Daily Dose of Pras

Disclaimer: I usually don’t write personal posts on this blog - I save them for the other one that no one reads. But I’m trying something new. If this isn’t your particular brand of vodka, please skip.

It recently hit me - for the first time perhaps - that the reality of marriage isn’t all that far off. Whereas for girls my age, the prospect of marriage is already weighing on them, for most gentlemen I”m friends with, it’s something we don’t discuss, something that just isn’t a concern yet. I have always thought of marriage as something that comes in the distant future, after I grow up, almost as though it’s something that’ll happen to someone else - a different Prasid. A taller, skinnier, more-mature, successful, well-dressed Prasid in a black suit and red bowtie, marrying a beautiful and equally-successful, equally-tall girl in a red saree that matches his bowtie. I think perhaps this is part of some deeper problem - some inability to see the person I want to become, my goals and ambitions, and then connect that back to the life-path I’m currently on. Read the rest of this entry »

While most of us where scratching our heads wondering who our celebrity doppelganger might be, there was a second more fascinating Facebook Fad afoot. After the tremendous success of a Facebook Group called Secret London - which quickly amassed over 180,000 in as little as 18 days, similar groups such as Secret New York began cropping-up around the country. The idea behind the group was that members wanted to share and learn about “hidden gems” in their city - that hidden-away Thai restaurant above the warehouse, or the secret bar you had to enter from the alleyway. I had read about Secret London’s success on TechCrunch, and after a quick search discovered that there was indeed no Secret Seattle, and so I decided to start one.

I borrowed the format from Secret London and Secret New York, and then proceeded to invite all my local Seattleites. Unfortunately for me, Facebook had eliminated the city “networks” - so I didn’t have an easy way to quickly invite just my Seattle friends. Instead I filtered for Microsoft friends, then Google friends, and quickly created a list of 500 to seed the group. Read the rest of this entry »

I was recently talking to my dad, a chemical engineer whose been working for 30 years, about searching for new jobs, and I mentioned that I was doing “informationals” - he wasn’t familiar with the term. Then I talked to a student who works with me, managing IT for the Student Partners Program, and again he was unfamiliar with the term. Finally, I spoke to a friend from Cal who works at Google, and he hadn’t heard the term either. That’s when I decided I needed to share this concept with more people.

A lot of what makes up the informational interview, or “informational” as we call it at MSFT, is common practice for smart and experienced job-seekers. But this formalized approach gives beginners a formula to follow and, more importantly, this approach can hift the way you network, hegiving you a big edge over the competition.  

What’s Wrong with a Job Interview:

A job interview is a highly elaborate mating ritual. They have a job. You want the job. You dress up in your suit, you print a copy of your resume on fancy paper, your palms are sweaty, they take you back to their office, and you dance. It’s contrived, structured, and puts them in the drivers seat. They grill you with questions, you sit there and take the beating. Then in the last 5 minutes you get to ask them a few questions of your own, but your goal is probably to demonstrate you’ve researched them by asking insightful questions. You’re not thinking about evaluating how well they fit with your own values and goals, you’re too busy trying to get them to give you the job. 

Read the rest of this entry »