Current Stanford Student Blogs : MBA Archive

Narenn · 2014-08-27T23:51:17-07:00

Current Stanford GSB Student Blogs This discussion is a repository for all of the current student blogs. If you know any, or if you are a current student and would like your blog listed here, PM me . Thanks! Current GSB Students 1. NewCardinal - https://sloanlife.com/ - Sharing my journey through Stanford GSB 2. Andiamo - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5zyuG ... vNN-A3LOTQ 3. NandoParrado - https://inacityofthefuture.net/ - In a city of the future: Tales from an MBA candidate at Stanford GSB 4. bschooladmit20 - https://medium.com/@Natasha_Malpani - MBA’18 @stanfordbiz, ex-investor @bigsocietycap. Exploring the future of #media entreprenuership.

NandoParrado

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Schools: HBS '17 (A) Stanford '17 (M)

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GPA: 3.99

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13 Sep 2015, 21:01

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FROM NandoParrado - Current Student: Arrival Week

My adventure at Stanford began on Saturday, Sep 5th, after an exhausting flight from London to San Francisco via Dublin. A week has already passed by, and it was one of the most electrifying and intense of my life. I still … Continue reading →

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NandoParrado

Joined: 07 Jan 2014

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Location: United Kingdom

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GPA: 3.99

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16 Apr 2016, 00:02

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FROM NandoParrado - Current Student: Weeks 0-1-2

I am completing today my third week at the GSB, and time is already a very constrained resource. So I will post here a comprehensive update for the month of September, and I will aim for one update a month from … Continue reading →

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NandoParrado

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Schools: HBS '17 (A) Stanford '17 (M)

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GPA: 3.99

WE:Business Development (Media/Entertainment)

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Updated on: 05 Dec 2016, 10:48

Originally posted by NandoParrado on 16 Apr 2016, 00:02.
Last edited by bb on 05 Dec 2016, 10:48, edited 1 time in total.

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FROM NandoParrado - Current Student: End of the first quarter!

I cannot believe that the first quarter is already over! It has been quick and intense… so intense, that I have not managed to keep updating the blog on a monthly basis. (I will fix this over the next few … Continue reading →

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NandoParrado

Joined: 07 Jan 2014

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Schools: HBS '17 (A) Stanford '17 (M)

GMAT 1: 740 Q49 V41 Verified score

GPA: 3.99

WE:Business Development (Media/Entertainment)

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Schools: HBS '17 (A) Stanford '17 (M)

GMAT 1: 740 Q49 V41 Verified score

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09 Jun 2016, 12:02

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FROM NandoParrado - Current Student: Year 1 in retrospective: recruiting

I am back, after almost 6 months of silence! The first year of the MBA is over. The overwhelming feelings right now are joy, relief and excitement for what comes next! I had noticed in most previous blogs of GSB … Continue reading →

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NewCardinal

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18 Oct 2016, 23:01

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FROM New Cardinal - Current Student: Blogging and analytics tools

I’m surprised no one has asked this until now – but I’ve had a couple people ask about the mechanics of blogging.

1: It’s a bigger time commitment that you could possibly imagine (ok, it’s really not that much time in aggregate, but forcing yourself to do it is harder than it sounds).

2: Free tools usually suck: If you’re going to blog, expect to pay for things that make your life easier, make your blog prettier, etc. But, you don’t always have to pay a lot!

3: Writing is easier than cat-herding: Even though I just told you how hard it is to commit to your own blog, you have no idea how difficult things can get until you try coordinating multiple creatives… Unless you write their paychecks, your volunteer blog contributors will inevitably have writer’s block, lack of inspiration or competing priorities that prevent them from writing to a set schedule.

For those of you out there like me – straight out of grad school, two startups, one Kickstarter campaign and a blog – analytics are crucial to learn where to spend your time. But, if you’re in the same boat as me, you also know that Cash is King (see, I was listening Prof. Ilya)!

