when I first came to the US, with zero credit, Discover was my first credit card. And right after a few cycles of paying in full, I got a Capital One Savor card. I distinctly remember the application experience, downloading the app and for the first time ever, thinking like a pm along the lines of what does any feature do. A full circle moment emerged when i joined capital one as a pm in July 2025, when they also had just acquired discover. On my first day, I coudn't have been more proud of myself. I had struggled, hoped, failed a million times before starting here. But I kept going, kept moving and it clicked. It worked. I got the job. 

PS: I am trying to be anti-fragile (read Nassim taleb's book to understand this concept better). 

On my first day, on my sony WH-1000XM4 headphones, I blasted the Lakshya background music. That specific track because when I was preparing for my engineering entrance examination, I used to listen to this track almost everyday. And when I coudnt clear the exam to get into an IIT, that music haunted me for the longest time. I associated failure with this tune, I assumed however hard I tried, I can never achieve what I want and this song is gonna keep reminding me of my failure. At such a young age, when you aspire to do something with all your heart, and you don't get it, it becomes a little tricky to get out of that quagmire. Any little moment can remind you of your fragility and can lead you into a rabbit hole of existentialism. But with getting a job at such a prestigious bank, as a product manager, with a great team, I knew I had to break the shackles. And victory has never tasted sweeter. I will forever cherish me listening to the song on 18th floor of the capital one towers, looking at the city below, towering over my failures. 

The people around me are supremely talented and I quite feel the dumbest in the room, which is the best kinda curve to learn things. I have started listening more and paying attention to how high performers work. Ive realised big time here that high performers are not necessarily the smartest people, but they can enable smart people around them to do their best work. They accept they aren't the smartest but know who in their team can get the work done and empower them. A whole new way of looking at work. Very Inspiring. 

they say cracking the first job out of college is the hardest. Amen to that. With this job, I think the majority of it I felt grateful to have a job and getting to stay in the country. Although I didn't feel that i was pushing myself in this job, but I was leading with gratefulness to have a stable job. The job also allowed me a certain space to think about getting married and tie the knot. Not that the job wasn't demanding, fintech was new to me, payments were a mystery and bill generation was a foreign concept. But I feel I carved out time to maintain a healthy work life. Although I didn't quite like how things ended with the leadership of this company (they were quite unprofessional) , I am still grateful for the learnings. One particular highlight in this job was getting to present in front of the US federal govt agencies like IRS, FEMA, DOJ, USAID etc right in the heart of Washington DC. The company had a product which can send alerts through various channels (emails, SMS, IVR etc) and we pitched the use cases to these agencies for them to send out alerts. It was a visceral experience to present in front of such highly placed govt officials, who asked real smart questions. I also got to hangout with real smart sales guys, who wine and dine in the shadow of relationship management. I got to learn how to have exciting dinner table conversations. I remember the first time I was in one of these fancy ass parties, I was unable to contribute to the conversation because they were all talking about how when they shower, they keep customising the shower wallpaper every season which matches their mood. Coudnt relate at all. Also I coudn't talk about horse ranches and raising kids. But such a memorable experience, to be among people whose job is to be around people. One other good thing was I was in a lot of client calls, guiding them and solving their problems. In one of our use cases, we were sending out SMS to customers all over teh world for a client. All the OTP SMSs going to China were being blocked due to a regulation, and we literally had to get on a call with the customer, and guide them with a walkaround to submit a payment. This happened late nights, and taught me a lot about customer management. We were down in the weeds with the customer, understanding their pain points and being empathetic to solve their problems.  

hands down one of my favorite managers has to be from SAP.