Who says you need to graduate… to start a career?

Hi! I’m 23 years old and i’m one the most crucial decision maker at this company.

Hiring people, thinking of the new product ideas, creating marketing campaigns, creating content, all of this and even setting budgets. Sometimes, also leading teams. But 3 years back when I graduated, I was scared that I was going to go from undergrad to unemployed. There was no way I was going to go in my family business, it was just too early and I couldn’t study anymore for MBA. I didn’t want to do any average desk work or sales job.

I wanted a killer kind of a job, the kind of a job that I have right now.

On paper, I was quite an average but otherwise I was quite confident because i’d spent time and taken opportunities to find the right kind of mentors, to get more career clarity and to expose myself to different kinds of places people and situations.

In the first year of my college the restaurant I loved the most, I started waiting tables there, got free coffee and within the next two months I started handling their social media account and a few months later I thought why not go for an internship to a bigger firm? I went to Colgate. I hated the the vibe and I also did not like the corporate job. At least I realized that i’m a very practical person and I like action and after that organised a teacher’s training session with 3000 teachers in collaboration with the government of my state. Taught emotional intelligence to kids and then eventually I ended up with an internship through Internshala where I told the people that you know what don’t worry about the money i’m going to travel and i’m going to do your market survey. I don’t need money what I need is some real solid work. I was never sitting at home.

After college got over and it was time actually for me to go out there and find a job, the only thing I cared about was, who am I going to work with? Am I going to get to work with that person closely? Is that person going to mentor me? Is that person going to give me exposure of the world and make me learn skills that I have not learnt so far? and is that person going to help me look at my career from a long term perspective? That is what I went for and here I am.

Career doesn’t start from the day you end your college, it starts from the day you enter and if you want to go far, intelligence is not going to help neither is my parent’ connections going to help. What’s going to work is to start. Taking up opportunities, trying our hands at new things, looking for mentors. That is what works and if you want to go far and you wanna get there fast you gotta start early and the best time to start, the earliest time to start is, NOW.