Undergrad Unhinged

Episode 11: Pivoting in University

Welcome to Epsiode 11 of Undergrad Unhinged. Today we'll be talking about pivoting in university to find your post-graduation career. The episode timestamps are below: (0:00) Introduction to Pivots (1:20) A summary of Hrithi’s career, and what she’d like to do after university (4:50) What is a unique passport? (6:50) Yasmin’s career, and what she’d like to do after university (10:15) Hrithi’s pivot into marketing  (10:50) Yasmin’s first career choice, and her pivot (12:00) Dev and Ammiel’s unintended chemistry lesson  (13:30) Is there a point in doing a masters? (16:40) How did Hrithi feel when pivoting from UN to marketing? (19:30) Yasmin and her ideal future career (20:20) Did anyone ever regret a decision while pivoting? Startups vs IB (26:30) A 30-second pitch from everyone (30:00) Closing Question: Where is everyone at right now career and life wise, and are we happy with it?  (30:01) Hrithi’s 30 (30:40) Yasmin’s 30 (30:50) Saheb’s 30 (31:00) Ammiel’s 30 (31:30) Dev’s 30 (31:10) Close

Episode 9 (Seed Stories): Peter Wood & The Graduate Guide

Welcome back to Episode 9 of Undergrad Unhinged. In today's episode, Ammiel and Saheb speak with Peter Wood, the founder of the Graduate Guide. We talk about his founding story, his university experiences, and share uncommon but valuable tips on how you can navigate your university life. Here are the episode timestamps: (0:30) Introduction to the guests (1:00) Ice-breaker question: What are the top 3 things on your bucket list? (2:55) Why did Peter study History at UCL? (4:00) What did Peter do on his year off, and how it unexpectedly taught him applicable skills (7:20) The importance of naivety (9:30) What was the first episode of the Graduate Guide, and why did Peter decide to start it?  (13:30) How do we redefine metrics for success outside of University? (15:25) What made the Graduate Guide stand out as a podcast? (18:00) What has the Graduate Guide team grown to now? (21:30) Are there any exciting updates with the Graduate Guide? (23:45) Does Peter have any ideas for the future, and the importance of leveraging a Linkedin network (26:30) Water2 and the power of going the extra mile, and marketing (31:25) Different ways to market the water (35:20) Peter’s first internship, and how his father inspired his entrepreneurial journey (39:00) Peter’s question to Ammiel and Saheb — “What do you think in your life right now is missing?” (40:00) Dev’s answer (42:05) Saheb’s answer  (45:00) Ammiel’s answer (47:20) What Peter thinks is the most important skill in the job market? (49:00) Peter’s closing advice to university students

Episode 8 (Seed Stories): Amar’s story, how to build your network into VC, and what being an angel investor is like

Hi everyone, welcome to another episode of Undergrad Unhinged. Today, marks the introduction of our special episodes which will run concurrent to our weekly programming: Seed Stories. Today, we interview Amardeep Parmar, Co-Founder of The BAE HQ, and a 5x Angel Investor. Amar was the second fastest writer to reach 50,000 followers (the first was President Barack Obama), and has since been the founder and host of 3 notable podcasts (Mindful & Driven, Entrepreneur's Handbook & The BAE HQ Podcast). Today's episode timestamps are below: (0:30) Introduction to Amar (1:00) Icebreaker: If you could have dinner with anyone, dead, alive or fictional, who would it be? (1:20) What made him decide to go into Economics?  (2:11) How Amar started an unexpected journey into writing and entrepreneurship  (3:50) How Amar started writing on Medium (5:40) Amar’s supportive bosses, and how it led him to starting a company  (6:20) Amar’s first two podcasts: Mindful & Driven and the Entrepreneur’s Handbook: Interviewing the founders of Netflix and Twitter (8:00) British Asian Entrepreneurs (BAE) HQ, and how Amar met his cofounder (9:50) Finding support after moving from a technology consulting job to becoming a writer (12:05) What made you decide to start all these podcasts, and what were the challenges you faced when starting your first versus third podcast?  (15:30) The advantage of having experience in podcast interviewing (16:00) How Amar leveraged his network to begin interviewing his community — the biggest writers on Medium (18:00) How Amar got good at podcasting and speaking publicly (20:20) The importance of being comfortable with rejection, and pressing on.  Being an Angel Investor (22:20) Ammiel’s conception of what an Angel investor is, and is it true? What is angel investing? (24:00) What are angel syndicates? (26:45) What is one thing you wish people knew about angel investing? (29:00) Amar’s cofounder’s experience in VC (32:40) What is the best and worst thing about being an angel investor?  (37:00) Amar’s top tips on pitch decks — finding your edge (41:40) Why working for a BigFour or BigTech company may not be an indicator of founder pitch deck success The BAE HQ  (42:30) What does Amar want to do through the BAE HQ?  (44:20) Success and sustainable systems for success (47:00) Amar’s review of Ammiel and Saheb as podcast hosts 😬 (49:40) Amar’s closing thoughts (52:00) Ammiel’s closing summary

