35 | Vedika pursuing Business Majors at Nanyang Technology University, shares her experience
Vedika Gaddhyan | Sophomore at Nanyang Technological University | Research Intern at Trifecta Capital Advisors
Vedika completed her first year foundation course in NTU. She talks about the wide scope of Statistics and Analysis in every field and in every company. She stresses on the importance of learning a coding language even in a field like business.
Vedika appreciates the supportive community at NTU. She explains how various opportunities helped her to understand the real time implementation of business ideas and their scope. She mentions some pros and cons of the University and life in Singapore.
34 | Shlok transitioned from Mechanical Engineer to CS PHD Student
Shlok Sobti | Doctoral Student at Rice University | Motion Planning and Human-Robot Interaction
Reflecting back on days at RICE University, Shlok started his journey with a group of students. He appreciates the community at RICE because of which his ideas and opinions have been shaped about learning throughout 4 years. He embraces the support system at RICE which is always for the students and never against them
Shlok has transitioned from Mechanical engineering to CS PHD under the guidance of his Mentor. He has published a research paper on Human Robot Interaction. He quotes a few examples of Computational power in the field of Biology and medicine. Shlok is geared up for his research journey, know more about it in the podcast.
33 | Divij experienced and managed 2008 financial crisis
Divij Punvani | Honoris United Universities | London School of Economics
Moved to New York in 2007, Divij experienced various transitions in his life. Not only college life, but the tough times of financial crisis affected Divij plans in several ways. After learning finances and art history from Baruch College, Divij struggled his way to get a job. Eventually, he decided to opt for a Masters program at London School of Economics.
Divij believes that the entire skill learning system will be digitized very soon. He sees this as the most accessible opportunity and recommends every individual to stay updated with their technical skills. Upscaling one's skills with time is the need of the hour.
32 | Got in LMU, owned a startup, interned at CloudAccess and now Director of Investor Relations, EB5 United - Meet Ishaan Khanna
Ishaan Khanna | Investor Relations at EB5 United
Growing up Ishaan knew he wanted to pursue Information technology, but he never wanted to code. Hence chose the path of Applied Information Management Systems which is a combination of Management and Information technology. Ishaan describes how is schooling in IB Board helped him adjust better at LMU
While Ishaan gives many advice and suggestions to young students, he also explains his life struggles while initiating a start up and then interning at Cloud Access Company. Ishaan took inspiration from everyone he has ever worked with and developed his way forward.
31 | Trisha appreciates the randomness in her journey and is keen on taking up Data Science as next stepping stone
Trisha Singh | MS Statistics, Stanford'21
Trisha acknowledges her evolution from a high schooler to a Grad student to an employee and now as Masters Student at Stanford. She cherishes her learnings and memories from Middlebury College. Connecting with friends and Professors she not only did well in academics but also explored different opportunities at campus such as Research Assistant and Teacher Assistant.
She appreciates the different cultures at both Stanford and Middlebury College. She enjoys exploring things while connecting with people. She looks forward to working in the field of Data Science as it has the potential to give solutions to various problems.
30 | Umang describes his thesis project about Public Transit in Nashville and Data Science at Vanderbilt
Umang Chaudhary | Data Science Intern at The General®
Umang Chaudhary portrays inter-disciplinary interest through multiple projects. After doing Earth and Environmental Science, Communication of Science and Technology from Vanderbilt University, he chose to do Masters in Data Science. His vision is to work at the intersection of Environment and Technology.
Umang shows his enthusiasm in his project, where he is analyzing the Public Transit in Nashville. Struggling in his graduation course for learning and building proficiency in R and Python, Umang wants to expand his skills and wants to work in the field of Data Science.
29 | Ayushman Chhabra traces his journey of Majors in Economics and Minors in Computer Science and Maths | University of Toronto Mississauga
Ayushman Chhabra | Teaches at Astro STEM Labs | Studied at UofT
Ayushman pursuing Majors in Economics and Minors in Computer Science and Maths narrates how he chose these subjects and explains multiple opportunities that will come up in near future. He explains the course structure and the difficulties he tackled while studying.
