Career Undecided

Can a career your parents picked still work out? Deepika Sharma's dad found architecture in a newspaper ad. She came to like it by doing it.She grew up around doctors and wanted to study maths. Her dad wanted her in a professional course, and he'd seen her sketching, so when the ad came up he explained the job and she went with his pick. "It was not like I always wanted to be an architect," she says. "It was just an accident. Thankfully, I liked it."The liking kept growing once she was doing the work: small projects in college, then seeing the lines she'd drawn come up on site. She's honest that it could have gone the other way. If her dad had pushed her into banking, she says, she'd have been miserable. Along the way: what a construction site is really like, what architects earn next to the IT drafting jobs many graduates take, and the kind of beginner she says always does well.What you'll find out:- Going with a career her dad picked: why does she call herself fortunate?- Does an architecture degree make you an architect?- What does an architect actually do: the designing, the site, the clients?- Why do so many architecture graduates take IT drafting jobs instead, and what do they give up?- What would she tell someone just starting out?Part of Career Undecided: real career stories for people who don't have their next step figured out either.If you're mid-decision about your own path, this one's for you. Subscribe for more conversations that trade the highlight reel for the actual decision points.Watch next, Vishwadeep Kuila: Keep Looking Because Career Clues Show up. Unexpectedly: https://youtu.be/mPCPjZTJv7kStart from the beginning, Rupesh Garg: https://youtu.be/ptUsB5VNMHYNew here? The channel trailer: https://youtu.be/sPsR4Xzhdd0All the stories in order: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfQO1PswIFHkCHAPTERS0:00 When the only career you know is your parents'0:31 How a newspaper ad picked her career1:11 What architecture college is actually like4:08 Does an architecture degree make you an architect?4:34 The best feeling: seeing your drawing get built5:37 Her first job, and why she quit it to learn computers8:21 Is it tougher for a woman on site?9:13 Contractors, clients and WhatsApp: running a site10:19 The part of the job she loves most11:21 A long break, then a one-question job interview12:44 Architect pay vs IT drafting jobs14:01 What makes a beginner stand out14:42 Her advice if you're just starting out#CareerUndecided #Architecture #CareerConfusion

Worried a bad boss could waste the start of your career? It might do the opposite. Poornima Shenoy says hers made her an entrepreneur.In college, Poornima Shenoy's debate was whether to study French or political science. Then she went and did something totally different.After an MBA in marketing, she was drawn to advertising research, "way before data science and analytics were even thought of as subjects." She started off before the internet era, under a boss she calls the most brilliant lateral thinker she knows, and spent her rookie years arguing for data with copywriters and designers who ran on gut feel. She loved the job, but the money was not good enough. Her next move was what she thought was her dream job at India's leading market research firm, and it came with a bad boss. She says she's eternally grateful to her: "that made me an entrepreneur. I said I cannot work under bad bosses."She was based in Bangalore and didn't see herself leaving, but when she looked for a job, "all the options were in Bombay." Advertising, market research and FMCG weren't growing in Bangalore; technology was. So she started a headhunting business with a co-founder, with no recruitment experience at all ("Nothing, zero"), Wipro as the first customer and Infosys as the second. They ran it for 10 years, until a venture fund bought her partner and her out. After a six-month break to work out her priorities, she worked with NASSCOM and the Manipal Group, then became employee number one at the India Semiconductor Association: registering the company, opening the bank account. She gave herself 18 months to move semiconductors from the tech pages to the business pages, and did it in 11. "I never saw a career as a job." Later she started an online-learning company "a little too early": "you're planting seeds in a dry field." She exited in 2017–18. When COVID struck in 2020, people called wanting to buy it. Her answer: "you're like three years too late."What it actually looks like, in her words: "Everything is about selling." She'd teach sales, business planning, balance sheets and profit and loss in school and college: "If you can sell, you can do anything." On chip design, she says India's intrinsic strength lies in design, with hubs in Bangalore, Noida, Hyderabad and Pune, and "one chip designer creates jobs for 10 embedded software engineers, who in turn create jobs for 100 software engineers." On online learning versus college: "students need to be in college to learn social skills." On work and life: "There's nothing called balancing… how do you manage." And on choices: there are things she will not compromise on, and knowing them "removes the chaff from the wheat."For students stuck between two subjects, and the parents weighing the choice with them: the subject you debate at 18 is one fork, not the whole road.Part of Career Undecided: real career stories for people who don't have their next step figured out either.If you're mid-decision about your own path, this one's for you. Subscribe for more conversations that trade the highlight reel for the actual decision points.
0:00 French or political science: her college debate0:36 Advertising research before data science, and data vs. gut feel2:33 A first job she loved, then a dream job with a bad boss3:11 "Taking risk is part of my DNA"3:40 Staying in Bangalore and starting up: Wipro and Infosys as first customers4:52 Headhunting with zero experience: "If you can sell, you can do anything"6:03 A six-month break, then employee No. 1 at the India Semiconductor Association8:14 One chip designer, 10 embedded engineers, 100 software engineers10:50 "I never saw a career as a job"11:14 An online-learning company, a little too early13:31 Can online learning replace college?16:19 Confidence, money, and commas vs. full stops19:29 Today's girls, and what she won't compromise on#CareerUndecided #Entrepreneurship #CareerConfusion

