepare for her three interview rounds with Facebook.
For students who want to be where Tiara is now, her advice is to remain perseverant.
“Be dedicated and determined, be patient, and don’t give up,” she said. “I applied to many companies and heard many no’s before receiving that one yes that changed my life.”