“I wasn’t where most of the innovation was happening.” – Dania Faruqui On Transitioning From Consulting To Startup

Dania talks about how her working mother has helped shape the ideologies of her life, as working after marriage was never an alien concept to her. After marriage, her husband became the biggest supporter and rooted for all her successes. This journey will strike a chord with a person from any stage of life and will reinforce the idea that a woman can grow up to be a strong and independent professional if she is nurtured in an environment that has no gender discrimination.

Timeline Of The Video

0:00 – Introduction

0:44 – Engineering, a natural choice

1:33 – Stepping into a different career path

3:04 – Appeal of the consulting world

4:11 – Transitioning into innovational space

6:27 – Becoming a founding member at ShopG

8:15 – Parent’s reaction to the risky career move

11:08 – Mother’s role in shaping ideologies

16:50 – Strategy to be LinkedIn Top voice

19:35 – Choosing topics to write about

“…Don’t do that. There are mass brands and then there are luxury brands. Just because people don’t know what Louis Vuitton shoes are, doesn’t mean that their worth is lower. They have a much lower following but the brand value is very high. So, the number of followers and the number of likes doesn’t really mean anything unless your target audience is fixated. I don’t think you should try and be a generalist all the time.”

22:10 – Negotiating salary while switching jobs

“…The idea is to break the notion that you will only get a 20-30% hike. At this time, I find it surprising that people still feel that if you make X, your next job can give you 1.4X. But what if you learned a lot or cleared some exam, which increased your value. As a candidate, do that market research and go back and ask for that kind of money. Most people are in a self-doubt zone. Have faith in your skills and learn to negotiate.”

25:35 – Rapid fire

26:09 – A pivotal moment in life

“…When I was working at EY as a project manager, I was the youngest person who was managing a team of 15 people. Everybody was older than me and it was very difficult for me because most of the people did not like me as I was younger than them. They didn’t like the idea of someone being so young telling them what to do and they would not give me data and other things like that.”

28:27 – Three things she loves about startups

29:37 – Three Indian women she looks up to

31:04 – Five wardrobe staples

31:56 – A message to the audience

All images used are the sole property of Dania Faruqui and cannot be used without prior permission.