Nikita Gupta — Revolutionizing the Hiring Process with FAANGPath

Long time no see!

First of all, we hope you all are doing well and are safe. Secondly, we’ve missed you, quite a lot!

The reason we were away for almost six months is we were figuring out the direction for @womenwoinspireus and also the formats to share our stories to make them more impactful. And now we have something cooking on our whiteboard which we will share with everyone soon!

In the meantime, we thought we’ll share a couple of amazing and inspiring stories to get you all pumped up!

So here we are.

We have a special guest today all the way from America who is revolutionizing the hiring process — Nikita Gupta

A little bit about Nikita in Her Own Words

Nikita: I’m an entrepreneur, a Ted speaker, and an avid traveler — I love traveling around the globe!! 15 countries and counting, currently residing in the US. Currently working on my own venture called FAANGPath. I have managed to grow my initiative exponentially with 200+ job seekers to get interview calls from FAANG+ Companies.

We have conducted more than 20 webinars across the globe. We recently partnered and helped conduct a virtual career fair with another startup called Glimpse, which has helped many job seekers get an extra opportunity to connect with hiring managers/recruiters and get a job in these unprecedented times. We also have a 2k+ active users discord community where we help and support candidates in various ways.

I have also recently taken part in the USA’s most extensive career fair, Grace Hopper Conference, which is specifically targeted for women to help them get a job. Since everything was virtual this year, I tried to help as many women as I could. I made an excel sheet with all the latest opportunities and shared it across, which helped so many students/working professionals that they pinged me personally and thanked me for sharing that sheet, which made me realize that I want to continue this work and will try my best to help many people as I can through this initiative of mine. Times are challenging, but together we can succeed in achieving what we have dreamt of.

Nikita’s Journey

When I moved to the USA from Singapore a few months back, I wanted to work so I started looking for a job. Being an active LinkedIn user, I saw that lot of people were posting about losing their jobs with the hashtag #opentowork and also started putting a logo on their profile photos and also mentioned that they were unable to get through the interviews call, which made me realize that due to pandemic lot of issues are coming up, so I had a brief discussion about job scenario with my perfect friend who is now my partner in FAANGPath and who is also working as an HR in Amazon.

I saw this gap and decided to guide and support the job aspirants in getting past the ATS(first stage to get shortlisted for a job interview) to get an interview call as soon as possible. This is how I started FAANGPath.

The goal is to help people globally get a job as soon as possible.

Interestingly, I started this as one of the job seekers and found myself a full-time job to help others find a job :)

I enjoy what I am currently doing as at the end of the day, it gives me satisfaction to know that I am helping hundreds of people out there find their perfect job. I am learning a lot through this every day. Within my 5+ years of work experience, I learned how to use Linkedin, crack interviews to land good jobs. But with FAANGPath, I have learned the core of the hiring process after getting a chance to interact with multiple hiring managers from different FAANG+ organizations.

Nikita’s Inspiration

I am here today in front of everyone as the founder of my startup, someone who had stayed in Singapore for almost five years and worked with leading global media network groups, namely the Omnicom media group and WPP, as a senior data analyst. Someone who has also been nominated twice in the data leader category for Women in IT awards, Asia. Someone who loves traveling and has traveled to 17 countries.

But all this was not easy; there were many struggles behind it, something many young Indian women face. And I want to share my story, which I have never told anyone before to give young women support and encouragement.

My parents were against my decision to do master’s degree from outside of India. I knew they wouldn’t agree to it, so I got a job soon after my bachelor’s, which I hated, but I just had it to get some funding to apply for Universities and my GRE. Luckily, I got into two universities, one was in the USA, and one was in Singapore. I decided to skip the USA because it would be costly, and my parents might disapprove of me going so far. Hence I told them about my Singapore University admission part. They were shocked, and they initially said NO. Then I told them that I am determined to go, and I will take a loan, which made them realize that I am quite serious and wants to go. My mom wanted me to get married and settle down with a wealthy Indian businessman in India as a housewife like she is. So, she started convincing my dad that we should find a groom for me as soon as possible and stop me from going abroad. It’s not 100% her mistake. She got married at the age of 19, so she has seen all that from childhood, and then my grandmother also has the same mentality, which made her feel that marriage should happen at the right age; otherwise, it will be an issue for Indian girls like me. I knew she wouldn’t understand what I wanted to achieve, but luckily, my dad understood, and he supported me and let me go to Singapore to achieve my dreams.

I went to Singapore and worked day and night with no additional support. I got my first job, and when I went to India after 1.5 years for the first time with many gifts for my parents and my brother from my first salary, I could see that my parents were quite happy with what I had achieved. But they still wanted me to come back to India and start working in India. So to change that, I wanted them to visit me in Singapore.

When I called my parents for the first time in Singapore and they came and stayed with me, my mom finally realized why I wanted to go and what it meant to me. On her last day in Singapore, she told me that she never wants me to come back. She even acknowledged that I was doing so well there, which gave me immense happiness and made me feel that finally, I had changed their mind.

When I got my first job in Singapore at 25, my parents started a groom hunt for me by making a matrimonial profile on some XYZ matrimonial apps. It was not easy to find a groom as it took me three years to find a compatible one — I finally found one!

But in those three years, I went through a lot as there was so much social pressure, especially as a girl; no one wants to understand you. They just want you to settle for anyone just for the sake of getting married.

My relatives and family friends blamed my parents for sending me to Singapore and giving me freedom, which created issues for my family. They used to say that I have very high standards; hence, I cannot find a groom. I was being asked to compromise and come back to India and marry a rich businessman and become a housewife, which I am not saying is wrong, but I don’t want to be dependent on anyone and want to have my own identity. Those years taught me a lot and helped me do something out of my comfort zone which helped me get recognition and remain independent.

My inspiration comes from the need to be independent and to stand out in the crowd. I also want to share my story with more women out there to tell them that they can do anything and can achieve anything. Just have trust in yourself :)

Nikita’s Favourite Simple Life Pleasures

I love traveling — it gives me immense happiness. I have traveled to more than 15+ countries. I hope covid gets better soon and I can get a chance to travel again :D

Nikita’s Message to All the Women

I want to say go deep on the path where your passion and your ambition lead you. Do what you want to do, not what your parents and society want you to do. Be open-minded, be patient, and never give up. You have the opportunity to change the world. You have every right and power to go ahead in life and achieve whatever you want. People will judge us — no matter what we do. Give your best efforts and not let other people’s judgments get into our heads.

When you get an opportunity, just grab it like a rat who finds a piece of cheese.

Nikita’s Special Message to Job Seekers

Keep on trying. Times might be difficult, but there are many job opportunities out there. Try to find the right guidance and keep on applying. Please reach out to me if you need any help in a job search or need any career advice, and I will try my best to help get you connected to the best resources.

Do support me and my initiative as together, we can cross this hurdle and achieve everything we want.

That’s a wrap for this week! We will be back next week with another inspirational person on their journey.

Till then let us know your key takeaways from Nikita’s journey in the comment section or tweet to us at @romaamarnani and @hiralthaker12

Note: Written in collaboration with Roma

If you want to share your story with the world, reach out to us at hiralthaker37@gmail.com or romaamarnani@gmail.com! We would love to learn about your story and help you inspire others.