industry/areas

Core Design (Industrial/Architecture/Video Game) – 4 years

Sales / Business Development – 8 years

Business Strategy & Planning – 2 years

Mergers/Acquisitions – 2 years

Strategic Partnerships, Alliances, and Ecosystems – 9 years

Industrial IoT / Industry 4.0 / Digital Transformation – 4 years

INDUSTRY: MINING, OIL/GAS, INDUSTRIAL, FINANCE, MANUFACTURING, DEFENSE, AEROSPACE, NON-PROFIT

accolade

a. Appointed by Massachusetts Governor: Deval Patrick to lead Mass Rehabilitation Employment Council

b. MEDIA/ USA

i. Boston Globe and Boston Herald

ii. Chicago Tribune

iii. Harvard Innovation Lab mention /Press release with Experfy.com

c. MEDIA/ GLOBAL

i. Khaleej Times – Dubai/UAE

ii. YourStory – India

iii. Australian Entrepreneur – Australia

iv. Slovenian News – Slovenia

Social Change: The World lacks Opportunities

It was 9/11, I was in India, building video games as an entrepreneur. The world came crashing down on me – I lost everything. No project; no money, no roof, nothing…. yes nothing! I lived in the streets, toilets, trains, platforms, did odd jobs, ate from trash cans. That was the life for me!

For one whole year, I learned how to survive. I saw the world in a different way. That was one of the toughest experiences that anyone could ever contemplate.

My dream was to wear a white shirt and a tie to work, while I watched people walk by in their professional attire. I just needed an opportunity. Just one to start with. Just one!

Fast forward, 16 years, I was working at Oracle in the USA. When I saw unemployed blind people, those memories triggered me to take action.  There was a reason perhaps I had to go through such a tough life. Perhaps, God had a plan for me!

Making a difference: When there is a will, there is a way

Project Starfish is a revolutionary concept. To imagine a blind person as a Sales rep over the phone or a Business Researcher was met with skepticism and ridicule in the blind community. I was quite surprised at the skepticism that existed in that community. The only people who supported me were local and small businesses! This is why I love America. It is the people!

I was working a full time job, and in the evening I was on tele-calls training hundreds of blind people all over the world. Small businesses all over the world supported me and started giving blind people contractual employment in return for work. 

Word started spreading, news-media started reaching out and started writing about it. Corporations started helping me elevate my work. We built an organization with effort, creativity and with nearly no money!

I realized something – when there is a will, there is a way. I was later appointed by the Governor of Massachusetts to lead the Employment Committee for the Rehabilitation Council as an advisor. A proud moment when you realize the committee was setup by Helen Keller a hundred years back.

College Admission: High School students need opportunities

I received a frantic call from a friend in 2016. He had heard we created over 300+ jobs for blind people globally. He wanted his daughter to do an Internship.

I later realized the student was meritorious, quite unconventional, wanted to work for Google and wanted to pursue Computer Science at a Top University – but her grades were the lowest in class!

Students needed opportunities too, and that started our journey into this entirely different Industry. We realized the college entry will become more and more competitive, but there seemed to a be a science in the process of admission. We had to hack that process to help students – and we realized Internships make a huge difference.

College Admission: A methodical science

We were lucky! Project Starfish was a part of MIT’s startup ecosystem and we had a chance to talk to hundreds of students and educators from the Ivy Leagues/ MIT/Stanford etc.

The biggest discovery – Top School admission was based on an entirely different criteria, and what you do after school matters the most. The MIT Culture/Criteria will explain clearly, what Top Schools look for.

Thats when we started to understand the mystery. We applied the Internship method to several students and observed – our model did work! Using the method, over 30 students have found their way into Top Schools, learned skills, and are leaders in their field!

Can the Method: Work for me?

People are usually very skeptical about methods and claims. In 2018 I had no Ivy League education, but was sending students to Top Schools/Ivy Leagues based on the Project Based Internship Model, but parents had their own skepticism. Really – this Internship method works?

It is a genuine question! In 2018, I applied for the Harvard Business School PLD/Exec MBA alternative program – using the same set of criteria/methods that I teach students. I am a hands-on learner, have dyslexia, self-taught and was skeptical about an Ivy League education for executives like me!   

I got accepted. I was one of the 180 students that get admitted in the program! It felt good to taste my own medicine!!!! I graduated in 2020, a very different person that I never expected to be.

Harvard Business School transformed me inside-out. I had to go through the grind at the age of 42, working-studying-family-traveling etc, but the transformation was evident! It was worth way, way more than what I was expecting it to be. 

Covid hit the students: Badly! It will be worse!

Being a father of a pre-teen daughter, I know first hand how badly the Covid situation has hit students hard. For parents it has been equally tough too. Income, keeping the job, stuck at home, working with people who are all really depressed but don’t know it – I have gone through it and seen enough of it.

However, I sat up straight the moment I saw stocks go ballistic during a crisis. The USA was shutting businesses and pushing people into poverty, yet the rich were becoming richer. Colleges were shutting down, yet MIT/Harvard/Ivy Leagues had record number of applicants. The industry was shedding low skilled workers, yet high-end skilled workers had raises!

I realized we were in the cusp of a massive technological, societal and cultural change. Sadly, students and parents may not know how a K shaped economy will impact students in the future.

The Student Crisis: Education, Jobs, and Debt!

Being on the board of a #1 high school in MA has provided me an immense experience of what students are going through. My job at the #1 Industrial IoT company focusing on Industry 4.0 has provided me with a glimpse of the future. With college admission experience, I can finally see all the dots that need to be connected.

Here is how I see it:

i. Education will be expensive and entry will be competitive. ii. Jobs of today will be obsolete when the students graduate. It will be a totally different world where things will be obsolete… very fast! iii. Students need hands-on experience and real-world skills to be part of this new economy of automation heading our way. 

Internships: Democratize the ones for Future Of Work!

Industry stalwarts from Harvard Business School got together virtually. We could see a big “Lost Generation” looming ahead globally. Sounds very negative, we pray it never happens! However, it has happened globally several times – Japan, USA, India, China, Europe and Singapore.

We won’t be able to help everyone, but if we can help a thousand students in ten years –  at least we would have succeeded.

School of Internships: The Promise

1. Hands-on, multi-skill learning and project development based on passion that enables the student to standout during the college admission process ( for their dream schools )

2  Future of Work centered, Financially literate and Industry savvy and

3. Highly networked in the industry with mentors from the Industry.