During Covid, Ayushman is passionately working towards expanding his horizon in different fields. He wants to explore all the things he couldn't in these years. Lastly, he anchored his thoughts on 'Learning from who you are'.
28 | Radical Candor displayed by Anisha on Communication Designing
Anisha Subberwal | | Communication Design | Junior Production Designer at ERGO
A recent graduate from Parsons School of Design, New York, specializes in digital design. This includes user experience and interface design, graphic design, illustration and photography. Currently based in New York City. She has previously resided in India, Indonesia, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, London and San Francisco.
During Covid, she is motivated to work towards being more productive in any place which may or may not be a workplace. She lives by the fact that everything is temporary and exhibits great candor throughout the conversation.
27 | Ananya Sachdev exploring the field of Management through a lens of Sports, Columbia University
Ananya Sachdev
Strategist, Global Sports Business, Rakuten | Podcast Host
Ananya shares her experience in a Sports management course in Columbia University. She elucidates different opportunities to network with C-Suite executives and to network with them. She stresses on how these conversations helped her have a better perspective in Sports.
Now being a part of Global level company, Rakuten, she explains her journey and why she decided to move from the US to Japan. She also describes the obstacles she had to overcome to land a job and hence encourages young students to follow the path of expanding their strengths.
26 | Amiteshwar Singh accepting challenges and opportunities in Computer Science Majors in University of California, Davis
Amiteshwar Mann Singh | A CS graduate from UC Davis and working as Communication and Controls Team Lead at RoveCrest
Amiteshwar from University of California, Davis reflects on different opportunities other than Academic in the university. He explains the importance of literature and humanities subjects in Computer Science.
He shows his inclination towards E-Sports and implementation of AI. He talks about E-coaches (online coaching experience) for different Sports.
25 | Shabad Sobti retrospects his Computer Science journey with Arjun Seth
Shabad Sobti | Engineering Consultant at Levvel.io
Shabad Graduated from University of Virginia, now working as engineering consultant at Levvel.io. He describes his journey from pursuing Economic to shifting into CS and then landing as Engineering Consultant. He retrospect on what went great and what could have been done better.
24 | Mamta Saraogi picturizes her experience at Bates College and Kings College
Mamta Saraogi | Ruggles Research Fellow | Using stories to shape better realities within dynamic communities
Mamta pursuing her Liberal Arts from Bates college and Philosophy Majors from Kings College. With her involvement in two different colleges she was able to nurture her experience and cherish the times at both colleges.
She also talks about how her determination helped her achieve her goals through out these years. She felt happy to connect with people from diverse background expresses the same while the talk.
23 | Pranati talks about how the pandemic changed her responsibilities at Invest India.
Pranati Kohli | Emory University Graduate
Pranati Kohli talks about what caught her interest in economics and how she took advantage of being familiar with Political Science and Maths. All these things helped her land in a company of her choice 'Invest India'. She mentions her interest in coming back to India and working for the country.
She talks about how the responsibilities changed in her company due to the pandemic and how she handled the work load.
22 | Studying at UC Berkeley and working in Product Management
Raaghav Goel | Art Curator, Smithsonian
Raaghav enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley undeclared but with a passion for engineering.
Through his time there, he found out that his interest lay in between technology and non-technology related subjects, eventually finding his career in Product Management.
Episode Takeaways
Going to UC Berkeley
For him, UC Berkeley had its highs and lows, however it did not match his expectations. In his time in GD Goenka, he was used to small class sizes. Coming from there, a lecture hall of 1700 students shocked him and it took him a while to get used to it. Berkeley is known for being real and straightforward and he loved the experience. As an institution, Berkeley starts preparing you for world outside. It teaches life skills needed to succeed. It has been difficult because of curriculum and extracurriculars, but he found communities of people to resonate with and take on opportunities to learn in the most unique ways
Choosing Subjects and Areas of Interest
His story to UC Berkeley was unique. He went in undeclared and didn’t know what type of engineering he wanted to do. He knew that he wanted to study something involving science and math to solve real life problems. He noticed the contrast between the teaching in India - where teachers hold you accountable - and Berkeley - where you are responsible for your own academics. He went from undeclared to an Electrical Engineering Computer Science (EECS) major, exploring opportunities in the world of engineering. He took different introductory courses and talked to professors, alumni and people on LinkedIn to gain insight into their careers. He eventually realised that Computer Science interested him through a small epiphany moment. When taking higher level classes, he realised that his personality did not align with the classes. Eventually, he spoke to peers about his struggles and someone mentioned taking Product Management as a possible future career. In the end, having a fusion of technology and non-technology related subjects made him seek out to work in entrepreneurship.
