Ready to Work: Recent Episodes
Brij Sethi
Join Brij Sethi, a former Fortune-100 CTO and VP, so that you can get the answers you need in stories. Tune in for new ideas and motivation. Use these insights to embrace success in the early years of work!
Dr Geetha shares how saying yes to the choices life presented to her has made her successful. Being a person who is averse to conflict, she has steadily climbed the ladder by getting others to say Yes to the purpose and vision she holds steady. Listen to her story -
- Saying Yes (0:14)
- Engineering was a choice (0:56)
- Masters (of) Innovation (1:56)
- Career - Innovations in India (3:03)
- Career - Finding ideas they need but don't know they do (5:42)
- Gods play their game (6:36)
- Decision to dive in (9:45)
- Raise funds (11:05)
- Niramai Health in Action (12:02)
- Passion wins all. The world conspires with you (12:57)
You can also listen to it on brijsethi.com/s2-e17
About Dr. Geetha Manjunath
Dr. Geetha Manjunath is the Founder, CEO and CTO of NIRAMAI Health Analytix, who has led the company to develop a breakthrough solution for detecting early stage breast cancer using Artificial Intelligence.
Geetha holds a PhD from The Indian Institute of Science in Computer Science and management education from Kellogg’s Chicago. She has proposed and led multiple AI projects at Xerox Research and Hewlett Packard India. Before starting NIRAMAI, Geetha was a Lab Director for Data Analytics Research at Xerox India. Geetha has received many international and national recognition for her innovations and entrepreneurial work, including CSI Gold Medal, BIRAC WinER Award 2018 and is also on the Forbes List of Top 20 Self-Made Women 2020. She was recently awarded the Accenture Vahini Innovator of the Year Award from Economic Times and Women Entrepreneur of the Year 2020 by BioSpectrum India.
Geetha is also an inventor of 18 US patents and more pending grant.
Today, Radha gets goosebumps because the Fractals have taken over and she is not there anymore. Listen to her selfless story.
- I can do anything (0:13)
- I learn to speak my mind (1:16)
- I find joy in doer-ship (4:17)
- First exposure to poverty (5:43)
- Social Entrepreneurship is born (7:01)
- The Fractal Enterprise (8:12)
- Fruits of Fractal (10:57)
- I am not there anymore (14:38)
You can find the episode on brijsethi.com/s2-e16
Everyday Ullas strives to improve the face of Education with his Entrepreneurial chops. All his life he has tried to be true to his values.
- Opening Notes (0:17)
- Childhood (2:52)
- Broadening Horizons (3:54)
- Early years of work (5:05)
- Time in US and HP (6:47)
- Rethinking Goals (7:41)
- In Wipro (8:24)
- Seeds of Entrepreneurship (8:48)
- Early Entrepreneurship (10:02)
- Thanks to Mini (11:33)
- What gives him satisfaction (12:02)
- Future Plans (12:37)
- Advice to young tech professionals (13:02)
You can find the episode on brijsethi.com/s2-e15
Sreekanth has nurtured a lifelong passion for service with Education as focus. He has sought to balance all along.
- Personal and Professional life
- Economic and Social Focus
- Freedom and Conformance
This is his story -
- Childhood - satisfaction came early (0:38)
- Lifelong romance with technology and doing begins (2:34)
- First job and unconventional learnings (3:32)
- Lessons from Europe (4:21)
- Making the decision to do a MBA (5:16)
- Founding Iksula (6:50)
- Working for a CSR function (7:52)
- The continuing quest for balance (8:49)
- Diving deeper into the cause of Education (9:23)
- Founding NLightN (10:23)
- Advice to young tech professionals (10:46)
Find the episode on brijsethi.com/s2-e14
Somewhere along the road, Rohit moved from being a speedster to a marathon driver. So too is the story of his Singapore startup - Crux Labs.
