Since many of you wrote in asking me to expand on some of the bullet points in the 'IIT-B 2012 Pre-Placements Career Guidance' presentation, here is a limited and rough transcript of the talk I gave last night at IIT-Bombay. Q&A not included

1. * Life After IIT
: IIT tag follows you. Is it a good thing ? IIT stereotypes - smart, arrogant
: "We were so naive during our IIT days !" is a statement I have heard from
several IIT alumni. At IIT, one interacts with a homogeneous set of people
leading to a herd mentality on campus. We get convinced that our worldview is
correct when it is often grossly wrong. My own beliefs at IIT -  Programming
should be avoided like the plague  - look what happened to me. I've launched a
tech startup and really enjoy coding now.
: Acquire versatility in skills and Personality. Balance hard and soft skills,
similarly balance your personality between aggressive and charming
: Associate with people different than you. Make friends with non-IITians and
people from different cultural backgrounds. My 5 years in LA were the most
significant years of my life because I got tremendous exposure to a wide range
of people
* What are suitable jobs for me ?
: You can figure it out objectively based on the set of credentials you have
acquired so far. Should not be based on whims. Use hard data to figure this out
: Glamour, Money and the Mom Sydrome. 3 big mistakes people make - they chase
jobs that sound cool, they chase jobs that pay the most, they chase jobs that
makes people close to them happy - your mom or your girlfriend or to get the
respect of your friends
: Understand your Skills and your Taste. Determine areas where you have the
skills and where you also have the taste, i.e. strong interest. They are not
always correlated. My own example: I am not exceptionally gifted at Math, but
Math makes me very happy. So Math academia is not for me. I chose the
intersection of finance, math and CS - I am good at this intersection and the
intersection has also been a happy space for me.
: Think Career, not Jobs. Look forward 5-10 years - Would you like to be a
prof ? Would you like to a trader ? Would you like to be a corporate advisor ?
Would you like to be a marketer ? Would you like to be an engineer ?
* Prepare well, but chill out
: Research the various jobs thoroughly. Read up on the web. Read some books
: Advice from classmates and seniors ? Be careful - Herd mentality on campus and
potentially biased advice from immediate seniors. Seek out people a few years
senior, and especially those who don t have a personal agenda when they give
advice.
: Personal life versus Professional life. Chill out: Getting a great job is not
a matter of life and death. Personal life is way more important than
professional life.
: Don't ever compare yourself with others ! Peer pressure seems to be the source
of most stress
: Easy to correct bad jobs or wrong decisions. Even if you start with not such a
great job, you will have ample opportunity to correct
* Higher Studies
: Titles like MBA or PhD - what is their value ? We like to collect titles
because it makes us feel important. The reasons are often shallow.
: What do the best employers care about ? The best hiring groups generally
don t care about advanced degrees. They mainly want people from good undergrad
schools. There are a few jobs which care about Ph.D. or MBA
: Ph.D. -> only if you see yourself as an academic. Probably the sole reason to
do a Ph.D.: If you see yourself as a lifetime academic or researcher. I enjoyed
my Ph.D. but by the time I was done, I didn t want to remain narrowly
specialized. I wanted to be versatile.
: MBA -> Reset Career. Two reasons to do an MBA: 1) If you are sure you want to
switch your career to something very different, press the career reset button by
doing an MBA. MBA Campus recruiting puts you in front of employers in your new
domain. 2) Another reason is the alumni network. But very important to go to a

2. top B school
: Masters versus Ph.D. I am generally not in favor of IIT undergrad students
doing a Masters. The degree doesn t buy you much as most Masters programs have
coursework at levels below the IIT undergrad courses. One reason to do it: If
you want to do Core Enginering jobs or want to work in another country, doing a
Masters from that country might be valuable
: MBA: Now or later ? From the US or from India ? My advice is to try a job for
a few years and then if you feel you want to do something different, apply to a
top-rated B School. IIMs are useful if you are keen on working in India and on
Indian markets or products.
* Finance Jobs
: Quite a range of options for people with technical backgrounds
: Important to have the right personality
: Algo trading roles are very hot right now
: We still don t have enough exciting finance jobs in India.
* Current Wall Street Scenario
: Wall Street definitely in an unhealthy state right now. Is Wall Street dying ?
No
: Regulations hurting innovation and profitability of Wall Street firms. But
some regulations are good to contain Wall Street excesses and the culture has
sobered down quite a bit
: Compensation levels are still higher than other industries but severely down
from 5 years ago
: Still good for STEM backgrounds. Great future for Quants. Everything is
electronic these days. Hard skills are now valued enormously.
: The tide will turn. I am confident Wall Street will roar back. They still hire
the best people from the best schools.
* STEM Jobs
: Boom in Tech, especially in Silicon Valley. Tech jobs have suddenly become
very attractive
: Tech jobs don't pay well ? Some tech jobs are paying as much or more than
finance jobs
: Big Data has created a phenomenon where people with advanced STEM skills -
like Data Scientists are hot commodities
: Google, Facebook, Apple, Amazon. The 4 firms which have created a revolution
in the tech industry by spawning interesting companies and interesting jobs
within their particular business lines.
: Exciting tech jobs in India ? Some exciting tech jobs in Bangalore, mainly
startups. Big tech firms are still not doing enough cutting-edge work in India
* Start ups
: Not for everyone. Personal reasons for starting ZLemma: I have always been
enamored with doing my own thing but Wall Street has been good to me. Key
reasons for doing it now: I have some financial security now and I sense the
opportunity to do something big with my startup
: Market Size, Product, Team. These are the 3 questions you should answer before
you try your own startup. How large is your market size in terms of customers
and revenue ? Why is your product better than the competition ? Is your team
capable of executing on the vision ?
: Some challenges: How will you get funded ? Do you have a good set of
advisors ? How passionate are you about your idea ?
: It s a lot of fun but also a lot of risk-taking. Can get very stressful.