‘Your career progression happens with the help of people around you’: Karthy Chandra Talks CEO Life, Motivation, and the Job Hunt
If you’re feeling disorganized and lost, Karthy Chandra has your back. Back when Chandra was attending Cornell University, she had an idea to create one-in-all tool that managed self-improvement, time management, and productivity.
Making her idea a reality, Chandra now is the CEO of Goalden Hour, a productivity tool that helps people prioritize their goals and good habits.
As a guest at one of Parachute’s Cloud Chat sessions, Chandra shared her insights on being a CEO, motivation, and more. Here are some of nuggets of “goalden” wisdom that Chandra shared with the Parachute community.
*Chandra’s answers have been lightly edited for spelling, grammar, and clarity
How do you manage being a founder and CEO with the other jobs you have ?
Compartmentalize! It can be so tempting to go back and forth between your day job (or school) and your company. On one hand, you have to devote time and effort to certain things you're committed to, but you're also so excited about building a company and making progress towards your vision.
But to do both well, you have to stay focused on the task at hand. Context shifting between multiple things can make you feel outta control and diminish your productivity significantly. Set time aside for each area of your life that's important to you and try not to let other areas interrupt or seep into the time that you've allotted.
How do you stay patient while building your startup and believing in your product even when things aren’t going as fast as they could?
Remembering my “why” helps! I've always been a head-in-the-clouds kinda person. Reflection and imagination have helped me build my product and stay motivated. I like to remind myself of what I've accomplished and why I set out on this journey to reconnect with my purpose. A few questions to spur the daydreaming:
What problem did I see in the world that compelled me to work on this?
Who have I been able to convince to believe in this with me?
What would my life and the world look like if I pulled this off?
What’s your biggest piece of advice for people who work for themselves?
I'd have to say holding yourself accountable and enlisting others to hold you accountable. When you venture off on your own, you have to do the work to make anything happen. Nothing moves without you moving it. You have to hold yourself accountable to taking action and making those dreams come true!
It doesn't even matter if you don't know where to start. Just take any action to prove to yourself that you're serious about something and willing to do the work! Talk to people about your idea. Try to convince someone else to work on it with you! That's the best way to hold yourself accountable: having others keep you accountable.
What’s helped you stay on track with your career goals?
Having a good manager or mentor really helps! They can be a sounding board as you try to figure out what you want your career path to look like.
Once you have a goal in mind, break it down into specific actionable steps. Here are some examples:
Looking for a job: Talk to one person every week that has your dream job or works in the industry/ company you're interested in
Get a promotion: Talk to your manager about the skills/ results you'd need to get to the next level in your role
Start a company: Talk to 3 people every week about your business idea and make notes about their reaction/ comments
As you can tell, a lot of your career progression happens with the help of people around you. If nothing else, make connections. You never know where the next opportunity will come from.
What do you do on those days when you feel unmotivated to do your work?
Oh boy... those days are the worst. So much guilt yet so little drive to get going.
Being unmotivated basically means that you're not in the mood to do your work. You'd rather binge watch Netflix or get stuck on a TikTok scroll than stare down that mounting pile of work. Who wouldn't?
In my opinion, the best way to get motivated is to set the mood for doing work. Here are some ideas:
Take a shower so you're refreshed
Tidy up your room or the space where you work
Light a candle & say an affirmation
Play some music that matches the mood you're tryna set
Do some yoga or meditation to ground yourself, calm any nerves, and get you in the right headspace for focus
Then once your spirits are lifted and you're ready to get to work, make a list! Get organized. Ask yourself what you want to get done in the next few hours or before your next break. Then get to it!
What advice on job hunting do you have for recent college graduates?
I think students often jump into job searching without really even knowing who they are and what they want in life (it's not your fault, school doesn't really help you figure this out).
I say start with some reflection. Ask yourself the following three questions:
What do I enjoy?
What matters to me?
What am I good at?
Next, ask a few people that know you best the same questions about yourself. Ask whoever raised you in particular about things that you liked or did as a child. Sometimes we discover who we are when we're young but forget along the way.
Now let that all digest and ask yourself a few more questions:
How can I exercise my strengths in the world? (Especially towards things/causes I'm interested in.)
How can I make money from something I enjoy doing/ am good at?
What companies do I admire and know a lot about?
What do I want to get better at? What are skills I want to build?
Now use this self-knowledge and newfound perspective to seek or pursue opportunities that fulfill you, will help you grow, and get you excited!
Join the Parachute Club to participate in future Cloud Chats.
Written by Sam Nguyen