Occasionally, you run into great tools that are not expensive! Sure, Google Analytics are available too (and free), but have you ever tried to use it? It isn’t very user friendly and I can’t figure out if the functionality is limited or maybe I just don’t know how to use their tools…

Hosted WordPress

This website, DecadentMinimalist.com and blog.hinted.com are all run on different flavors of hosted WordPress… Why different flavors? WordPress.com takes the open-source wordpress.org blogging platform and turns it into an easy-to-use and nearly bullet-proof hosted platform – that ease of use and security also come with some restrictions. You can’t install most WordPress plugins and many of the nice looking templates are fee-based add-ons. So what starts cheap can get quite pricey… WordPress hosted at external vendors (like GoDaddy or any number of other hosting companies) have the advantage of using unaltered wordpress.org tools – so the full suite of plug-ins and 3rd party tools are at your disposal. But now you are partially responsible for keeping your stuff up-to-date and running smoothly. You need to decide which is more important…

S3Stat – tastes great & less filling!

But, if you host any static content on Amazon S3, there is a great, easy to use tool that gives you detailed analytics – easy to use, easy to decipher and a pretty dashboard to boot. No software installation required either – just tell S3Stat where to find your S3 logs and it starts digesting that data into useful views. Easy as pie. By hosting pictures, documents, media – any static downloadables – on S3, you can easily get around space limitations that you face on hosted blogging platforms – and at the same time, get much better logging visibility by using S3Stat!

Hope this helps!

-E

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bb

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05 Dec 2016, 10:47

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FROM NandoParrado - Current Student: Application #3: Profile Building

A critical phase of the MBA application, concurrent to researching your target schools, is “researching yourself” and building your profile. What are your unique traits? Where do you want to be in five years? And in twenty years? How would your personality, experiences, passions … Continue reading →

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Updated link: https://inacityofthefuture.net/2015/02/ ... -building/

This user appears to have moved blogs/locations, so all of the old links are not working unfortunately. You can find the new blog here:
https://inacityofthefuture.net/2015/02/ ... -building/

Good luck to all of the GBS applicants!

NandoParrado

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Schools: HBS '17 (A) Stanford '17 (M)

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09 Jan 2017, 10:01

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FROM NandoParrado - Current Student: Year 1 (and 1/3) in retrospective: academics

Happy 2017! Here is another update, 7 months later. With this pace I might add only one more post before the end of the GSB! However, I promised that I would summarize some of the key aspects of my experience, and … Continue reading →

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NandoParrado

Joined: 07 Jan 2014

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Location: United Kingdom

Concentration: Technology, Leadership

Schools: HBS '17 (A) Stanford '17 (M)

GMAT 1: 740 Q49 V41 Verified score

GPA: 3.99

WE:Business Development (Media/Entertainment)

Products:

Schools: HBS '17 (A) Stanford '17 (M)

GMAT 1: 740 Q49 V41 Verified score

Posts: 109

Kudos: 46

12 May 2017, 10:01

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FROM NandoParrado - Current Student: Poets & Quants’ “Best and Brightest, Class of 2017”

This month I got selected by Stanford GSB to be included in “Best & Brightest, Class of 2017” by Poets & Quants. Besides feeling honored for being part of the list, it was a good occasion to reflect on my BA … Continue reading →

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NandoParrado

Joined: 07 Jan 2014

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Location: United Kingdom

Concentration: Technology, Leadership

Schools: HBS '17 (A) Stanford '17 (M)

GMAT 1: 740 Q49 V41 Verified score

GPA: 3.99

WE:Business Development (Media/Entertainment)

Products:

Schools: HBS '17 (A) Stanford '17 (M)

GMAT 1: 740 Q49 V41 Verified score

Posts: 109

Kudos: 46

21 Aug 2017, 17:01

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FROM NandoParrado - Current Student: Final musings

I am starting this final blog post on a plane from Italy to California, ready for my post-MBA job at Netflix after a long summer vacation. It’s unreal to think that two years at Stanford already flew by! At the … Continue reading →

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bschooladmit20

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12 Sep 2017, 03:26

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FROM Bschooladmit20 - Current Student: Matter: Reimagining Media Entrepreneurship

I’m grateful for having the opportunity to do my MBA summer internship at Matter, a media accelerator and investment firm that supports media entrepreneurs who are building a more empathetic, inclusive and informed society.
I’ve enjoyed having the chance to work with the team and Matter’s entrepreneurs on refreshing and focusing Matter’s strategy, simplifying Matter’s business model and digging into Matter’s portfolio to help them articulate their financial and impact performance in compelling ways.
These are my key take-aways from this summer:

