Work Smarter, Not Harder Ep.7 Job Hunt and Career Development with Author Asha Aravindakshan
In this episode of Work Smarter, Not Harder we had the honor of speaking to Author Asha Aravindakshan where we discussed her book “Skills: The Common Denominator”. It was an illuminating experience to have her in our space and hear her talk about her journey as an author. She illustrated much knowledge with her wise words and made us realize that our skills can be transferred to any situation. Furthermore, we were taught that the ability to be flexible and to be able to change directions is always as good in your career as it is in your life.
Her book helps talent and leaders who need to build teams. It is a great and easy read also for young professionals. So if you are looking to level up in your career and personal life we recommend buying her book!
The Interview
[Text Edited from Audio, please listen to the full interview here: Interview ]
Asha is the Vice President of Operations at Sprinklr a marketplace tech company based in NYC that helps thousands of the world’s largest enterprises. She also completed her MBA at MIT Sloan and is the author of Skills: The Common Denominator.
Why did you write this book? Why now?
(…)When I started writing the book in the fall of 2020, we were six months into the global pandemic and we saw job loss at an unprecedented rate. (…) 20% of the workforce had been let go of their jobs in March of 2020. (..)
How can I help them? How can I leverage my research and my own experiences?
(…) That’s how it started. To help the people.
But by the time I published the book in September of 2021, the story had changed. The great resignation started and we were seeing 3% of the workforce now voluntarily leaving their jobs. And that has continued every month since then, and in April it was at the highest percentage so far.
It’s not stopping. (…)
What do you hope people get out of the book?
There are 25 stories of people pivoting their careers in the book with an average of 6 pivots each, so that’s 150 reference points of career pivots that you can identify with. (…)
And so with the stories that are presented, I want you to read them and to see yourself in their shoes. And with those examples, you’ll be able to identify your own transferable skills (…)
What do you mean when you talk about transferable skills and why is it so important to know about this?
Skills can be bucketed into multiple categories (..) hard skills, soft skills, life skills, and job skills. And in the stories of the people I interviewed, I could hear these skills and I could bucket them this way. (…) transferable skills are skills that you gain in one context, whether that’s work, school, volunteer, or any other extracurricular activity, and then you use it in another context. (..)
Who is in the book? Are these characters diverse?
Absolutely they’re diverse I worked very hard to make sure that I had people that were from different races, ages, genders, and socioeconomic statuses, and from different parts of the world. (…)
When people read this story, they’re not attached to the color of the person or the age of the person they’re really attached to the story. (…)
How has the global pandemic impacted job searchers?
It opened up opportunities for job searchers. What the pandemic did by forcing everyone to work from home and for companies to adjust to supporting workers who are now remote was opened up. The opportunity for them to hire people from really anywhere in the world to come work for them and you as the job searcher all of a sudden we’re not restricted by some geographic distance from your home to an office.
The power of the Internet. (…)
What are the most drastic changes you have seen in the labor sector after the pandemic? (From a talent and employer perspective)
(..) The hybrid environment is here to stay, and I feel like employers are not handling it as best as they could because they are trying to get employees back into the office and they’re not hearing that. Employees want the flexibility to work from home when they want to and go into the office when they want to (…)
Can you give us the 3 top skills to build meaningful relationships and land your dream job?
Three top skills to build meaningful relationships would be Active Listening, Fellowship, and Mentorship. (…)
Where can people find your book?
They can find Skills: The Common Denominator on Amazon in a dozen countries and also bookmark it on Goodreads.
Thank you for reading!