His parents thought he should become a doctor. After a degree in dairy engineering, Vishwadeep Kuila says, "even then I had no clue what I wanted to do in life."He was good at biology and planned to drop a year to prepare seriously for medical, until his dad suggested dairy engineering, with medical still open if he got through the next year. He got through to dairy engineering. His father wanted him to do an MS in the US; he wanted to try a job first, and the excitement of earning won. At 21 he was a shift in charge at a dairy factory near Varanasi, managing supervisors and workers of 45 and 50 who looked at him like "this little kid has come here to try and tell us what to do." Nine months in, he didn't think he'd learn much more there. Colleagues were preparing for something called CAT. "Oh, what is this CAT?"He prepared with an old GMAT book, took a bus to Mughalsarai and an unreserved compartment to Delhi for the exam, and got into IIM. On day one he was handed one and a half, two feet of cyclostyled notes, and asked if that was for the term. "This is for this week." Godrej picked two from his batch, then decided to take only one. Nestle wanted him in production first. So he went into advertising, his "second love": six or seven years across three agencies, including a mosquito-mat launch where a piece dropped off the artwork and the pack got printed with "harmful for the kids." Then came Reynolds pens, a company run by two gentlemen, where he learned how you grow with an entrepreneur, and signed Sachin Tendulkar as brand ambassador in less than a week.What it actually looks like, in his words: his first advertising job was client servicing. "Run around, get artworks," reach the client on time, convince them the creative is fine, or "you get framed by the creative director." Giving clients the gyaan he'd dreamed of? "Never." What business school gave him was the ability to "figure out a situation quickly and come out with solutions." His advice now: "figure out very early in life what you like," because "the other guy who likes that and is doing it will always outshine you." In future, he says, it won't be education alone, "it's going to be skill," and specialists are in demand again. He's learning digital and performance marketing himself.For students who don't yet know what they like, and the parents helping them look: he didn't know either, and he says today's world asks you to find out earlier.Part of Career Undecided: real career stories for people who don't have their next step figured out either.If you're mid-decision about your own path, this one's for you. Subscribe for more conversations that trade the highlight reel for the actual decision points.

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/mPCPjZTJv7k
CHAPTERS0:00 Lost interest in studies, and parents who wanted a doctor0:38 Drop a year for medical, or take up dairy engineering?1:23 "Even then I had no clue what I wanted to do"1:52 Shift in charge at 21, managing men twice his age2:54 "What is this CAT?" Preparing from a village4:33 The group discussion and the interview5:25 Day one at IIM: "This is for this week"7:10 Godrej changes its mind, Nestle wants production8:21 Client servicing: stuck between agency and client9:15 A mosquito-mat shoot, and a pack printed "harmful for the kids"10:40 Giving clients gyaan? "Never"11:20 The switch to Reynolds, and signing Sachin12:33 From 50-paise refills to a box full of pens13:55 "I never knew what I wanted to do," and his advice now15:39 Marketing to a distracted consumer#CareerUndecided #Marketing #CareerConfusion

If you don't know what career to pick, or your child doesn't, you're not the only one. Most people didn't know either.Career Undecided is real, unscripted conversations with people who stumbled into their careers, sometimes luckily and sometimes without meaning to. Gautam Sivaraman lost his interview call letter, his cash and every original certificate on the train the night before his first job interview. Narayan Kumar finished his studies unable to think of a single reason anyone should give him a job. They don't have all the answers. Neither will you. But you'll get to yours.