It takes a village
Matter’s core strength is its powerful community. I’ve been struck by the generosity of Matter’s staff. The company has built an enviable ethos and culture that is both mission-oriented and entrepreneur-first. They feel their pain and celebrate their successes as if they were their own. It’s easy to say you’re a ‘founder-first’ firm, but hard to live it. I’m grateful to have had the chance to see this community live their values, every day.
I’ve also been impressed by the generosity of the teams themselves. At the same time as building a business in an incredibly difficult space, and going through an intensive design program, they are always ready to give their time to support their peers at all times.
This is at the heart of what makes Matter’s community is so powerful: these people are willing to put other’s needs before their own.
Capital is not the constraint: your mindset is
Watching Matter’s amazingly inspiring media entrepreneurs try, fail and continue to fight and build their ventures has been an eye-opening experience.
Standing out and challenging the status quo is powerful, but staying practical, action-oriented and open to feedback is even more powerful. There is no right path or answer when it comes to building a company: all you can do is put yourself in the middle of the action, start somewhere, ask for feedback on a product that’s not entirely ready, and then continuously refine it and make it better.
This is why Matter emphasises creating a safe space to allow entrepreneurs to fail fast. Matter’s genius is that it encourages entrepreneurs to build great processes but stay flexible on the outcome, balance a sense of urgency and openness, prioritise customers and mission over product. Matter also builds a powerful community able to support entrepreneurs through their most difficult times.People over product: put your customers and team first
As an entrepreneur, you’re constantly told that your team will make or break your venture. But what you don’t hear as often is that managing people is much harder than building a product. Your product will evolve and change; your people need to be able to grow with the company. I think you can tell early on from watching a team interact, learn, grow and struggle together whether they will succeed.
On the other hand, you can have a amazing idea, team and build a great product: but unless you really understand your customers’ needs, desires and pain points, and design for them first, you cannot build a successful company.
The culture of building, collecting and listening to user feedback and constantly prototyping is powerful. I’ve been impressed that Matter prioritizes ‘customer development’ coaching over ‘product development’ in its program, and only focuses on business model building + fundraising once the companies have thought through their core purpose, values and key customers.

Storytelling and branding are more than half the battle: let your mission guide you
Given that it is getting increasingly hard to differentiate your product, and ‘be discovered’, being proactive about reaching your customers, and delighting them is more important than ever. I’ve learned that telling a very simple and relatable story, while appealing to people’s emotions is key.
Moreover, having a clear mission that guides your team, venture and customers is powerful. If you know what you stand for, and what you really believe in, and you are unwilling to compromise on your core values even if your product iterates, your stakeholders — your team, customers and investors—will always know who you are.

There are no right answers
My biggest take-away from this summer is that no one knows what they’re doing in this new world: nimble high-tech ventures, powerful incumbents, highly respected mentors and investors are thrown by the new normal. And yet, you can learn to do and build anything, as long as you stay adaptive.
However, it’s almost too easy to continue to build out your product, without articulating your priorities. Having a strong mission and culture is not enough: unless the team aligned on a common vision and execution plan, your firm will get pulled in many directions. You will waste time and energy, lose your way and be forced to make big decisions in a hurried manner, unless you constantly re-align and prioritise.
There is no right answer: strategy is about making choices. You have to decide what you will not do.I’ve learned the importance of asking hard questions, of surfacing the key choices facing an organisation at a given moment in time, and giving people the vocabulary and agency to choose a direction and roadmap. I will always be grateful to Matter for giving me the chance to put this lesson into practice.

Natasha Malpani is currently an MBA student at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. She was previously an Investment Director at Big Society Capital, a $1 billion impact investing firm in London. As one of the firm’s first employees, she helped build the company’s investment strategy and team. Natasha has also co-founded two social ventures. She is currently exploring the future of the media industry and is spending the summer at Matter, an early-stage media investment firm in San Francisco, and Out There Media, an adtech firm in Athens.

