Why Stanford's product management students are ditching big tech

The era of the predictable career trajectory is under pressure. Where graduates once relied on rigorous interview loops and technical degrees to guarantee high starting salaries, the current landscape favors those who can identify market problems and ship solutions rapidly. Zhang notes that the barrier to entry for building software has collapsed, allowing non-technical founders to capture value at an unprecedented pace.

In her interviews at the AI firm Laurel, Zhang prioritizes applicants who demonstrate high agency—those who proactively replace manual tedium with automated tools rather than waiting for instructions. This shift prioritizes a specific mindset: curiosity over credentialism. Success in the current climate depends on the ability to understand user needs and execute independently, marking a departure from the specialized, siloed roles that defined the previous decade of tech employment.