- Childhood memories of driving (00:13)
- Things driving has taught me (3:15)
- Applying to MIT Sloan for a MBA (4:58)
- How to Reclaim back your Mojo (7:01)
- Giving Birth to Crux Labs (8:53)
- 1st Kickstarter Experience (10:15)
- Kickstarter 2 - Successful Sales (11:44)
- Secret of Selling to Small Businesses (12:51)
- Success Secrets for Young Tech Professionals (13:41)
Find the episode on brijsethi.com/s2-e13
Shantanu - Chaks to his army buddies - lives his life from one adventure to another. He also always connects the dots. Learn more from his story -
- Growing up in States (0:12)
- The Army beckons (1:07)
- Meets his Enemy. Defeats it? (3:13)
- Tall claims to the Commanding Officer (4:28)
- The theatre of War (6:16)
- Looks for a job in the big bad world (7:24)
- First Job - Glamour too (9:03)
- Fills up on Gas. Gets into Trainings (10:19)
- Mantra for more adventures (11:12)
- Passion comes from Connecting the Dots (11:49)
- Advice to young tech professionals (12:48)
Find the episode on brijsethi.com/s2-e12
Sandy is a spiritual traveller. This has been his primary quest in life. He is also a soft skills trainer and surely imparts human skills as well, as he goes about his simple life.
- Spiritually inclined childhood (0:30)
- Call of the spirit in teen and college years (2:37)
- Visit to an Ashram, after leaving everything (3:22)
- A new direction to his life (5:51)
- He lightens up (9:11)
- Leaves everything again. Gets ready to walk (9:50)
- The Walk (11:38)
- Life Lessons (14:39)
Find the episode on brijsethi.com/s2-e11
Sreeni is Head of Client Partnerships for Altimetrik Corp in Europe and UK. They provide digital transformation services as trusted partners while leveraging offshore teams also.
- Sreeni Learns English (0:13)
- A Job and Sreeni seeks advice (4:04)
- Sreeni does his Masters (5:34)
- We are all a sum of people we have experienced (7:22 )
- Advice to young tech professionals (9:33)
- Recap (10:40)
Find the episode on brijsethi.com/s2-e10
Akshatha is Head of Content Marketing at MoEngage Inc. They are an insights led, customer engagement platform.
- The first boss has a lasting influence (1:17)
- What does Content Marketing role entail (3:26)
- How to write a decent Blog Post - lessons from CM (6:14)
- Logical tracking and analytics complement creativity (7:12)
- Who should get into Content Marketing (8:16)
- How many Content Marketing jobs are out there? (10:24)
- A typical day in the life of a Content Marketer (11:03)
- Her advice to young tech professionals (12:45)
Find the episode on brijsethi.com/s2-e9
JV is the founder partner of PM Power Consulting. They help teams turn Agile.
- How does Agile change life for doers (1:32 )
- Being open to feedback is a key to success (3:01)
- When Agile is around, this is what makes you succeed (4:02)
- Doable Actions for embracing Agile in Spirit (7:32)
- How things change for a Manager in Agile (8:46)
- A simple doable action for Managers (12:13)
- Advice for young professionals (13:26 )
Find the episode on brijsethi.com/s2-e8
Pravin Hungund is the Chief Technologist and Global Head - Technovation at Wipro Limited.
- Early struggles. Search for a job (01:18)
- Thriving on Crisis. Again and again (02:25)
- Importance of leveraging both inherent strengths and desired skillsets (03:57)
- Every success equals 3-4 setbacks (05:12)
- Many job changes or 14 years in 1 job? His approach (05:54)
- The right reasons to change a job (07:57)
- Source of Pravin's passion (09:25)
- Advise to young tech professionals (11:48)
Find the episode on brijsethi.com/s2-e7
Hare flung the beer bottle at the tortoise in anger. It was empty and thanks to its previous contents, both of them were tipsy now.
'Thaakk !!' - It hit hard on the shell of tortoise's back and broke.
'You broke the bottle, now you clean it', shrieked the hare as he stormed out of the room and out of the flat in anger.
The tortoise had ample time to think as he slowly swept clean the broken glass pieces. Continue reading on brijsethi.com/s2-e6
Self directed learners get into technical documentation without help. Read the story on brijsethi.com/s2-e5.
Ranjani is the Director of Business Analytics and Data Sciences at VMware. She believes in fashioning success on her terms. She has done very well in her career and you can learn from her how to be in the driver's seat and stay there.
- You have to be in the driving seat (00:38)
- Make the transition to making your own decisions (01:55)
- Life happens to us. We can only shape it with knowledge (03:58)
- How to lead your life with intention (4:53)
- How to find the ideas to differentiate yourself (7:51)
- An insight for those with imposter syndrome (9:25)
- Real learning comes from doing things (11:12)
- Stacking skills to differentiate yourself (13:21)
Dharma is what you love to do. Something you would do even if nobody paid you for it. If you find your Dharma, you find happiness in your work. And work is where we spend the majority of our waking hours.