Working in Product Management
To Raaghav, it’s like a venn diagram: one is engineering and the other includes non-technological work like design or sales, product management is in between. It involves learning how to build a brand and company, figuring out how products are going to be on the market and interacting with all the roles in getting the product to the market
His 3 Strengths
Perseverance, open-mindedness and having fun
His Inspiration
He feels most inspired by his family and peers. His sources of inspiration come from people in and out of the industry, which is great in Berkeley because his class of peers are always engaging in new, exciting activities. He gains inspiration in product management by learning from his mentors, professors and his aunt who are product managers. One mentor, at salesforce got him to read Zero to One by Peter Theil.
Giving Back to the Berkeley Community
He is working with the South Asian Queer and Trans Group on campus to create a platform for queer individuals of South-asian descent. The group helps to host events including alumni panels and TedTalks for members to help them find job opportunities after college.
Advice to High-Schoolers Today
Raaghav suggests that students not stress out about it. It’s okay to be rejected from colleges because it doesn’t matter where you end up. He advises that it’s important to make the most of wherever you are; you’ll be set up for success if you to make the most of it. One should be authentic in their essay writing (advice he got when applying). Raaghav recalls how initially he would write things that he thought colleges wanted to hear, but Edbrand helped him realise that being oneself helps you find the place perfect for you. He didn’t think Berkeley was perfect but now sees it as the only place for him. He also advises that students take extracurriculars one at a time otherwise they may be overwhelmed. One should not do a project or extracurricular just because they think they have to. Having passion for your work will make your writing about it 100 times better.
Life Post-Pandemic
Raaghav believes that until a vaccine comes out, it will be impossible to expect life to return to normalcy. Instead, he believes that restricted movement and semi-lockdown is the only way to survive it until then. Technology will be of great help in helping us track the movement of the virus between people and places. Google has already developed a type of tracker designed for that purpose.
Dealing with Uncertainty
“Make the most of it” is what Raaghav firmly suggests to students facing today’s uncertainty. Even if internships, work and celebrations like graduations have been cancelled, it’s more important to look to the future and finding ways to gain experience in the meantime. Whether it’s enrolling into classes or focusing on hobbies, students should try to take their free time and make it productive in their own way.
21 | Handling a Busy Campus Life and Taking Pride in Leadership Development - with Mrinalini Bhushan
Mrinalini Bhushan, Student at CMC, Eco and Psychology double major.
Mrinalini loved the environment at CMC and dove right into orientation by getting involved in everything and signing up for as many activities as possible. CMC’s core curriculum has also allowed her to take classes in philosophy and literature and explore other such areas of interest outside of her majors. She has also applied her learnings in the classroom to her research work and internships.
Mrinalini conducts interviews for prospective students and says that CMC values qualities like leadership and passion. She advises students to be themselves and have an honest conversation during the interview.
20 | Using Psychotherapy and Expressive Art to Help Teens Cope During Covid - with Supriya Puri
Supriya Puri |
Clinical Psychology MA
Supriya was drawn to psychology in school. She decided to pursue her masters in clinical psychology. Her pursuit is about how to integrate thoughts, feelings and cognition with the body.
She was working in rehab centers and realized the human element was missing. That's why she went into expressive arts therapy. She initiated 'Center for Self' to allow exploration of mind and body.
19 | Talking to an LSR and ISB Grad and a Principal at a Digital Agency - with Megha Chawdhry
Megha Chawdhry | Marketing & Business Strategy, Treemouse
Megha enrolled at Lady Shri Ram College after graduating from Sanskriti School with the intention of pursuing a career in communication design and marketing.
After college and two years of work experience, she wanted to explore the fundamentals of marketing and strategic communication, which led her to the Indian School of Business to pursue a MBA. Today, she heads Marketing and Business Strategy at Treemouse.