Episode 7: The Gap Year

Welcome back to Episode 7 of Undergrad Unhinged. Today, Ammiel and Saheb bring on two guests, Dev, and ex-KBC Vice-President Ata. We discuss gap years, our experiences and how we made the most of it. Here are the timestamps for this episode: (0:40) A 20 second summary of what Ammiel, Ata and Saheb did on their gap year  (2:35) Ata’s need to make the most of his gap year, and how it led him to consulting post-grad (4:31) How Saheb spent his gap year preparing himself again to apply for medical school (5:57) How Ammiel’s almost 3 year gap years in the army (7:45) Military service in Turkey vs Singapore  (9:00) How did our gap years change us as people  (9:10) Ata’s search for a purpose admits the freedom of a gap year  (10:51) Ammiel’s on why the traditional high school path doesn’t directly lead to success in university  (12:44) How Ata feels like a gap year forced him to consider his career choices  (14:20) Dev’s take on why coming into uni at 18 is the best thing ever (15:00) Saheb’s advice on dealing with failure and focusing on the process as a medic (16:40) Ata on the importance of solitude  (18:45) Ammiel on the importance of being comfortable with uncertainty  (23:00) How Ata was featured on a YES THEORY Episode  (27:40) Saheb and Ammiel’s time in Australia (29:44) Ata on why a gap year may not be the best time of your life  (31:50) Saheb getting through a gap year after reapplying for medicine (31:20) Ammiel on the importance of intentionally taking time to rest (32:55) Ata on why he would encourage most people to take gap years (35:00) Ammiel on the unintentionally stumbling into careers (37:00) Ammiel on collective skills (38:00) Ata on American vs Nordic Happiness, and why the Americans may have it figured out  (39:00) Pin-holing yourself into career at 17 (43:50) How universities would look upon a gap year  (45:00) Our one regret from our gap year  (48:10) Would we do our gap years again? (50:30) Closing

Episode 6: THE Guys vs Strand Debate

Welcome back to Episode 6 of Undergrad Unhinged! In today's episode, Ammiel and Saheb bring on their guests, Dev and Aiden, to debate the age old question: which campus is better, Guys or Strand. Episode timestamps are below: (0:00) Introduction — Ammiel, Saheb, Dev, Aiden (0:50) Which has a better campus life? W: (3:23) Dev’s story on a 300 person common room pre.  (4:45) Which campus has the better societies (8:05) Saheb’s take on societies in Guys vs Strand  (12:10) Saheb on GKT Take Me Out  (14:21) Is GB or Vault better? (18:58) Which Campus has better non-school facilities around campus?  (19:20) Aiden’s take on the best foods around campus, and a bangin Chilean place (24:20) Dev’s take on ping pong basements as a date location  (28:00) Which places has better accoms nearby? (31:00) Best on-campus food — Guys or Strand? (39:00) Best campus facilities, and the best hidden study spots on campus. (46:30) Imperial’s flight simulator (47:20) Guys or Strand — The official Undergrad Unhinged answer on which campus is better (47:30) Wrapping up