Lunch a Bunch

What is your top advice for young people who are in the workplace for the first time trying to make an impact in their first six months on the job?

I think it boils down to curiosity and you never stop learning. It doesn't mean that you left school and now you're not going to learn any more. Having curiosity, meeting people even without a purpose, you know, having lunch. I used to have a list of individuals in my office of people I need to have lunch with. People I didn't know, they were not part of my department, just to find out what is going on.

But then how would you reach out to them? You would just cold call?

Yeah, and at the most they would say no. And today I see young kids wanting to leave the office fast so that they can go to the gym or go out socializing. And it takes a lot of time spending that one hour over lunch, trying to meet different people to find out where the firm is going. What opportunities are there? What can you add? How can you be helpful? How can you add value? I think that's important. If you want to go far, you have to have the curiosity. You have to put in the time. You have to put in the hard work and kind of build those connections. Because when job openings come, you know, they're not going to think of you the first time. So unless you've already built those relationships, that's when they say, "Oh, I met this individual who seemed pretty smart. Let me talk to him or her and see whether they would be interested."

That's great advice. For you, how did you get your first job out of college? What was it?

To be honest. I was planning to go back after my masters back to India and an uncle of mine told me, and while we are talking about mentorship, he was very successful, very smart person. I called him up and I said, "Hey, this is what I'm interested in doing." He said, "Why don't you come down and I can set you up with some interviews in Washington, D.C., see if that is of interest to you." And it was more about having a mentor whom you can bounce off ideas with. And I got my first interview and my first job as a result of that. And so it's very important to have a network of people whom you can rely on, call on, not asking for a favor, but really asking for advice over which direction you want to go. And that's what happened to me. As a result of that, I got my job and I'm here today having had that first job.