Matter: Reimagining Media Entrepreneurship was originally published in A Matter-Driven Narrative on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

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bschooladmit20

Joined: 27 Sep 2015

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12 Sep 2017, 03:26

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FROM Bschooladmit20 - Current Student: An Immigrant in America: It’s Harder For Us To Steal Your Jobs Than You Think

“Keep your head down, and work hard. Don’t attract any attention. You should be grateful to be here.”
Why do we keep quiet? Being an immigrant is a constant battle. It’s time we celebrated our chequered journeys.
I grew up in India, and lived in England for seven years, before moving to California. I studied at Oxford and Cambridge and am now an MBA student at Stanford. I helped launch a $1 billion impact investing firm in London. I co-founded a startup that helps immigrants develop their English language skills, in order to better integrate into their community in Palo Alto. I spent the summer at a media incubator that aims to build a more empathetic, inclusive society in San Francisco. But I still might not be able to work in the United States.
Despite the increasingly toxic debate on ‘immigrants stealing jobs’, being allowed to enter the country, to legally work or study, no matter how qualified you are, is harder than you think.Applying for a student visa is a long and expensive process. Your partner is not allowed to work for the duration of your degree, which forces couples into long-distance relationships. But once you get here, you can’t start your own company, even if you’re overqualified, or work for start-ups. Your only option is to apply to large companies. And yet, if you’re not an engineer, it’s hard for them to make the case to sponsor you. Shockingly, companies that provide lip-service to their belief in a global, connected world, like Facebook, won’t even let you apply for a role if you’re an international student, even if you have a degree from Stanford or Harvard.
To make the situation even more ridiculous, even if you do convince a company to hire and sponsor you, you might end up losing thevisa ‘lottery’, that you’re forced to enter. There are countless instances of professionals being forced to leave the country, even if they work at McKinsey and Goldman Sachs, relocate their families to London and Singapore for a year or two, and then move back when their application is successful.
And those are just the professional trade-offs. The personal costs are often so much higher. Adjusting to new cultures takes time and patience. It’s harder to build relationships when you’re shared experiences are limited. I clearly look and sound different. I haven’t watched the same TV shows, I don’t follow the same sports teams- or even the same sports; and I don’t always laugh at the same jokes (damn, I miss dry humor). I only see my family once a year. I’m starting to feel the need to have to justify my presence in this country, as intolerance and hate crimes towards immigrants and minorities continue to rise.
And yet, I’ve had it so easy. I can still go home, if I choose to. I’m not from a war-torn country. I haven’t had to sacrifice my life, or lost family members along the way, crossing borders and seas to be here. I’m not constantly lonely, trapped in a foreign country, where I don’t speak the language. I’m not being exploited, or working in minimum-wage jobs at low hours.
Living abroad comes at a cost. A lot of immigrants are not here by choice. But you should also know this: living in a country shapes your personality, interests, values and relationships. I’ve had to start over from scratch so many times, that I can barely remember who I used to be, before I left India.
I’m consistently seen as an outsider. I might not be American or English, but I’m not Indian anymore either.This is not my home, but it could be.

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bschooladmit20

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14 Sep 2017, 09:02

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FROM Bschooladmit20 - Current Student: An Immigrant in America: It’s Harder For Us To Steal Your Jobs Than You Think

“Keep your head down, and work hard. Don’t attract any attention. You should be grateful to be here.”
Why do we keep quiet? Being an immigrant is a constant battle. It’s time we celebrated our chequered journeys.
I grew up in India, and lived in England for seven years, before moving to California. I studied at Oxford and Cambridge and am now an MBA student at Stanford. I helped launch a $1 billion impact investing firm in London. I co-founded a startup that helps immigrants develop their English language skills, in order to better integrate into their community in Palo Alto. I spent the summer at a media incubator that aims to build a more empathetic, inclusive society in San Francisco. But I still might not be able to work in the United States.
Despite the increasingly toxic debate on ‘immigrants stealing jobs’, being allowed to enter the country, to legally work or study, no matter how qualified you are, is harder than you think.Applying for a student visa is a long and expensive process. Your partner is not allowed to work for the duration of your degree, which forces couples into long-distance relationships. But once you get here, you can’t start your own company, even if you’re overqualified, or work for start-ups. Your only option is to apply to large companies. And yet, if you’re not an engineer, it’s hard for them to make the case to sponsor you. Shockingly, companies that provide lip-service to their belief in a global, connected world, like Facebook, won’t even let you apply for a role if you’re an international student, even if you have a degree from Stanford or Harvard.
To make the situation even more ridiculous, even if you do convince a company to hire and sponsor you, you might end up losing thevisa ‘lottery’,that you’re forced to enter. There are countless instances of professionals being forced to leave the country, even if they work at McKinsey and Goldman Sachs, relocate their families to London and Singapore for a year or two, and then move back when their application is successful.
And those are just the professional trade-offs. The personal costs are often so much higher. Adjusting to new cultures takes time and patience. It’s harder to build relationships when you’re shared experiences are limited. I clearly look and sound different. I haven’t watched the same TV shows, I don’t follow the same sports teams- or even the same sports; and I don’t always laugh at the same jokes (damn, I miss dry humor). I only see my family once a year. I’m starting to feel the need to have to justify my presence in this country, as intolerance and hate crimes towards immigrants and minorities continue to rise.
And yet, I’ve had it so easy. I can still go home, if I choose to. I’m not from a war-torn country. I haven’t had to sacrifice my life, or lost family members along the way, crossing borders and seas to be here. I’m not constantly lonely, trapped in a foreign country, where I don’t speak the language. I’m not being exploited, or working in minimum-wage jobs at low hours.
Living abroad comes at a cost. A lot of immigrants are not here by choice. But you should also know this: living in a country shapes your personality, interests and relationships. I’ve had to start over from scratch so many times, that I can barely remember who I used to be, before I left India.
I’m consistently seen as an outsider. I might not be American or English, but I’m not entirely Indian anymore either.This is not my home, but it could be.

