Beyond FAANG: A Haas Career Expert's Framework for Landing Your Next Tech Role
Doug Massa has spent nearly a decade at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, where he is the Technology Relationship Manager for the Career Services Group. After starting in business development, he now helps MBA students navigate challenging job markets. We spoke with Doug about his framework for tech recruiting, why students should think beyond big companies, and what's really happening in the job market.
MBA Pathfinders: You've been at Haas for 10 years. How has your role evolved, and what do you focus on today?
Doug Massa: I started in business development, really trying to grow the depth and breadth of opportunities for our students. When I joined, Haas had a narrow group of companies we worked with, so my job was to create new relationships and get companies excited about our students. Over the last 10 years, I've probably made 200+ new company connections
That evolved into managing specific industries – I've handled retail, CPG, transportation and mobility, and now tech for the past three years. I'm essentially running a two-sided marketplace – I've got supply, which are the students, and I'm trying to connect them with demand, which are the companies. I like to think of myself as the Airbnb of Career Services.
MBA Pathfinders: Let's talk about your approach to helping students with their job search. You mentioned a specific framework you use.
Doug Massa: Absolutely. I think one of the biggest misses for students is not having a structured approach to their job search. I break it down into three buckets, and I always start with:
What's the role you want to do?
Then, what's the industry you want to focus on?
And finally, who do you want to work for – what's your target list of companies?
The key is that order: role, industry, company. Most students flip this completely backwards. They'll say "I want to work at Google" or "I want to work at Amazon." But if you knock on Amazon's front door and say you want to work there, the first thing they'll ask is "Well, what do you want to do for me?"
MBA Pathfinders: Why is starting with the role so important?
Doug Massa: Because that's what makes you interesting as a candidate. If you come in with your story of why you want to do product management and why you want to do it for Amazon specifically, now you're much more compelling than the hundreds of other people who just say they want to work at Amazon.
So, starting with the role helps you stand out and helps you tell your story about why you want to do this job. Maybe you have some history with it, and then you can talk about why the industry or company is compelling to you.
MBA Pathfinders: How has the hiring landscape changed, particularly around the "hire for potential" versus experience?
Doug Massa: This is huge. Two or three years ago, companies might say "Laura seems like she's got some product marketing skills, let's bring her in and see if she can grow into the role." That's completely changed. Companies now say, "I need someone who can ramp up quickly and understands this job."
So, when I work with a student who wants to go into product marketing, I need them to tell me what they think a PMM does and then show me where in their background they've done those things:
Where have you done consumer insights?
Where have you worked collaboratively with product management?
Where have you created content or done test and measure activities?
All those things validate that yes, you understand what this job does, and here's where you've done it before. That's much more important now than just having potential.
MBA Pathfinders: What about students looking to make a complete pivot – say, from investment banking to product management?
Doug Massa: I'm being more realistic with students about double pivots. If you're looking to change both your role AND your industry, that can be really tough in this market. I always tell them to focus on one pivot first.
Take product management. Everyone thinks it's about being the "CEO of a product," but it's really about ruthlessly prioritizing what needs to come on the roadmap. Show me where you've worked cross-functionally, where you've launched something into market, where you've been an operator who had to say no to people because you were prioritizing resources.
If you can successfully pivot to a role, then you can figure out where you want to do that role. Remember, you have two years in the program – use your internship to validate whether you like the job, then spend your second year gaining experience in different industries.
MBA Pathfinders: Let's talk about that third step – identifying target companies. How should students think beyond the obvious FAANG names?
Doug Massa: This is where the framework really shines. Tech is such a big black box that you need to break it into subindustries. Let's take Fintech as an example. Fintech is still huge, so what do you want within fintech? Do you want payments? Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL)? Neobanks? Large traditional banks moving into tech?
If you say you want Buy Now Pay Later, well, who are the top five companies in that space? There's Klarna, Affirm, and others. What about neobanks? There's Chime, SoFi, Greenlight.
I've just created a list of 10 companies, and as you focus on different subindustries, you can take the top five companies from each… and suddenly you have 30 companies.
That's too many, so then I tell them to prioritize their top 10. Now we have a very clear story: here's the role I want, I want to work in this subindustry, and here's my target list of companies that comes from the industries I want to focus on.
MBA Pathfinders: How realistic should students be about landing all three – role, industry, and company?
Doug Massa: I always tell students they might not get all three to line up perfectly. You might not get role, industry, AND company in this market, but if I can get two out of three, I'm happy. Just because you get an MBA doesn't mean you're going to land the dream role at the dream company you thought about two years ago.
It's about setting realistic expectations. I don't want to discourage anyone from getting an MBA – I think there's still tremendous value there – but you need to be realistic about what's waiting for you in the market right now.
MBA Pathfinders: What does a student who's really taking charge of their career development look like to you?
Doug Massa: It's someone who takes full advantage of the program. They visit career services regularly, show up to workshops on networking and resume writing, attend company presentations.They speak with second years to learn how they got their internships. We have a very active club scene at Haas, so they're engaged there too.
I need to see that effort because it makes me more motivated to help them by introducing them to alums or recruiters. I want someone who's done the research to answer the question of what a particular role does and how they know that.
It's their career, not mine. They own their career and their resume. I can give input, but ultimately, it's their decision. I want to see them investing time in themselves, because that motivates me to be invested in them too.
MBA Pathfinders: What's the biggest gap you see between student expectations and reality?
Doug Massa: I can usually tell pretty quickly when a student hasn't done the required groundwork. If they haven't met with a coach, if their resume still needs lots of help, if they haven't worked on their story – I can see they're just grasping at anything.
What often happens is students go all-in on consulting, that doesn't work out, and then they come to me saying "Oh, I love tech! Tech's awesome!" But they haven't been thinking about tech the whole time. They're playing catch-up.
The good students balance everything together, knowing that there are only so many offers MBB is going to make. Don't wait until you don't get a consulting offer to start thinking about other options.
MBA Pathfinders: You mentioned AI coming up more in recruiting conversations. What are you hearing from companies?
Doug Massa: Every company I spoke to this summer about fall recruiting mentioned AI. Several top companies told me that AI proficiency is going to be part of every job description for internships. They expect students to have a clear understanding of AI and know what tools they've used.
One company told me they'll put any candidate who has not only used AI but also influenced others in their organization to adopt AI usage at the very top of the pile. They want people who can push the AI movement internally. So, showing AI usage and where you've been able to influence that adoption is going to be a really important screening tool this year.
MBA Pathfinders: Any final advice for MBA students navigating today's market?
Doug Massa: Have empathy for yourself – it's not easy right now. But use that structured framework: start with the role, then think about industry, then identify your target companies. Don't just focus on the big names everyone knows. There are incredible companies out there that you've probably never heard of but could be perfect for what you want to do.
Be patient. Focus on one pivot at a time. You might not get the perfect trifecta immediately, but if you can get two out of three in this market, that's a win. Your career is long – this is just the beginning.