You Must Know This.....

I remember the first time I saw what real wealth looked like. I was from a small family farm, and had moved to CT for grad school. Driving around the “Gold Coast” of CT, I saw things people would only see in magazines - bentleys, supercars, massive homes, etc.. it was just mind-blowing that someone had *that much* money.

I thought it had to be rare. At least, that’s how I felt growing up - no one had money like that.

Turns out, it’s not that rare. There are over 14 million people right now who have a net worth over $1 million dollars. Over 4 million people in the US have a net worth over $3 million dollars….and I could go on and on.

Supercar status is obviously a lot more than $1 million or $3 million net worth…but it is not as rare as most people believe.

Most people stay in their small circles their entire life.

Their circles don’t seem to be *that* small, but they are really very limiting. I know, because it was my circle too.

They’re people you’ve grown up with, gone to school with, people in your neighborhood, friends of your family, etc…

It keeps you around the same things - the same mindset, the same opportunities, the range of wealth…

You have no idea what is out there, and so no real idea what is possible & attainable for you.

In my time in grad school (and after it), I got to meet a lot of people who were doing amazing things…and making amazing amounts of money. Business founders, hedge fund guys, etc…

The realization? They weren’t special.

They weren’t any smarter than other people I knew, or somehow more motivated. They just knew of other possibilities many don’t even know existed, and went for them.

What you are aware of sets what you think is possible for your own life - it determines the choices you make, the goals you set, and what you do.

Thinking about this changed the course of my life, because I knew what was possible for me.

So one thing I know increases your chances of wealth? Exposure.

See what’s out there, and get outside of your own small circle. You might be amazed at what is possible for you too.

-Julie Gurner

RBI Grade B or a 18LPA Private Job?

Rather than comparing the present salary in both the jobs, I would compare career in two scenarios. The decision is individual’s, because at the end it is like what you like more:

1. RBI is a life time job and private job is daily fight- In RBI, every 3–4 months you get a reasonable salary hike, every-year you get some increment and every 5 years you get 20–30% hike due to wage settlements. This trend is going to continue till your retirement. After your retirement also there is a pension plan. While in private job you may get 0%–40% salary hike year on year. Starting today at Rs.20 lakh and with 20% increase every year you may get Rs.50 lakh pa after 5 years. You may also lose your job and may be struggling to get another good job in coming years.
2. RBI is sailing in ship and private job is roller-coaster ride - RBI is a big institution. There are well defined systems and process and job cards for every desk. Scope of your work is defined. You are not going to get out of turn promotion or a President medal for your extra-ordinary performance. In private job you will be rewarded or fired immediately for great and poor work respectively.
3. Work life balance -RBI job is a good work life balance. Office is 5 days a week and once you are back to home you hardly get disturbed by office work. In private jobs you may be working 24x7 and still struggling to save your job. But now a days good companies realize the importance of quality work and family time.
4. Power and prestige - RBI job is highly respected is no match with whatever position you have in a private company. However, society is changing and culture of Red-beacon (though RBI officer didn’t have it) and so called power is slowly dwindling. Still government jobs will always have certain prestige.
5. Black-swan events of life- Govt job is best in case of certain unfortunate events of life like critical illness or some serious accidents. In RBI your job is safe and you will be paid, but in private jobs if you are not able to work you will not get any salary; you may rather lose your job.

If you like a challenging life where you will be rewarded for your great work go for private job but be ready to face brutal failures if things are not in your favour. After the failure and struggle you can shine again.

However, if you want a peaceful and respectable life in which you can give more time to your family and friends choose RBI.

Microsoft Working Experience

Microsoft Bangalore! It was something that I even feared to dream.

Wao, the amazing campus that it has!

The gym cum cult group classes!

The futsal court

It was indeed something that I aspired for.

But beyond this, I am surrounded by a group of amazingly talented people who will continue to inspire me. The office hours are pretty chill. It’s easy to switch team and technologies in Microsoft owing to the large verticals of technology that it owns.

If you get to chose Microsoft, just go for it!

-Anubhav Shrivastava

The only stake-holder in your life is you yourself, so make your own choices.  

It is great to love your family. And your relatives. And your friends. And your neighbors. And everyone else. But remember, that at the end of the day, we all have to live our own lives. If you are suffering, emotionally or physically, others can only help but they can’t take away your pain. 

So make your own decisions and take responsibility for them. Kuch toh log kahenge, logon ka kaam hai kehna (people will always pass judgments, that’s their job)!