Episode Takeaways
Career in Communication Design and Marketing
Immediately out of Sanskriti, she knew she wanted to pursue a career in communication design and marketing and felt that being in India was a very interesting space to tap into that. The multiple narratives without a unified identity of who’s Indian made her very excited to continue studying in India. Foray on Digital in India had started out in mid 2010 after her undergraduate degree and she thought that it would be great to be part of this incredible spectrum, even though she’d gotten an opportunity to move to the UK.
Out of College
She spent two and a half years after college working at Drizzlin, a dynamic workplace wherein she learnt the strategy side of a business, and her team taught her to think digitally, among many other skills. However, the market was still evolving and to her, an MBA made sense because she wanted to understand the “nuts and bolts” of marketing and strategic communication. She also hoped to gain from the experiences of her peers, hence ISB appealed to her. Nonetheless, coming from a different professional background took her some time to adjust to the large atmosphere of a business school.
MBA at ISB
The biggest thing that worked for her was that it was flexible and exposed her to a lot more than she had anticipated through electives. She came in wearing blinders about figuring out the larger picture about marketing, but over the course of the program, she became interested in sustainability, finance modelling, and film. These had a significant impact on the career choices she made later on. In the second batch of the Mohali campus, a lot of the faculty was international, so the diversity in pedagogy was incredible. However, since it was a business school that geared towards preparing towards consultancy-based practice, you had to go deep into subjects that may not been at the top of your consideration, a great way to make you push yourself. Nevertheless, what was inspiring was the diversity of experiences and spaces that people coming from different backgrounds had to offer to her learning.
Synchrony between ISB Mohali and Hyderabad
You do have access to resources across campuses, but of course as you spend time on a particular campus, you tend to nurture your affiliations there. As the second batch, it was still half the size of the Hyderabad student body, so everyone was very well connected and rooted; everyone knew each other by name. However, there was a lot of collaboration between students in clubs and events. You could even choose to switch campus depending on your concentration.
Reality Vs. What ISB prepares you for
ISB prepares you to anticipate rigour in your future job. You’re taught how to think in terms of digital mediums for marketing. As an institution, it goes beyond the 360 degree view, showing you all the perspectives of marketing. She joined the strategic marketing group at Godrej, where she learnt how to keep a birds-eye view on marketing, branding, and research. The Godrej Properties was a unique project wherein she wasn’t only doing marketing, but also got to work in an in-house property design studio. From here, she became interested in the design side of marketing, getting involved in the process within a corporate was very different from what she thought it would be.
Role at Treemouse
Treemouse is a company that focuses on understanding the behavioural nuances of people and how these can help solve issues in marketing or product development. Using this approach, the research and work is rooted in understanding people. Her role is to look at the business development side of the projects, and she aligns the behaviours of people with big business decisions. The company works with agility in each project. As a team, she finds that the staff come from different industries and bring new thoughts and approaches to each discussion.
3 Words That Describe Her
Perseverance, generalist, earnest.
18 | Studying Business at Emory and Making the Best of a College Community - with Raghav Gupta
Raghav Gupta | Business Major, Goizueta Business School
Graduating from Modern Barakhamba School in Delhi, Raghav started his journey as a Business major at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. Here, he has had opportunities that have allowed him to discover his talents as an entrepreneur who is able to identify the best way to help people around him make the best of their abilities.
Raghav tells Arjun about his experience so far at Emory and the advantages that being in a Business school like Goizueta can provide, especially in terms of personal connections.
Episode Takeaways
His Transition to Emory
The best part about the first two years at Emory is that you can take liberal arts courses along with the Business courses. This helped his friends who were not sure about choosing Business as a major, giving them the flexibility to try different subjects. Though he was sure about Business, he had the opportunity to explore Philosophy and Political Science which were his other interests. He enjoyed his class on "Fake News" and also improved his writing through his journalism course.
His Experience at the Goizueta Business School
The faculty at Goizueta is outstanding since cost of living is low in Atlanta and it attracts the best. He had the opportunity to TA for Dr. Jagdish Sheth, a well known Marketing Guru who just received the Padma Shree. The class sizes at Goizueta are small and he enjoyed the case study approach they emphasised. He has taken part in several business competitions and even partnered with students at Georgia Tech to take part in hackathons. The community is diverse in terms of cultural backgrounds. The Indians, Chinese and Caucasians tend to build their sub-groups but intellectually everyone mingles.
