He said the APM program is so competitive that landing an interview is like hitting a gold mine. After graduating, I chose Google over other companies because it offered a lot more support and resources: The Google APM program was proposed by former Google executive Marissa Mayer who started the program in 2002 to recruit fresh talents. Getting into the program is hard — it is estimated that 8,000 people apply to the APM program each year, and only 40-45 get accepted. This is the best part about the APM program — the ability to switch teams. I went to work in the office of the CEO, Sundar Pichai, and did product strategy-related work directly for him.

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Persons: Arjun Lalwani, Arjun, —, Marissa Mayer, I've, you'll, Google's, Sundar Pichai, Sundar Pichai's, It's, Aria Yang Organizations: Google, APM, Service, YouTube, Microsoft, Google APM, APM II, Base, Hilton, Marriott Locations: Paris, Singapore, Madrid, Lisbon, ayang@insider.com