Take inspiration from Kotur so that you too can find your dharma like he did.
Kotur is the author of 16 books and has dedicated his life to being an exemplary teacher. For his day job, he works at Wipro, helping young people transition from campus to a productive work life in many different ways.
- Humble rural background in early years. His influencers (01:02)
- Kotur the note-maker (02:45)
- Struggles of moving to a city (04:18)
- The DNA for a born-teacher (05:40)
- Kotur's teaching secrets (08:10)
- Story of his 1st book (of total 16) (09:05)
- Dharma unchanged in corporate world (10:55)
- Advice on finding your Dharma (12:08)
- Advice to young tech professionals (13:34)
Today's episode is about Mindset. It is Everything! Sid's Success is testimony to that. At a young age, he is a managing partner at EY. EY is one amongst the big-4 professional services firms in the world.
Find out how to make mindset happen for you!
- College meant, getting things done (00:54)
- Mindset of a team makes all the difference. Find co-founders here (02:50)
- Secret of Sid's rapid rise (04:38)
- Seek out (many) different things to do (05:29)
- Take the bumps in your stride (07:10)
- Managing stresses. Staying Sane (08:54)
- Bike builder Sid. Rider too (11:07)
- Advice to young tech professionals (12:05)
- Insights from top of the summit (13:18)
Today's episode is about what aspects of remote work will forever be around. How to succeed with it both as doer and manager. Priti is a senior leader in Wipro and has successfully remote worked since 2008.
- Remote Work for Priti started in 2007 (01:12)
- What Priti does differently in remote work (01:41)
- Guidance for managers who have remote workers (05:14)
- Priti has built her entire career in 1 Company over 23 years (06:52)
- Her mantra for long term success (07:34)
- Balancing family and work as a working mother, devoted to both (10:20)
- Advice to young tech professionals (12:14)
Today's episode is for young professionals who are interested in managing their money wisely.
- What is monthly budgeting and how to do it? (1:25)
- Using your credit card wisely. (7:15)
- How to use the credit for maximum benefits (9:40)
- Whether to take a bank loan for higher studies (12:00)
If you have started earning recently, then some tips from an expert can help. Jitendra Chopra - a practicing Chartered Accountant - shares his insights here.
Enjoy!
If you are thinking about being an entrepreneur soon after college then this episode is for you. Maybe, you are want to be an entrepreneur for a purpose.
Chetan is the face of purpose based entrepreneurship. As an entrepreneur he has tasted all flavours of success - first being in a job and excelling in it, both in India and in the US. Then being an entrepreneur soon after college.
Chetan boils down his success mantra to 'Do what you love, Love what you do!'. In this episode he shows you how.
He also answers questions such as
- Is entrepreneurial family background a must? (8:30)
- Should I join my father's business? (9:30)
- Do I need co-founders? (11:00)
- Bootstrap, Organic Growth or VC Money? (11:45)
- Does being an introvert disqualify me? (13:15)
Enjoy!
Pandemic stress can continue to build up and hurt you. So too endless screen time. In this episode, Krishna Prakash walks us through a demo of Yoga Nidra. You should try it out and see if it works for you.
Krishna is the founder or Shrimath Yoga, located just outside Bangalore. He can be reached on krishna-prakash.com
The demo begins at 4:40 and concludes at 21:40. You will need to sit comfortably or lie down and remain undisturbed, while you try it.
You can do technical writing to boost your brand. You can review technology and trends. You can shape opinions and possibilities. You can influence adoption of new products and services even if your day job is something else.
Technical writing is a full time profession too, for many. The average annual american wage for a technical writer is 75K. For every 15 or so coding jobs, there is a technical writer. It could be you.
Nibu Thomas' talks about how you can prepare for this. Practical and down-to-earth meets creativity and expressed passion in Nibu. He is an associate director at WhatFix - a startup that provides bolt-on in-app digital experiences to ease technology challenges in the enterprise world.
You don't have good teachers. Your classmates are simply not interested. You can't find a project to do. Are you facing these challenges?
Many tier-2 colleges have indifferent education where talent and passion are stifled.
You can build your own path forward, out of this, by joining and contributing to open source projects. Harsh Bardhan Mishra shows you the way, based on his own experience of last 1 1/2 years.