Extracurricular Life on Campus
He is president of a social entrepreneurship group. They partner with refugee groups to help set up their businesses. He has also worked with some Indian ladies to help them set up a beauty salon on campus. He is VP of 180 Consulting - they advice clients and have many mentors from the industry since the alumni is close knit. Emory has a lot of support from the Greater Atlanta business community.
His 3 Strengths: Hustle, Humble, Vision
His Inspirations
He was inspired by the autobiography of Qimat Rai Gupta who started off as a small time trader to become the leader of the biggest electrical conglomerate in the world - Havells. He also admires Ratan Tata for his humility.
Education in Times of COVID
He feels that pre-COVID, students wasted time getting to class and in between classes. But now with online courses he feels everything will come down to being extremely productive. Students can use the saved time on internships and projects. Emory will probably not have in-person classes in the fall. Students are contemplating on whether they will be allowed to take a gap year or semester. Things will become very competitive next year if students are allowed to take a gap year this year.
His Education Startup
His father is a pioneer in online education. Raghav realized that there is a gap between college education and job-ready skills. He also noticed that Java Fullstack is a skill that is in high demand in any job. Anything online has to be based on a framework running behind it and that requires knowledge of Java. Colleges don't teach this as it is a very dynamic field - there are new plugins to become familiar with every few months and this is very specific to each industry. He is planning to hire people on his payroll and upscale them with these skills and then deploy them to his clients' companies. These students will require 600 hours of training and will need to come in with basic Java skills. Their jobs will be guaranteed upon finishing the course. They will get 7 lakh starting salary minimum.
Advice to Students Who Applied this Year
Everything is uncertain. Even getting a grade or a class is uncertain. Just be positive even if college is delayed by a year.
Summarize Your College Experience in 3 Words: Learning, Fun, Learning
17 | Giving up Mechanical Engineering to Become a Historian & Curator at The Smithsonian - with Abeer Saha
Abeer Saha | Art Curator, Smithsonian
Abeer enrolled at The University of Virginia with a focus on Mechanical Engineering. However, after graduation, he realised that his heart wasn’t really in it. This prompted him to make the switch to studying Environmental History. He is currently completing his PhD and working as a curator at the Smithsonian.
Abeer shares his journey through UVA and beyond with Arjun, describing the transition between fields, and even diving into his personal journey with yoga and spiritual practice.
Episode Takeaways
Transition to UVA
UVA exceeded his expectations since it was his first trip to the US and he hadn’t known what to expect. The best decision he made was to stay in a regular undergrad dorm as opposed to special international dorms, giving him a chance to interact with regular Americans. He had signed up for Mechanical Engineering and it wasn't exactly what he had expected. There was a lot of book learning. The hands-on learning with circuits and motors was reserved for the last year of the major and he was disappointed with not getting that experience in the early years. He, however, enjoyed taking classes in different non-engineering fields such as oceanography, philosophy, religion, economics etc.
Transition to Grad School
He is currently doing a PhD in Environmental History. It started with his liberal arts courses during his engineering undergrad. He decided to finish his engineering major but realized it was not his calling. His first job was as a Database Engineer - he picked up SQL and enjoyed his 2 years there. But then realized it was not what he really cared about. He remembered how much he had enjoyed writing a socio-technique paper during his undergrad at UVA on the Yamuna river and its revival. He went back to meet his advisor, who encouraged him to pursue a PhD in the field of Environmental History at UVA. He was always interested in the environment and always felt connected to the Yamuna river. He was interested in the connection between religion and environment. His work in grad school continues to focus on the Yamuna.
His 3 Strengths
Curiosity and a willingness to learn. Perseverance (in order to finish his PhD). Pursues his dreams
Learning from Failures
You can't be afraid of criticism. In India, people fear it but here in the US it's used as a way to grow.
His Current Interests
He dropped basketball in the US as everyone here was much better than in India and now plays cricket in the US. When he first came to the US, he used to play the guitar but grad school takes up a lot of time so he has not been singing and playing the guitar that much. He is currently into yoga (more on that later).
