Alumni
Recent Grad is Associate Product Manager at PLUS
After growing up in Seattle, Washington, Amulya Deva studied Business Analytics & Technology at Trinity University, and moved to California where she worked as an IT consultant. After realizing she wasn't passionate about her career, Amulya decided to go back to school to pursue her love of the beauty industry. In 2021, she graduated from FIDM with a B.A. in Creative Industry Studies, Beauty Marketing & Product Development and is currently an Associate Product Manager at PLUS, the plastic-free personal care brand. We caught up with Amulya to learn more.
Tell us about your new role as Associate Product Manager at PLUS: We all know that the packaging waste in the cosmetic industry is a huge problem and PLUS was launched with the goal of reducing waste while still offering fun, sage products. My job is to create more products for the brand. It's so cool working with such a small brand because the next products I make really solidify the direction of the brand and I get to make products that are so recognizable and different from the majority of things in the market.
How was your classmate Rachell Corpuz involved with you getting hired? When I found out Rachell was graduating sooner than I was, I wanted to make sure she knew how impressed I was with her and build a relationship outside of class since we didn't get to work together in class. We ended up having a Zoom call after she graduated and she told me she was impressed with my work as well and we just developed a natural friendship and mutual respect. She shared her job search progress with me, including her interviewing for a Marketing Associate position at PLUS. She ended up getting the job, and a few months later reached out to me asking if I was interested in being a product development intern during my last quarter at FIDM. I interviewed and loved the team and the mission and was offered the internship and did well enough to get a full-time offer before I graduated!
How has FIDM helped prepare you for the industry? Literally yesterday I was on the FDA's website reading through the differences of regulations for cosmetics versus a soap versus OTC drugs and I was thanking myself for going to FIDM because I actually had prior experience with this because of the FIDM curriculum. I knew where to look and had a good context of what I was doing because of my Beauty Science class with Professor Amy Chang. Everyone I work with raves about FIDM graduates; they see the experience and understanding we bring to the table. Most new graduates from other schools aren't as knowledgeable. Many people aren't familiar with things like cosmetic regulation and formulation or the behind the scenes of the product development process but FIDM gives you that like very few other programs in the nation.
What advice would you share with a current FIDM Student wanting to break into the industry? My biggest piece of advice is to make sure you network while you're still in school! I used to work really hard to make my class projects as impressive as possible so I could post them on LinkedIn and tag the brands and ideally have people see my work and expand my network. I also recommend leveraging the FIDM connection and finding FIDM Alumni on LinkedIn to interview and learn from to expand your network. While I'm recommending expanding your network outside of school, that doesn't mean I'm discounting the importance of developing strong relationships with your classmates, including the ones in your class that you don't directly work with. Rachell and I never actually got to work together but because I happened to reach out, I got the internship that led to my dream full-time job!
Categories: Beauty Marketing & Product Development Creative Industry Studies Alumni