Like talking to people you've never met? Lalita Iyer shows what that takes as a reporter: homework before every question, a 3am wait, going to the story.She spent a career getting the Naxal's side of the story, then the police's, and found the same thing underneath both: a private sense of justice everyone carries, whether or not they ever act on it.Senior journalist Lalita Iyer talks through a career that spanned print, television and digital: Bihar election coverage, a 3am interview with a state politician, three days piecing together how four Naxals escaped after shooting a police officer, and what it actually took to be one of three women reporters working the crime and politics beat in Hyderabad.What being a reporter actually involves, in her own words: a journalism degree matters "up to the first job", and after that it's entirely your contacts. There's no formal mentorship structure; your editor is the closest thing to one. And the real qualifying test isn't talent, it's whether you're willing to travel to the story yourself instead of calling it in. Otherwise "you will never get the true aura of a story."Part of Career Undecided: real career stories for people who don't have their next step figured out either.If you're mid-decision about your own path, this one's for you. Subscribe for more conversations that trade the highlight reel for the actual decision points.

CHAPTERS0:00 The real skill of journalism: doing your homework before you ask a question1:14 Newspaper deadlines vs. magazine deadlines2:39 One career, three big shifts: print, television, digital3:09 From a popular column to demanding the politics beat, and landing in Bihar3:46 Waiting for a scoop: a 3am interview with Chandrababu Naidu5:46 Two TV offers turned down to stay in print6:41 Advice for newcomers: look beyond the politics beat7:55 "There is a vigilante in all of us": the Naxals' side and the police's9:01 Why it's "criminal" not to travel to a story yourself9:28 Three days piecing together a Naxal escape11:05 One of three women reporters in Hyderabad, learning the language on the job12:58 The sourcing "brotherhood" women reporters are shut out of15:15 Does a journalism degree matter? "Up to the first job"17:36 Travel, discomfort, and stories you can see the sweat in19:07 Her advice to young journalists: there is no small assignment#CareerUndecided #JournalismCareer #WomenInJournalism

Love doing something but can’t see who’d pay you for it? Here’s how Narayan Kumar got from one library book to a paid job without ever applying for one.He finished an MA in Economics with no idea what came next. He'd only done the MA because he'd had the same problem after his BA. Then, walking through the Connemara Library, he spotted a book someone had hidden on the wrong shelf. It was called The Craft of Copywriting. He didn't know what copywriting was. He read it cover to cover that evening, and by the time he went to sleep he was certain he'd become a copywriter.Narayan Kumar's career in advertising began almost entirely by accident. He studied under industry practitioners at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication but never applied for a single job. His worry was simple: "Why will anybody give you a job?" His friends worried more than he did, and they got him a copy test. What got him hired wasn't his creative writing but the proofreading page at the end. Later, a phone call on the studio floor offered him a senior writer's role in Bangalore at two and a half times his salary. He said yes on the spot, though he'd never been to Bangalore.Also in this conversation: a two-year fight to make De Beers' global "shadows" ads work for India, why he thinks a creative boss owes their allegiance to the consumer rather than the client, the schoolboy nicknames (Dalda, Armstrong, Auto Rickshaw) that became his private test for whether an idea is any good, and how an ad man ended up building his agency's workflow software himself.His advice to anyone who wants a creative career: "Get out of yourself." You won't become a better ad person by studying ads. You'll become one by having a life outside them.For students who don't know what comes after their degree, and for the parents watching with them: sometimes the plan finds you.Part of Career Undecided: real career stories for people who don't have their next step figured out either.CHAPTERS0:00 Cold open: "Why will anybody give you a job?"0:30 MA Economics, no plan, and a copywriting book hidden on the wrong library shelf1:46 Learning advertising from practitioners at IIMC2:19 Why he didn't apply for a single job2:46 The copy test, and the proofreading page that got him hired4:19 A phone call on the studio floor: Bangalore, at two and a half times the pay5:13 "Nothing is worth that much": why you need a life outside the office5:56 The international workshop where everyone finished at exactly 20 minutes7:26 Work friends vs. the friend who says "let's go eat chaat"8:07 Checklist clients vs. gut-feel clients8:45 De Beers' shadow ads: a two-year fight to make them Indian10:48 Being a creative boss: your allegiance is to the consumer, not the client11:44 Dalda, Armstrong, Auto Rickshaw: schoolboy nicknames as a test for ideas16:20 How an ad man ended up building software in Ruby on Rails17:52 Advice for anyone entering advertising today: get out of yourself#CareerUndecided #CareerInAdvertising #CareerConfusion