His Current Job
As a museum curator, one of things he does is create exhibitions. He has to select objects and present it using certain arguments. Curators also collect objects for posterity. He gets to have very interesting conversations with people in all walks of life while collecting objects. Curators also conduct research. He is working on an exhibition for the Smithsonian's 175th anniversary to reconstruct some technological presentations.
Online Curation during COVID
Many plans have been postponed as museums are places people physically visit. At the same time, this is an interesting time to collect objects for future generations - such as masks and photographs people have been taking during COVID.
On Spirituality
He meditates and reads a lot of philosophical literature. Yoga started off as a way of exercising at home in the last year. He found a yoga studio that he liked and has made friends there. It's helped his physical and mental well-being and he has started a yoga teacher training class. During COVID he has been taking yoga classes online. He is a huge fan of the Bhagvad Gita. He started reading it on his flight to the US 10 years ago. It offers a fascinating perspective of life. It resonates with a lot of people from different backgrounds. He also reads a lot of fantasy fiction and recommends people read Brandon Sanderson.
Advice to Students in times of COVID
To those who just graduated and for whom job prospects don't look good, keep in mind that this will pass. Use your connections to get any experience even if it's an unpaid internship. To those who might have to join their first college semester online, it's okay to be disappointed but it's also a new experience and you are part of history going through this. Things will go back to in-person classes at some point. Use this unexpected situation to look for unexpected rewards.
16 | The Trials and Thrills of a Media Relations Manager - with Emory alum, Anushka Pathak
Anushka Pathak | Associate, Weber Shandwick
Anushka studied at Mayo College, and then completed an Economics and Political Science double major at Emory University. She is currently an associate at the PR Firm, Weber Shandwick in Bombay.
Arjun and Anushka discuss her trajectory from studying Business to Economics and Political Science, and why she chose to move back to India at the start of her career.
Episode Takeaways
Transition to Emory
Anushka had attended an all girls orthodox high school, so Emory was a huge change for her. She was very nervous but the warm environment and the support of various mentors helped her adjust.
Her Mentors
Her sophomore advisor who lived in her dorm helped her navigate her transition from business school to becoming an economics major. She helped her explore different academic options. Another friend of hers introduced her to EEVM, Emory’s Entrepreneurship and Venture Management Club, where Anushka worked her way up to Director over her four years at college. One of her economics professors at Emory also taught her how to approach economics as a major, as she had never studied it as a subject in high school.
Academics
Anushka is a planner, so drifting away from her plan to do business was hard for her. However, as she started enjoying her Economics and Political Science classes over her business courses, she decided to switch streams. She kept her interest in business alive by organising a Business Hackathon at Emory every year, which is a kind of Shark Tank for colleges in the south east. In this competition, students get 48 hours to make a presentation or prototype of a business idea for a cash prize. They then pitch their ideas to CEOs of startups and Angel Investors, who could potentially help them take their ideas forward.
Her 3 strengths
Organized, Disciplined, Dedicated
Her Career Trajectory
Anushka was initially very focused on staying in the US but wasn’t able to find any internships in her sophomore year. She then got an internship with FilterCopy in Bombay and had a great experience doing marketing and PR for them. That’s when she realised she wanted to work in India as it was also becoming harder to try and stay in the US. She did a marketing and PR internship with Vogue India the following year and so when she was applying for jobs she started looking at good PR agencies in India, eventually starting working at Weber Shandwick. She really enjoys her career in PR as it keeps her on her toes, and as the spokesperson for a company, she needs to work on a lot of spontaneous content and has to come up with solutions on the go. She enjoys working under pressure and also highlights the importance of communication skills, through both writing and conversation. PR is a great avenue for growth because of news, journalism and crisis management.
A Message for Students
“Take it day by day. Take a backseat, take a step back and really figure out what you want to do during this time because you’ll never get this time back.” Anushka is spending her time during the lockdown working from home and reading.
On Her Experience at Edbrand
She enjoyed the brainstorming and essay writing the most and found her calls with Edbrand mentors very productive. She also enjoyed interacting with different students at the office and chatting with them.