Natasha Malpani is currently an MBA student at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. She was previously an Investment Director at Big Society Capital, a $1 billion impact investing firm in London.

An Immigrant in America: It’s Harder For Us To Steal Your Jobs Than You Think was originally published in Hacker Noon on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

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bschooladmit20

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30 Sep 2017, 12:02

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FROM Bschooladmit20 - Current Student: An Immigrant in America: It’s Harder For Us To Steal Your Jobs Than You Think

“Keep your head down, and work hard. Don’t attract any attention. You should be grateful to be here.”
Why do we keep quiet? Being an immigrant is a constant battle. It’s time we celebrated our chequered journeys.
I grew up in India, and lived in England for seven years, before moving to California. I studied at Oxford and Cambridge and am now an MBA student at Stanford. I helped launch a $1 billion impact investing firm in London. I co-founded a startup that helps immigrants develop their English language skills, in order to better integrate into their community in Palo Alto. I spent the summer at a media incubator that aims to build a more empathetic, inclusive society in San Francisco. But I still might not be able to work in the United States.
Despite the increasingly toxic debate on ‘immigrants stealing jobs’, being allowed to enter the country, to legally work or study, no matter how qualified you are, is harder than you think.Applying for a student visa is a long and expensive process. Your partner is not allowed to work for the duration of your degree, which forces couples into long-distance relationships. But once you get here, you can’t start your own company, even if you’re overqualified, or work for start-ups. Your only option is to apply to large companies. And yet, if you’re not an engineer, it’s hard for them to make the case to sponsor you. Shockingly, companies that provide lip-service to their belief in a global, connected world, like Facebook, won’t even let you apply for a role if you’re an international student, even if you have a degree from Stanford or Harvard.
To make the situation even more ridiculous, even if you do convince a company to hire and sponsor you, you might end up losing thevisa ‘lottery’, that you’re forced to enter. There are countless instances of professionals being forced to leave the country, even if they work at McKinsey and Goldman Sachs, relocate their families to London and Singapore for a year or two, and then move back when their application is successful.
And those are just the professional trade-offs. The personal costs are often so much higher. Adjusting to new cultures takes time and patience. It’s harder to build relationships when you’re shared experiences are limited. I clearly look and sound different. I haven’t watched the same TV shows, I don’t follow the same sports teams- or even the same sports; and I don’t always laugh at the same jokes (damn, I miss dry humor). I only see my family once a year. I’m starting to feel the need to have to justify my presence in this country, as intolerance and hate crimes towards immigrants and minorities continue to rise.
And yet, I’ve had it so easy. I can still go home, if I choose to. I’m not from a war-torn country. I haven’t had to sacrifice my life, or lost family members along the way, crossing borders and seas to be here. I’m not constantly lonely, trapped in a foreign country, where I don’t speak the language. I’m not being exploited, or working in minimum-wage jobs at low hours.
Living abroad comes at a cost. A lot of immigrants are not here by choice. But you should also know this: living in a country shapes your personality, interests and relationships. I’ve had to start over from scratch so many times, that I can barely remember who I used to be, before I left India.
I’m consistently seen as an outsider. I might not be American or English, but I’m not entirely Indian anymore either.The best part about being an expat is that you start to believe anything is possible. You realise there are no rules that cannot be broken; and your friends become your family. I’ve been grateful to have the ability to shape my own life, free of the societal norms and constraints that I might have had to work within.
This is not my home, but it could be.