-Srishti Kotiyal

Life after IIT

I graduated from IIT(ISM) Dhanbad in 2015. Coming from Environmental Engineering background, I did not have much options in on-campus jobs. In case you are wondering, placements in IITs are also limited and the packages are not even close to your expectations. For me, it was especially frustating as there were only a handful of companies recruiting from my branch.

I did not want to go for core field jobs and hence ended up at Capgemini. However, I soon got into a creative design startup but things did not work well there as well and I moved to a Germany based app marketing agency that later changed the course of my career. In 2016, I also got calls from some IIMs (including IIM Lucknow, IIM Indore, IIM Kozhikode) but coud not join due to health reasons. Honestly, I did not want to join one, as I believed it would make my career very predictable even though I slogged all these years to get a call from a reputed B-school.

Within the next 2 years I found myself starting up my own company, Adferns Media. Things were pretty difficult and required a lot more of efforts, sacrifices, all my savings but so far it had all been worth it. We are now a team of 8 people and we are working with some of the most reputed brands across the world. We even represented ourselves across 6 international events globally (Seoul, Barcelona, Shanghai, New York, Cologne, Singapore) - all within just 1 year of operations and without any external funding.

So to answer your question - Life is what you make out of it whether or not you graduate from IITs.

-Vidisha Suman

Don’t.......

Don’t overthink it, do your best and see where life takes you. I’ve made plans in life. Huge plans. None worked. What did eventually work for me was my hard work and persistence. When you are in the right, opportunities keep revealing themselves to you. Trust your god or yourself and just give your best to everything you do! 

 God Bless All!

-Srishti Kotiyal

Damaging Advice

Computer Science and Programming is constantly changing

The field isn’t constantly changing, this is a myth.

Python came out in 1991, it’s still in very popular use in 2019, well over quarter of a century later. Same for Java, almost quarter of a century after release, it’s the most popular language in industry.

People think the computer industry changes quick, it doesn’t, it’s actually very slow to move.

UNIX celebrated 50 years of existence this year, and we’re still using it, or copies of it for loads of different things. Half a century old!

This industry is very slow to move, it’s amazing how little changes every decade.

Even the new languages that come out like Go, it’s really not that different to C, and not very different at all to Limbo.

             -Garry Taylor

Do not lend money to a friend.

 Money has a way of changing people. Do not complicate relationships by bringing debt in. If you want to financially help a friend, do it but consider it as money gone. That way, your friendship won’t be bothered if he/she doesn’t return the loan. I lost a childhood friend once for a mere 1000 INR. Apparently, taking money was way easier for her than returning it.

-Srishti Kotiyal

 

This might look like an innocuous photo but it hints at a dark, insidious period in American history. This young woman was a radium dial painter. In the early 20th century, radium was used by manufacturing companies to create a glow in the dark paint. Young women, many teenagers and in their 20s, were hired by the thousands to paint the tiny glowing numbers with radium so they would glow in the dark.

 

In order to get the most precise lines, the women were instructed to utilize a practice called lip pointing. The women would place the radium-covered brushes between their lips before painting the strokes. This would be repeated again and again to ensure the brush tip was always pointed.

 

The women had no idea that the element they were using was dangerous. On the contrary, they were told that it was good for them, and radium had been shown to shrink tumours in some patients so the prevailing public opinion was that the element was a wonder drug.

 

It didn’t take long until some of the women began suffering horrific effects from radium poisoning. The element targeted the bones, their teeth would begin to rot inside of their jaw, the girls’ skeletons were disintegrating inside of them. There are reports of women having parts of their jawbones fall out into their mouth, and stories of dentists who with the slightest pressure were able to fully remove a patient’s jawbone. Some women had disfiguring tumours grow on their faces. The pain that these girls suffered is hard to imagine.

 

To make it all the worse, the companies responsible misled the women; when reports came out regarding the harmful effects of radium, the companies went to great lengths to try to discredit the scientists, the characters of the women affected, and to hide medical reports that contradicted their narrative. When I see photos of the dial painters and think of the pain that so many of them suffered, it just makes me so sad. It is awful to think of the human suffering caused as a result of ignorance and willful neglect.

 

It is hard to know the exact number of women who died as a direct result of radium poisoning. There are 112 confirmed deaths but the actual number who died as a result of their exposure is thought to be far higher.

 

-Shelby Cockhill

Do not hold grudges. 

 

 Grudges, hatred, ill-feelings, these are all just toxic sewage! React momentarily, if you have to, and then let it go! Block the source of the negativity and move on! You’ve got better things to do than dealing with shit!

-Srishti Kotiyal