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Erika Gemzer

Unlocking access to mentorship - Founder - ex-Google, founding team at Verily

Erika Gemzer is a passionate individual focused on making mentorship abundant and accessible through Pocket Board, where she encourages individuals to join as mentees or apply to become mentors. With a background in engineering and product development, Erika has worked across various industries including health tech, IOT, automotive, consumer electronics, and biotechnology. Her educational achievements include a Bachelor of Science in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and a Master of Science in Computer Science, both from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Erika's professional experience includes roles such as Sr. Director of Engineering Operations at Samsara, Founder of artocrat, and Head of Engineering Operations at Verily Life Sciences, among others. She is also dedicated to leadership and management that fosters personal growth and empowerment, aiming to help individuals reach their full potential.

Highlights

Apr 15 · linkedin

Job Search Diary No.4 is out in the world! Read how a Series B VP of Product is approaching her job search (and the emotional journey that comes with walking away from a startup you built from Seed to Series B).

Some snippets that stood out to me:


I hear this all the time. Imposter syndrome is a pain in the ass.

"Without an engineering background, I struggle daily with imposter syndrome. I've grown to be confident in my ability through experience and driving actual results, but job searching still intimidates the heck out of me."


Remote work has many perks, but here's one darker side:

"I'm a first-generation immigrant and come from a family of academics and doctors. I live in a second-tier city (not a tech hub), so I’m acutely aware that my network isn’t as deep and that I’m competing with other high-caliber remote talent."


Cool process for drafting application essay questions with a little help from an old friend (AI)

"Read the construction tech startup job description for the nth time. Copied and pasted the application questions into a Google doc to draft answers. My process: Write → Manual edit → Feed through Claude AI to check grammar → Manual edit again"


Love this weekly and daily work ritual (MVW)

"I start each week by writing out my work goals. I use a format called MVW (minimum viable work), which distills the minimum work to achieve the most critical goals."


I feel so much for this person 🤗

"For two years (2022 til now) I was rage-applying to any opening I saw whenever I got frustrated at work. It hasn't worked. And worse, I developed a defeatist attitude about myself and my search, ie: "Any job I want, they won't hire me because of X reason, and even if they do, it will probably suck." This mindset is hurting me, and it’s rubbed off onto every aspect of my job search."

Check out the full diary on The Career Whispers:

Mar 31 · linkedin

Asking your recruiter for feedback after a rejection is a strength, not a weakness. But you need to ask artfully to avoid getting a generic "we don't typically share feedback with candidates" response.

Recruiters will be reluctant to share feedback via email due to legal hurdles and industry-wide conservatism around sharing candidate feedback.

Instead, ask if you can have a 5-minute call to offer feedback on the process.

On the call, ask them if they have any tips for how you can improve to be a stronger candidate for similar roles in the future.

While you're there, ask if you can stay in touch, and if it would be OK to reach out infrequently with an update or if another role of interest opens up.

✍️ Have you successfully gotten interview feedback from a recruiter? What worked for you? ♻️ Repost this to share this tip with other job seekers in your network


This helpful tip was inspired by Job Search Diary No.3: "Jill of All Trades"

In her diary, she wrote:

𝟷𝟶:𝟹𝟶 𝚊𝚖 𝙶𝚎𝚝 𝚊 𝚛𝚎𝚓𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚎𝚖𝚊𝚒𝚕 𝚏𝚛𝚘𝚖 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚕𝚒𝚖𝚊𝚝𝚎 𝚝𝚎𝚌𝚑 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚙𝚊𝚗𝚢 𝚖𝚢 𝚏𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚗𝚍 𝚛𝚎𝚏𝚎𝚛𝚛𝚎𝚍 𝚖𝚎 𝚝𝚘 💔 𝙸 𝚌𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚎𝚕 𝚖𝚢 𝚜𝚌𝚑𝚎𝚍𝚞𝚕𝚎𝚍 𝚏𝚘𝚕𝚕𝚘𝚠-𝚞𝚙 𝚎𝚖𝚊𝚒𝚕 𝚊𝚜𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚊𝚗 𝚞𝚙𝚍𝚊𝚝𝚎. 𝙸 𝚝𝚛𝚢 𝚝𝚘 𝚛𝚎𝚖𝚎𝚖𝚋𝚎𝚛 𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚎𝚡𝚌𝚎𝚕𝚕𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝚌𝚊𝚗𝚍𝚒𝚍𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚜 𝙸 𝚛𝚎𝚏𝚎𝚛𝚛𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚘 𝙰𝚒𝚛𝚋𝚗𝚋 𝚠𝚑𝚘 𝚐𝚘𝚝 𝚛𝚎𝚓𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚘𝚘. 𝙸𝚗𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚊𝚍, 𝙸 𝚝𝚛𝚢 𝚝𝚘 𝚏𝚒𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚗𝚞𝚐𝚐𝚎𝚝𝚜 𝚘𝚏 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚜𝚝𝚛𝚞𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚟𝚎 𝚏𝚎𝚎𝚍𝚋𝚊𝚌𝚔. 𝙴𝚟𝚎𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑 𝙸 𝚜𝚙𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝚊 𝚏𝚎𝚠 𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚛𝚜 𝚙𝚛𝚎𝚙𝚙𝚒𝚗𝚐, 𝙸 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚔 𝙸 𝚖𝚊𝚢 𝚗𝚎𝚎𝚍 𝚖𝚘𝚛𝚎 𝚙𝚛𝚊𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚌𝚎. 𝙸 𝚠𝚘𝚗𝚍𝚎𝚛 𝚠𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚎𝚕𝚜𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚢 𝚠𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍 𝚜𝚊𝚢. 𝙸 𝚍𝚎𝚌𝚒𝚍𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚊𝚜𝚔 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚏𝚎𝚎𝚍𝚋𝚊𝚌𝚔 𝚏𝚛𝚘𝚖 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚛𝚎𝚌𝚛𝚞𝚒𝚝𝚎𝚛.

You can read more from this job seeker's diary and get more job search tips, advice, and tools from me in The Career Whispers here:

Erika Gemzer
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Location

San Francisco, California, United States