An Immigrant in America: It’s Harder For Us To Steal Your Jobs Than You Think was originally published in non disclosure on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

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bschooladmit20

Joined: 27 Sep 2015

Last visit: 02 May 2018

Posts: 241

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30 Sep 2017, 22:02

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FROM Bschooladmit20 - Current Student: An Immigrant in America: It’s Harder For Us To Steal Jobs Than You Think

“Keep your head down, and work hard. Don’t attract any attention. You should be grateful to be here.”
Why do we keep quiet? Being an immigrant is a constant battle. It’s time we celebrated our chequered journeys.
I grew up in India, and lived in England for seven years, before moving to California. I studied at Oxford and Cambridge and am now an MBA student at Stanford. I helped launch a $1 billion impact investing firm in London. I co-founded a startup that helps immigrants develop their English language skills, in order to better integrate into their community in Palo Alto. I spent the summer at a media incubator that aims to build a more empathetic, inclusive society in San Francisco. But I still might not be able to work in the United States.
Despite the increasingly toxic debate on ‘immigrants stealing jobs’, being allowed to enter the country, to legally work or study, no matter how qualified you are, is harder than you think.Applying for a student visa is a long and expensive process. Your partner is not allowed to work for the duration of your degree, which forces couples into long-distance relationships. But once you get here, you can’t start your own company, even if you’re overqualified, or work for start-ups. Your only option is to apply to large companies. And yet, if you’re not an engineer, it’s hard for them to make the case to sponsor you. Shockingly, companies that provide lip-service to their belief in a global, connected world, like Facebook, won’t even let you apply for a role if you’re an international student, even if you have a degree from Stanford or Harvard.
To make the situation even more ridiculous, even if you do convince a company to hire and sponsor you, you might end up losing thevisa ‘lottery’, that you’re forced to enter. There are countless instances of professionals being forced to leave the country, even if they work at McKinsey and Goldman Sachs, relocate their families to London and Singapore for a year or two, and then move back when their application is successful.
And those are just the professional trade-offs. The personal costs are often so much higher. Adjusting to new cultures takes time and patience. It’s harder to build relationships when you’re shared experiences are limited. I clearly look and sound different. I haven’t watched the same TV shows, I don’t follow the same sports teams- or even the same sports; and I don’t always laugh at the same jokes (damn, I miss dry humor). I only see my family once a year. I’m starting to feel the need to have to justify my presence in this country, as intolerance and hate crimes towards immigrants and minorities continue to rise.
And yet, I’ve had it so easy. I can still go home, if I choose to. I’m not from a war-torn country. I haven’t had to sacrifice my life, or lost family members along the way, crossing borders and seas to be here. I’m not constantly lonely, trapped in a foreign country, where I don’t speak the language. I’m not being exploited, or working in minimum-wage jobs at low hours.
Living abroad comes at a cost. A lot of immigrants are not here by choice. But you should also know this: living in a country shapes your personality, interests and relationships. I’ve had to start over from scratch so many times, that I can barely remember who I used to be, before I left India.
I’m consistently seen as an outsider. I might not be American or English, but I’m not entirely Indian anymore either.The best part about being an expat is that you start to believe anything is possible. You realise there are no rules that cannot be broken; and your friends become your family. I’ve been grateful to have the ability to shape my own life, free of the societal norms and constraints that I might have had to work within.
This is not my home, but it could be.

An Immigrant in America: It’s Harder For Us To Steal Jobs Than You Think was originally published in non disclosure on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

This Blog post was imported into the forum automatically. We hope you found it helpful. Please use the Kudos button if you did, or please PM/DM me if you found it disruptive and I will take care of it. -BB

bschooladmit20

Joined: 27 Sep 2015

Last visit: 02 May 2018

Posts: 241

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30

Schools: Stanford '14

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Schools: Stanford '14

Posts: 241

Kudos: 30

01 Oct 2017, 12:02

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FROM Bschooladmit20 - Current Student: An Immigrant in America: The Idea of Home