Harsh also recommends you check out - https://stackoverflow.blog/2020/08/03/getting-started-with-contributing-to-open-source/ - to get started.
Many students, give up on being a passionate engineer without even trying, after the disappointment of not getting into an IIT.
They do not realize that scoring marks in a competitive exam is not the same as being a good engineer and being valued for solving real problems creatively.
If you're in a tier two college and you want to be at par with an IIT pass out at the end of four years...
if you are in mechanical, because you did not get computer science and you want to be ready for a software engineering job at the end of four years...
You can do so by forming a community of like-minded passionate friends in your college and moving forward as a group. Together, you can do much more.
We have with us Kaushik Balasundar today. He's just finishing his engineering. While studying, Kaushik formed a community around learning ROS (robot operating system). It is a bit tough to get started on. Then they participated in the international conference on intelligent robots and systems and other competitions by building many different robots.
They won awards and it reinforced their confidence. Now Kaushik is headed to Carnegie Mellon university for his masters in robotics.
Above all Kaushik is a great engineer right out of college.
Have you ever been so angry that you went out of control? Forget colleagues, you almost did not care for the boss either. Do you want to fix this? Then you should explore EQ.
EQ stands for Emotional quotient and we will be exploring it in this podcast. Today we have with us SriVibhav Balaram.
Vibhav is a people's person and he puts himself in your shoes. This is his secret to being a very capable and successful manager. He is the Managing Director and General Manager for Vocera Communications.
EQ begins with self awareness and helps anyone to manage her own self better. From there it extends to social awareness of others at an emotional level and helps you manage relationships with other in much better ways.
Someone who works with authenticity and humility and listens well to others, is already on the path to harnessing the power of EQ. Listen on for more ..
We have with us - Sheenam Ohrie. She is the Vice President of Dell Digital Services Online. Prior to this, she has worked in very senior management roles in Dell, Infosys and SAP labs also.
Sheenam started her career as a fantastic technical engineer and has rapidly risen through the ranks with her vision and leadership.
She talks to us about Imposter Syndrome.
Imposter Syndrome is a sense of doubt or inadequacy that gets to even the most competent and capable of people. It can prevent us from sharing our ideas, building our network or looking for opportunities.
Today we are looking to understand how it plays out and what we can do to tackle it.
Saurabh Kale is a young HR Leader on the rise.
He is here to speak about how to shape your brand and online presence, when you are just getting out of college.
Saurabh is passionate about helping others learn and do their best. This is his passion. And if you listen between the lines today’s podcast episode is also about living your passion.
Learning for Saurabh did not stop when he passed out of college. Over 15 years he has added 18 Certifications to his credit and the list of his admirers on Linkedin is incredibly long. They admire him, because he cared and he served.
Saurabh shares 3 stories about himself. His first story is about finding your mojo.
His second story is from a lesson he learnt early on. If you ask, you will get it. If you keep it to yourself, then people will never know what you are looking for.
His final story is about putting it out there when you are operating from a place of passion, and using both online and offline opportunities.
Enjoy!
Looking for a job or doing well at work is not easy. There are many failures and rejections to overcome along the way. Sundara Nagarajan joins the conversation to talk about resilience, deep work and learning to fail better. He is the Managing Director of Innovation Scaleup Advisors, and a champion at running the long distance race.
Many years ago when he passed out of IIT, he did not stop learning. He in fact, took it upon himself to dive deeper into technology than anyone else around him. SN is no stranger to persistence, be it across businesses he has created or be it across helping others. He has taught for 17 years at IIIT Bangalore out of a long-term commitment to helping others succeed.
Sreekanth Prabhu is a Professor and Head of Department at CMR Institute of Technology, Department of Information Science and Engineering. He joins the conversation today to demystify the path to higher education, in India and abroad.
If you are in college or have been working for a few years and have wondered if you should go for higher studies — this episode is for you. The conversation today addresses questions like — what are the different options, how do they differ, which is the right one for me, and many more!
Rashmi Utnal is the Global People Operations Manager at Workspan and has worked in HR for nearly 15 years. A good many of these years she has hired people from campuses for many different roles.
She joins the conversation today to give tips on how to make your resume, how to prepare for interviews, and how to keep a positive mindset while job hunting. If you're looking for a new opportunity, this episode is for you!