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How I Got Here episodes
- Simon Johnson, Professor at MIT and former Chief Economist of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
In this episode, Simon Johnson, Professor at MIT Sloan and co-founder of the COVID-19 Policy Alliance, tells us about how he transitioned from his first career aspiration -- which was to be a rescue helicopter pilot for the Navy – to becoming the Chief Economist of the International Monetary Fund and a tenured Professor.
We cover his journey plus:
- How to persevere in spite of rejection and remain confident in yourself
- When it’s worth it to burn bridges and how to be OK with the consequences
- What it’s like to work in a political job
- Why he called for a meeting with Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker last month and all that he’s been doing in response to the COVID-19 crisis
25 min - How to persevere in spite of rejection and remain confident in yourself
- Paul Sagan, former CEO and Director at Akamai
Paul Sagan, Managing Director at General Catalyst and former CEO and Director at Akamai Technologies, shares his career journey with us. We had a great conversation with Paul and learned a lot from his journey through journalism to being the CEO of Akamai. In this episode, we talked with Paul about the following and more:
- How he applies his training in journalism to his current job as a venture capitalist
- Understand when to make a career change by making sure you've "stewed in your juices"
- How he took care of his employees and himself during the tragedy and crisis of 9/11
26 min - Chris Bell "Am I going to be excited to tell my grandkids what I did?"
In this episode, Chris Bell, CEO of Whele, tells us about how he achieved his career goal of running his own company. We cover his career journey plus:
- Making long-term goal setting easier by not getting caught up in the specificity of you goals
- How to stay true to your goals through consistent reflection on what your “65 year old self” would think
- Strategies for learning how to quickly switch functions and industries Keeping in mind that careers are long and you can make mistakes and be okay
20 min - John Chisholm: “We laid off 40% of the company I’d spent the last three years of my life building”
In this episode, we spoke with John Chisholm, serial entrepreneur, angel investor, and author of Unleash Your Inner Company: Use Passion and Perseverance to Build Your Ideal Business. John tells us about how an early setback in his career, getting fired from his job, eventually led him to build and grow a company that is part of Google today. He also describes how he persevered through the dotcom bust, taking a $300,000 personal loan and putting his house as collateral to keep his company afloat.
24 min - John Harthorne, Founder of Mass Challenge (Part 2 of 2)In this episode, John delves into the details of how he actually grew Mass Challenge from scratch. You’ll hear John talk about:
- How a hypothesis driven approach gave him the freedom to move forward, make mistakes, and learn
- How he recruited mentors to help grow MassChallenge step by step
- Why he prefers being an entrepreneur over working in an established company in a more stable role
22 min - How a hypothesis driven approach gave him the freedom to move forward, make mistakes, and learn
- John Harthorne, Founder of Mass Challenge (Part 1 of 2)
John Harthorne, founder and former CEO of MassChallenge talks to us about his career path and how pursuing struggle is the only way for him to find meaning and joy. MassChallenge is a start up accelerator headquartered in Boston, MA and as of 2019, it has helped almost 2,000 start ups raise over $5B in funding which have gone on to generate almost $3B in revenue. In this episode, we cover a lot of topics, including:
- A framing that may make career changes feel more comfortable and less risky
- The differences between management consulting and entrepreneurship
- How John made a career switch during the Great Recession
17 min - Uvini Lokuge "We're instilled with this feeling that you should always be passionate about your work, which to be honest is crazy"Uvini Lokuge talks to us about how being passionate about your work doesn't always lead to being happy.In this episode, we cover her journey plus:
- How investing in your skills early in your career can be helpful
- Building a career based on your strengths rather than shoring up your weaknesses
- Measuring a job’s fit by your day to day happiness rather than the overarching mission of the company
- What a sh*t sandwich is and how you can use the concept to help you pick the right job
22 min - Elias Hoban "Waiting to the last minute"Elias Hoban talks to us about his path from engineering and consulting to finding his ideal job as an equity research analyst.In this episode, we cover his journey plus:
- How procrastination can be beneficial in making the right decision
- The challenge of transitioning from being an engineer to working as a management consultant
- How he figured out his ideal job by reflecting on his skills and what makes him happy
- How to find that ideal job with or without business school
19 min - Elyse Neumeier: "I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up"
In this episode, Elyse Neumeier, Chief People Officer at EverQuote, tells us about how she embraced the many twists and turns of her career.
We cover her journey plus:
- What it’s like to be on the job market during a global crisis, like a recession
- How being open to serendipity and not overly-planning your career can lead you to happiness and success
- How to find new roles within a company, when you’re not enjoying your current one
- Why confidence in yourself is essential when making a career switch
- How taking every job interview that comes your way can lead to surprising opportunities
28 min - What it’s like to be on the job market during a global crisis, like a recession
About How I Got Here
From the publisher's feed
Honest stories about making career decisions.
How I Got Here is a podcast that interviews professionals about how they figured out what drives and fulfills them in their careers. By sharing these stories, we hope to help our listeners figure that out for themselves, too.