The journey to becoming one of the youngest Indian CEOs was anything but easy for Radhika Gupta. In this interview with Brut, she opens up about her struggles.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00I struggled with on-campus recruiting. I got rejected once and twice and many many times
00:06which is when I struggled with some of the mental health issues.
00:10Firstly, I've been a good student so probably through my school career I never faced any
00:32rejection and perhaps I've been very outspoken about rejection because I feel households don't
00:39talk about rejection in India. They always like you'll get good grades in 10th and you'll get
00:46good grades in 12th then you'll get into a good college then you'll get a good job and then all
00:50that. After working hard and after doing all this and after putting your best you don't get a dream
00:57job. I struggled with on-campus recruiting. I struggled with essentially what you call placement
01:01season in India. Despite having amazing grades and despite sort of everyone looking at me and
01:08saying oh you'll get the best job on campus. I mean people looked at me and said that that is
01:13what will happen with you. I did two summer internships at Microsoft. People are like oh
01:17you will though crack it but I didn't and that's and I got rejected once and twice and many many
01:25times which is when I struggled with some of the mental health issues. How did I come out of it?
01:31I think well one I was lucky enough to get an opportunity at McKinsey. Secondly my husband at
01:39that time who was my boyfriend who I was dating I think was a great source of support and I think
01:47it's always one of the big challenges is that when we go through these things we feel that we have to
01:53talk about them silently. We have to go we have to endure them silently and I think reaching out
01:59for help is very important. In fact till today I have friends who tell me I wish you had spoken to
02:05us then because we were such close friends but we don't talk. So I think giving rejection time
02:12realizing that there was another opportunity that I got and also starting to share these were the
02:19couple of things that helped me heal over time. I would say that never let yourself believe that
02:27there is only one door in life. One job, one girl or boy to marry, one business, one opportunity.
02:36Don't obsess over a single opportunity and think it is make or break or it is the end of the world.
02:42Really nothing is the end of the world. You know you will get rejected in a country as large as
02:47India. There's such a big population you will get rejected. It happens but when one door closes
02:56many doors are there. You have to see and find and open them and what I call option B in life
03:04can be just as good as option A. I talked about my father he was supposed to get into he wanted
03:09to join Indian Forest Service which is by the way a less competitive service than Indian Foreign
03:14Service. He could not because he passed the written exam but he has really bad eyes. He has
03:19like a minus 11 number and Foreign Service was his option B but it turned out to be okay. Option B
03:28is good.