“Keep your head down, and work hard. Don’t attract any attention. You should be grateful to be here.”
Why do we keep quiet? Being an immigrant is a constant battle. It’s time we celebrated our chequered journeys.
I grew up in India, and lived in England for seven years, before moving to California. I helped launch a $1 billion impact investing firm in London. I co-founded a startup that helps immigrants develop their English language skills, in order to better integrate into their community in Palo Alto. I spent the summer at a media incubator that aims to build a more empathetic, inclusive society in San Francisco. But I still might not be able to work in the United States.
Despite the increasingly toxic debate on ‘immigrants stealing jobs’, being allowed to enter the country, to legally work or study, no matter how qualified you are, is harder than you think.Applying for a student visa is a long and expensive process. Your partner is not allowed to work for the duration of your degree, which forces couples into long-distance relationships. But once you get here, you can’t start your own company, even if you’re overqualified, or work for start-ups. Your only option is to apply to large companies. And yet, if you’re not an engineer, it’s hard for them to make the case to sponsor you. Shockingly, companies that provide lip-service to their belief in a global, connected world, like Facebook, won’t even let you apply for a role if you’re an international student, even if you have a degree from Stanford or Harvard.
To make the situation even more ridiculous, even if you do convince a company to hire and sponsor you, you might end up losing thevisa ‘lottery’, that you’re forced to enter. There are countless instances of professionals being forced to leave the country, even if they work at McKinsey and Goldman Sachs, relocate their families to London and Singapore for a year or two, and then move back when their application is successful.
And those are just the professional trade-offs. The personal costs are often so much higher. Adjusting to new cultures takes time and patience. It’s harder to build relationships when you’re shared experiences are limited. I clearly look and sound different. I haven’t watched the same TV shows, I don’t follow the same sports teams- or even the same sports; and I don’t always laugh at the same jokes (damn, I miss dry humor). I only see my family once a year. I’m starting to feel the need to have to justify my presence in this country, as intolerance and hate crimes towards immigrants and minorities continue to rise.
And yet, I’ve had it so easy. I can still go home, if I choose to. I’m not from a war-torn country. I haven’t had to sacrifice my life, or lost family members along the way, crossing borders and seas to be here. I’m not constantly lonely, trapped in a foreign country, where I don’t speak the language. I’m not being exploited, or working in minimum-wage jobs at low hours.
Living abroad comes at a cost. A lot of immigrants are not here by choice. But you should also know this: living in a country shapes your personality, interests and relationships. I’ve had to start over from scratch so many times, that I can barely remember who I used to be, before I left India.
I’m consistently seen as an outsider. I might not be American or English, but I’m not entirely Indian anymore either.The best part about being an expat is that you start to believe anything is possible. You realise there are no rules that cannot be broken; and your friends become your family. I’ve been grateful to have the ability to shape my own life, free of the societal norms and constraints that I might have had to work within.
This is not my home, but it could be.

An Immigrant in America: The Idea of Home was originally published in non disclosure on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

This Blog post was imported into the forum automatically. We hope you found it helpful. Please use the Kudos button if you did, or please PM/DM me if you found it disruptive and I will take care of it. -BB

bschooladmit20

Joined: 27 Sep 2015

Last visit: 02 May 2018

Posts: 241

Own Kudos:

30

Schools: Stanford '14

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Schools: Stanford '14

Posts: 241

Kudos: 30

27 Jan 2018, 17:01

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FROM Bschooladmit20 - Current Student: Steady Love

you once told me
to not be a stone
but you’re the rock
the stolid, warm
consistent support
that i didn’t know
can’t imagine being without
can never really
fully grasp i deserve
you showed me
what it means
to let someone in
slow down, stop
steady love

This Blog post was imported into the forum automatically. We hope you found it helpful. Please use the Kudos button if you did, or please PM/DM me if you found it disruptive and I will take care of it. -BB

bschooladmit20

Joined: 27 Sep 2015

Last visit: 02 May 2018

Posts: 241

Own Kudos:

30

Schools: Stanford '14

Products:

Schools: Stanford '14

Posts: 241

Kudos: 30

19 Feb 2018, 13:02

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FROM Bschooladmit20 - Current Student: Stanford: Future of Media

This Blog post was imported into the forum automatically. We hope you found it helpful. Please use the Kudos button if you did, or please PM/DM me if you found it disruptive and I will take care of it. -BB

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