My First Job Podcast - Real Career Stories for India/Indian Freshers

Aparna Chandrashekar has trained tens of thousands of people for IT companies in India. It's a skill that came to the fore when newly minted Indian companies had to scale rapidly to meet the new opportunities that opened up in the early 2000's from US outsourcing Her linguistics abilities that served her well as a grammar teacher came handy for neutralizing regional accents and she found her purpo...

Dr Srinivasan Periathiruvadi knew that starting a private, not for profit blood bank in India would be a daunting job. With Dr. Saranya, who joined him early on, he went ahead anyway in 1995. It involved education, persuasion and maintaining uncompromising quality standards. Jeevan Blood Bank paved the way for testing and raising the quality of blood dispensed in the country. As well as getting th...

Karthik Thoguluva thought he'd make a career in VFX, something he was passionate about. But a persistent health condition forced him to turn to Yoga. And that's where he found both meaning and deliverance. What started merely as a way to cure the condition became the lodestar of his life. It was as if he found his calling almost by chance - because if it wasn't for the health problem, he may have...

Vejay Anand graduated as a pharmacist but then, went into doing an MBA. Marriage, advertising and product marketing happened. He joined Cafe Coffee Day during its meteoric rise in India and put in systems and standard operating procedures to drive efficiencies. He blew hot and cold, moving from coffee to beer. His love for teaching and writing led him down the path to becoming a brand historian an...

Muralidharan Subramanian has sold instant coffee and milk powder in the hamlets of Bodhi and Theni in Tamil Nadu and Maggi Noodles on the streets of Hyderabad. He's sold franchises in the US, chocolates and tomato paste in Africa - and now, he's the Global Sales Head for smart parking solutions for a US based company. Murali is the embodiment of the fluent fast-talking salesperson who sells with p...

Gayathri Nayagam has a master's in international business. And at a point in her life, she wanted to work at Jebel Ali's Free Trade Zone. She fell in love, got married and moved to the small temple town of Thenkasi in South India, where her husband's family had a decades-old business. Gayathri has a practical streak and a work ethic that helped her get through some of the most difficult stretches...

Deepika Sharma runs a boutique architecture company called D Plus Y, along with her husband Yogi. They manage several projects, big and small, together. Deepika comes from a family of doctors, but she was quite sure that practicing medicine was not her goal in life. She enjoyed sketching and her father decided that Architecture would be a good professional option - and it was! Deepika talks about...

Dr Alby Anand Kurian has had a multifaceted career in marketing theory and practice, which is quite rare. He's taught at Universities in India and across the world, including in Singapore, New York and UK. He's currently Senior Faculty at Exeter University in the UK. Apart from Reality Plus, there are several other papers he has published on Marketing theory. So is Affordable Risk where he explain...

Poornima Shenoy illustrates how comprehensive policy, backed by a talented team of industry leaders, helped companies enter the Indian semiconductor industry. She knew the power of taking risks and embrace new opportunities after assessing what exactly needed to be done. She also speaks of how her early upbringing ensured that she never put limits on her abilities or her imagination - and how men...

Vishwadeep Kuila initially graduated in dairy technology and even got his first job in a dairy plant. But cracking the CAT exam and landing up at IIT Ahmedabad changed everything and made him a lifelong practitioner of marketing. He speaks of what it took to build a career in advertising, followed by 13 years spent in marketing at GM Pens - the Indian company behind Reynolds. And how he brought pr...

Neha Parashar has had a long and successful career in HR and recruitment. She has built this into a powerful coaching approach helping senior professionals advance and navigate their careers She speaks of the importance of maintaining a career inventory to track experiences, accomplishments, and challenges. Learn how to collect and journal your career moments and gain clarity and sincerity of a pr...

After completing an MA in Economics and a PG Diploma in Advertising, Narayan Kumar's first stop was as a writer in Shilpi Advertising. From there to working on campaigns for some of the largest brands in the country to learning programming was a creative leap. Along with rediscovering an old love - the classical guitar. Interesting people make interesting career moves. Enlightened companies like U...

Usha Krishnamoorthy's career as a Career Psychologist was more about taking chances than pure intent. Before that she tried her hand at several things Skills #TherapeuticExperience #ProfessionalDevelopment #TherapyTechniques #EnhancingTherapy #ClientWellbeing #TherapySuccess Earlier, she worked with Chennai Volunteers, an organization connecting volunteers with NGOs and individuals in need. and ta...

Lalita Iyer has had a long and successful career as a journalist. She was Principal Correspondent at The Week magazine and spent years at Eeenadu. She has written about everything from beauty to politics to wellness. She shares her inspiring path from a top student to a successful journalist. The steps that led to her dream career, and find inspiration for your own journey. #StudentToJournalist #U...

Gautam Sivaraman, Chief Delivery Officer, Access Healthcare started out on his first job thinking it would be for life. Little did he know about the twists and turns that lay ahead. It wasn't just about coping but coming out on top. Discover how India's BPO industry has transformed over the years, embracing complex processes and diverse talent. Learn about the high-skilled resources in call center...

PG Subramanian, COO of Amnet Systems speaks of his career experiences and the decisions he made. It gives young people points to ponder when transitioning from studying to seeking a career. He started off in the 50 degree heat of the shopfloor in a factory but that did not deter him from pursuing his next project. As he says - salary was never the primary motivation. There was a hunger to learn wh...