Neha Parashar didn't take the entrance exam seriously. Her father had bought the form, and she knew nothing about HR or management: "I was pretty clueless." For the exams she cared about, her father drove her there. For this one, she took the bus. Then HR happened.Before that, it was journalism. She was going round Delhi colleges working out which subjects her marks would qualify her for when she spotted a journalism course. It had an entrance exam, so she sat it and got in. Her first job was interning as a journalist at the Times of India, where a senior's "very, very severe" scolding for not knowing her job left her with "more love for copy" and a strong eye for errors. The internship was supposed to last two months and kept going: she wrote for the health and careers pages. After graduating, she was at a crossroad again. Working on a TV special for India's 50th Independence Day made her want to learn documentary filmmaking, so she applied to Jamia with an excellent portfolio. It was "the first main interview that I failed."In HR, the job "didn't turn out to be the kind of stuff that we studied." Recruitment was a big chunk, and she gravitated towards anything that needed writing: newsletters, recruitment ads, Friday-night copy checks over fax. She wasn't thinking about what came next: "I was very immersed." After 20 years she can see the common thread: one-on-one conversations, as a journalist researching articles, as an interviewer, and now as a coach. She eventually quit corporate to coach full time, which she describes as taking "a tiny sliver" of the work she'd always done and zooming in on it.What it actually looks like, in her words: recruitment first (sourcing through ads, vendors and agencies, shortlisting CVs by keyword with the hiring manager, then interviewing), later learning and development, with talent acquisition important "all through, even in senior roles." Hiring "is not intensely objective"; interviews come down to competence and comfort. When you choose a job, she says to weigh three things: learning, role and pay. Her rule of thumb is at least two of the three: "Don't move just for one." Move only for pay and you're trading your long term for the short term. And on boredom: "a job is not for entertainment." Repetitive work has value, because the learning comes when something finally deviates. "Be afraid of boredom when you've stopped learning entirely." Her advice for anyone starting out: prepare for interviews instead of winging it, collect experiences, and keep a "career inventory".For students afraid the wrong career will bore them, and for the parents weighing it with them: boredom isn't the warning sign. Not learning is.Part of Career Undecided: real career stories for people who don't have their next step figured out either.If you're mid-decision about your own path, this one's for you. Subscribe for more conversations that trade the highlight reel for the actual decision points.CHAPTERS0:00 "As a coach, I will not instruct. I will not advise."0:31 Looking for a Delhi college her marks qualified for, and finding journalism1:06 First job: interning at the Times of India, and a senior's scolding2:03 At a crossroad again: a TV special, documentaries, and the Jamia interview she failed3:13 "Then HR happened": the entrance exam she took the bus to3:56 The job wasn't the textbook: recruitment, ad copy and Friday-night faxes5:27 "I was very immersed": the common thread after 20 years6:05 Shortlisting CVs by keyword, and the hunt for Enterprise Java Beans7:29 How hiring decisions get made: competence and comfort8:57 Seven or eight interview rounds, and why candidates should evaluate the company too12:39 Learning, role and pay: never move for just one13:18 When is it time to move? The value of mundane work14:33 "A job is not for entertainment": boredom vs. burnout17:27 Prepare, collect experiences, keep a career inventory#CareerUndecided #CareerInHR #CareerConfusion