Abhijit Bhaduri’s Blog
I write about careers in the AI Economy and about the world of work. The sketchnotes are my own.
Behind the Scenes of “The Seen and the Unseen” podcast by Amit Varma
The Seen and the Unseen is India’s most downloaded podcast. Amit Varma invited me to join him for a chat. Hope you will enjoy listening to it.
How to Onboard New Hires
What does a cooking video and a music video have to do with designing a corporate onboarding program? Both tell us how learning experiences must be designed.
Watermelons, book covers & 4 year olds
Old timers in every organisation resent the big bucks that their employer is willing to pay when they bring in external hires. It is much more effective to invest in growing your own talent.
That Bond Has Changed Forever
The Man With A Golden Gun beat a retreat. In a year that has seen millions of deaths, he decided he will only live twice (in theatres and small screens) in 2021. I will take a bet that James Bond will appear on the small screen for more viewers than the cinema. 2020 is no time to die. 2021 is unlikely to be different. COVID-19 has been the biggest Market Shaper of all times.
The Eshna Kutty Interview
Eshna Kutty woke up one morning in September to learn that the world was looking for her. This is the video that had crashed the Net. I spoke to her to understand what made her suddenly hit the spotlight. This 'overnight sensation' has been preparing for this moment for the past ten years.
Book Review: No Rules Rules by Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer
Talent Density is all about constantly culling the average performer. Think of it as the dreaded bell-curve on steroids. The Netflix culture site says, "Our version of the great workplace is a dream team in pursuit of ambitious common goals, for which we spend heavily. It is on such a team that you learn the most, perform your best work, improve the fastest, and have the most fun."
Ep 9 In conversation with Pratik Kumar
There is something else besides the role dimensions, I think there is a very high sense of responsibility when you get into a business leadership role and the responsibility is about you realize your decisions are beginning to impact the careers of people, their whole livelihoods, the direction which you wish the organization to take and you bet on could come through, it need not, it could have an impact and you need to do it in a lot more responsible manner. And that sense of responsibility just gets accentuated when you step into this role which I have to admit was not there earlier.
Ep6: Anuj Kacker on New Age Careers
Many parents still go for conventional career choices like Engineering, Medicine, Law etc. These fields are crowded and the supply of talent exceeds the demand. Take Engineering for example. There are 16,00,000 seats in Engineering colleges in India and barely 800,000 of these get filled. Of these 800,000 students who graduate from Engineering colleges, 60% do not get employed and 20% do not get the right jobs. The average fees paid across 4 years of Engineering education is Rs 10,00,000 but the average starting salary is barely Rs260,000 per year. To repay a student loan at that salary level takes 3-4 years. The new age careers lie in fields like animation, cinematics, aviation etc
Ep 5: Joshua Karthik on Succeeding as a Gig Worker
Joshua Karthik and his brother are behind the Virat Kohli-Anoushka wedding photos that got 10 million views. Their photos of Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas have been viewed 17 million times. When I invited Joshua Karthik to the studio of Dreamers and Unicorns I asked him how much money should one have in the bank to feel confident in quitting the job? His answer may suprise you.
Ep 3 R Balki on Storytelling, Tech and Creativity
During the podcast I asked Balki what got him interested in movies. He said it was the music used in films that used to generate images in his head. These images were better than the images that he saw on screen. That was the magic of music. Specifically Iylaiyaraja's music. He spoke about his admiration for Ilaiyaraja's music. No surprise that Ilaiyaraja scored the music for Balki when he made Cheeni Kum. And Paa
Ep 2: Anita & Harsha Bhogle talk about lessons from sports
The Olympics motto is Citius, Altius, Fortius. That means faster, higher and stronger. That motto offers a great faith in human potential. Every four years, people gather together to redefine what is humanly possible. Every four years the record books engrave what is the ultimate achievement in every sport. Four years later athletes gather to break what was once defined as the outer limit of the human being. The world of work is getting reinvented. This episode gets the two talking about stories and secrets they have never shared before.
Ep 1: The New Code of Work ft Pankaj Bansal
Technology has made it possible to work 24x7 from anywhere. Companies routinely invest millions in customer facing technology. But the same companies work with clunky systems that are outdated and just simply painful to use. Investing in good HR tech can be a simple way to improve the employee experience.
Dreamers and Unicorns are the new role models
We have seen three phases of working. Phase 1 was all about getting a job. As employers and employment became more fluid, it gave rise to entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship was the second phase after employment. In the more recent times, gig work has started to grow especially in India. Millennials and GenZ prefer the flexibility that freelancing allows. That is where Dreamers and Unicorns come in.