Risha Kaushal — Lean In Interview Series #9

Risha Kaushal graduated from IIT Kharagpur with a Bachelor’s degree in Instrumentation Engineering in 2014. She is currently an MBA candidate at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. At KGP, Risha got her department changed, was an Inter IIT swimmer, and one of the first semi-finalists from IIT KGP for the Hult Prize in San Francisco. She went on to work with Schlumberger after graduation and moved to work with an early-stage startup called Goodera after Schlumberger. Risha is a tech, fitness and social impact enthusiast and an avid hiker.

Read on to know her experiences at IIT KGP, the engineering industry and MBA at Wharton…

1) How does it feel reaching where you are? What do you think when you look back at your life so far?

I have a really long way to go and the journey has just begun. I feel extremely grateful for all the opportunities that have come my way so far. I believe that a combination of perseverance, sincerity, humility, great mentorship and support from family and friends have made the journey exciting.

2) How was your stay at IIT Kgp and how did college help you grow as a person? What lessons or experiences you took back from your stay here?

My time at IIT Kgp gave me a lot of opportunities to try and experiment with a multitude of things. While I wasn’t good at everything I did, a few experiences helped me realise that if I put my heart into anything, I was able to do it well — this simple thing has stayed with me and has helped me understand that ‘nothing is impossible, if you truly enjoy what you are doing’. Another takeaway from my time at Kgp was that one needs to be open — to people, to diverse ideas and, to opportunities — none of us know what the future entails for us and thus being open has often led to places I had never imagined/ planned for.

3) Where do you see yourself in the next 5–7 years? What inspires you to pursue your dreams?

In the next 5–7 years, I see myself running/ building an organization focussed on making lives better for people who have not had access to as many resources as us. I feel the inspiration to do so comes from my family which has been in public service for generations. And, even though I have enjoyed hardcore finance courses at business school, they haven’t been able to convince me to focus solely on capitalism. The desire to make a difference in the world while I am here is what keeps me motivated to keep going.

4) Which phase of life or experience of yours motivated you to pursue business school education?

As a kid, I remember being in awe of the stories shared by my father around organizational behaviour, managing people and leading organizations. And when asked about the source of these stories, he would often say “Oh, I learnt this in my MBA class.” The stories intrigued me and sort of developed a general curiosity towards business school. I often thought, even at Kgp, if a part-time MBA could teach my father so much, what would a full-time MBA look like? The desire to pursue an MBA grew stronger when I was working at Goodera, a SaaS start-up and the 2nd company that I joined post Kgp, and all the positions that I was interested to be considered for (Product managers, internal strategy, investor relations etc.) were filled by MBAs. Moreover, the curiosity to understand global perspectives, best practices and cultures motivated me to apply for non-Indian business schools.

5) How did your stay and experience at IIT Kharagpur influence and nurture your career goals?

Two main aspects of IIT Kgp that has greatly influenced and nurtured my career goals have been the training to understand and evaluate the latest technologies and, the access to people (Classmates, professors and alumni). While the academic training has helped me become comfortable with path-breaking technologies, business models and has instilled in me the ability to choose what I wish to pursue as a career, the people have helped me all throughout from mentoring to evaluating decisions to setting milestones on what can be achieved.

6) What is an opportunity you missed or the thing you regret during your stay in Kgp that given a chance, you’d go back in time and change it?

I think there are so many great opportunities available at IIT Kgp to be hands-on to learn more about practical applications of technology (from societies to competitions). I was not very actively involved in those clubs/ did not participate as much in the tech competitions (inter hall/ otherwise) and I realised later when I started working that I missed some great opportunities. These opportunities are rare and one should make use of them while they are on campus as professional life at times, needs you to have skills that you pick-up by throwing yourself out into these competitions and challenges — I had to take a self-learning based approach after graduation and I feel I have still not picked up as many skills as I would have on-campus.

I think, while one is at IIT Kgp, one shouldn’t care about what others tell them/what others do, one should be fearless and believe that whatever they want to do, they can, if not the first time, the second time. Fearlessness combined with the attitude of not giving up will take all of us a long way in our journeys.

7) If given administrative powers, one rule you would want to change at IIT Kgp?

After graduating from Kgp, I noticed that all my workplaces had stringent rules/ policies around sexual/physical harassment and the policies often covered aspects that were regularly seen on campus in Kgp — but then no one questioned them on campus as there were no official policies/ committees around sexual/ physical harassment. Moreover, while studying in the US, I realised how integral the implementation of sexual harassment policies is on university campuses. If I had the administrative powers, I would want to introduce harassment policies on campus and form committees with professors and current students to make sure that the policies are enforced.

8) What made you choose Wharton and why?

My intent to head back to Asia/ India in the near future made me look for schools that not only have a strong brand name in the area but also a strong alumni base. Wharton with its amazing alumni network not only in Asia but also globally stood out to me in this regard. Additionally, Wharton has campuses on both the coasts in the US and my zeal to explore both the investing and tech ecosystem fitted perfectly with the opportunity to explore both the east and west coasts. These two were my top reasons for choosing Wharton over the other schools.

9) How did you find the students, professors and the academic environment there in contrast to the academic environment in India?

The student community at Wharton is truly diverse not only culturally but also professionally — we have doctors, lawyers, engineers, bankers, investors, veterans, professional dancers all sitting in the same class. This was initially intriguing for me as my network in India was quite limited to people like me — Engineers. However, with time the diversity truly taught me some of the most important people lessons in my life.

The professors are extremely friendly, have a lot of industry experience and are very open to feedback — something that was different to me.

The academic environment is rigorous but is very focussed on practical implications of subjects — even subjects such as Finance are taught through the study of real-life cases/companies.

Moreover, Wharton has a grade non-disclosure policy under which no company can ask a student for their grades (and the school doesn’t reveal it either) — this leads the classroom experience to be solely focussed on learning — this felt very different from the Indian ecosystem where the race for grades often pushes away the zeal to learn.

10) What was the most beneficial thing you learned and/or experience you had while in Business School?

I believe amongst all the things that Business school taught me, the most meaningful one is the opportunity to get to know myself better. Wharton is a huge class with hundreds of activities to do and it’s very easy to get lost in the race. I, through my classes, conversations with people and a few activities learnt that it was really important to take a step back and understand what truly mattered to me? In the race that life is, we often tend to go with the flow without really understanding the why’s and the how’s. Business school gave me the opportunity to pause, introspect and make informed decisions.

11) Who is your role model and how has she/he influenced you in your life?

Sheryl Sandberg has been a role model and coincidentally, the name of this initiative that you all are running was formed by her — I first read her book Lean In, while I was a student at IIT Kgp. The book left a profound impression on me and amongst all the things pushed me to think about equal opportunities so much harder. Sheryl, through her journey, has inspired me to believe that with the right efforts and support, women do make it to the top in the tech space. I have been trying to pursue a somewhat similar career path as her and have been especially on the lookout for opportunities to ‘lean in’ whenever and wherever I can.

12) What is the one thing that the current you would like to tell your younger self?

Be fearless and believe in the power of perseverance — I wish I had known it while I was younger. I would have probably tried so many more things without building mental boundaries for myself.

Interviewed by Jasmine Jerry A.