No one cares more about your own career than you. It can be difficult to garner support beyond your immediate sphere of influence (e.g., going beyond yourself and first degree connections), without being able to give people a reason to be a supporter. While I’ve built plenty of direct relationships, I’ve only been able to […]
Author: jamesvarughese
CX: Emirates Airlines Post Flight Survey
Immediately after an international flight that my daughter and I took on Emirates we were served with the following survey… I’ve been extremely fortunate to have been able to travel both domestically & internationally nearly my entire life. Be it as a child heading to in India to visit family, studying abroad in college, heading […]
Learning More About Myself
We’ve all done them at some point or another. They go by names like Meyers-Briggs, Style of Influence, or even the errant “which sandwich are you” quiz on your social media platform of choice. These tests are all designed to help you understand yourself better (those sandwich ones might be a bit nefarious though). What […]
CX: Measuring Success Along the Customer Journey
I’ve been out of the ad/mar tech industry for nearly 6 years, however I’m still a fan of authors like Avinash Kaushik, so much so that I subscribe to his newsletter and find his insights to be cogent, relevant, and generally fun to read. The post TMAI #427: Increase Velocity: Convert “Things” Into Metrics left […]
Giving Good: Mentoring As A Service
Over the past few years I’ve been fortunate to have been part of mentorship opportunities. Some of them have been informal, like those with co-workers or ex-co-workers (a.k.a. friends), and others have been more formal like my work with undergraduates through Global Mentorship Initiative or having structured mentoring sessions with specific guidelines and goals with […]
Giving Good: MKTG 201 June 2023
I was asked to come back to speak to a class at Drexel by professor Jillian Hmurovic and couldn’t be happier with the level of engagement before, during, and after the session. I took a look through the post-session survey and shared additional thoughts for popular topics. I’ve grouped them according to when I believe […]
Pass The Mic: Mindful Ways to Make an Impact
Mindful Ways to Make an Impact 303 with James Varughese Thanks again to MG Hodge for inviting me back to her podcast! I loved our new format where we incorporated conversations from MG’s students and covered topics such as… – Choosing a Major Based on Passions and Helping Others– What is Community Development?– Effective Leadership […]
Pass The Mic: Leading with Empathy & Understanding the Customer Experience
Leading with Empathy & Understanding the Customer Experience: Small Business Edition with James Varughese For around the last 18 months I’ve regularly met up with my friend MG Hodge to learn more about her small business, navigating the ever changing event landscape, and her experience with Intuit products. Today, the tables turned and MG got […]
Giving Good: Knowing What I Know Now…
The following is from a LinkedIn post that I made after having read an article from Chartr. Having recently spoken to undergrads recently I thought this article was timely to share and comment on. My college career started in September 2001, just a few weeks after the devastating 9/11 attacks on the United States. I […]
Giving Good: What Am I Reading Now?
I’ll be using this post as a running list of favorite/current sources of useful resources that I read/listen to. Scott Galloway – No Mercy/No Malice is full of timely and thought provoking articles. Scott has a media empire that includes podcasts, educational classes through Section, and much more. Avinash Kaushik – Occam’s Razor by Avinash […]
Giving Good: MKTG 201 March 2023
The following is from a LinkedIn post I shared after my first speaking engagement with Professor Jillian Hmurovic’s Marketing 201 class at Drexel University in March 2023. The future is bright. I was invited to speak at Drexel University last week to a Marketing 201 class led by Professor Jillian Hmurovic. This was the first […]
Community: Traffic Calming
UPDATE: WE DID IT! After 15 months, countless emails with Alameda County policy makers, +50 Google form and in-person signatures, multiple traffic surveys and architectural designs, and one unexpected rain delay, we’ve accomplished a major milestone for our street. Two speed humps have been installed and we’re already seeing the positive impact to our community’s safety. Many […]
Making the Most of Working Remote
Here are the products I’ve used over the past year as we transitioned to 100% WFH. This is my first post using Amazon Associates program, so to make sure this is as clear as possible…As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. The Basics Standing Desk, Footpad, Laptop Stand, Keyboard, Mouse Standing Desk – […]
Giving Good: Volunteering with Global Mentorship Initiative
A few months ago I started to write a series of blog posts designed to help impart the knowledge I’ve amassed through years of interview preparation, real world work experiences, and career moves. It’s been sometime since my last post and I thought this was the perfect time to share an update and share more […]
“Do You Have Everything You Need?”
I don’t know if it’s the late nights of working, the steady flow of trance music, or the working out, but my brain recently unlocked a vivid flashback and thought it special enough to share. It was one of my final trips to New York with MediaMath in January 2019. It was dark, cold, and […]
Pass the Mic: The Customer Voice Chain of Custody
It has been some time since I participated in a speaking engagement (Adobe Summit, 2014?!?), but this past week I was invited to join CX leaders from Cisco & Wild Alaskan to speak about the Voice of Customer Chain of Custody. I know it’s hard to carve out time during the day, so I decided […]
Giving Good: Resumes in the Past, Present, and Future
Ah, the resume. A collection of carefully crafted bullet points that sum up your professional existence in the hopes of convincing someone that you’re worthy of a role. How important is this combination of words? Does it truly encapsulate what you’ve learned? What you’ve accomplished? Who you’ll be 5-10 years in the future? I’m being […]
Giving Good: What I’ve Learned After 20+ Years of Interviewing
I’ve been toying with the idea of a series of posts (which is what “Giving Good” refers to) dedicated to navigating the process of interviewing and securing a new job. Two main reasons why I’m doing this now, 1) COVID-19 has wiped out decades of job growth and some people need more guidance than others, […]
What a year…
Just about a year ago I got laid off from MediaMath. I received a 9AM meeting on my calendar as I was getting off the BART at 2nd Street around 8:50AM. I know what’s about to happen here. I dialed into the Zoom and saw one of my favorite leaders not shining as brightly as […]
So, I Joined a Cult
Over the past 3 months I’ve been devoting between 3-4 hours a week to one of the two Peloton bikes at my work’s fitness center. When I’m on the bike, I’m plugged in and fully engaging my body and mind. When I’m off the bike, I’m thinking about the next time I’ll be able to […]
I got that Cake, Cake, Cake
While baking may not be one of my strongest skills, I could not turn down the chance to support my friend, Rosette Kalajian, in her new venture, Rosette’s Baked Goods. I’m so proud of Rosette (and the ever increasing list of friends that are going into business for themselves) for taking this leap. Before I […]
Rise Against Hunger
One of our family goals is to volunteer our time on a regular basis to help both local and global communities. This past weekend we participated in a Rise Against Hunger event at our local church (which happens to be the same denomination as the church I grew up in back in NY, go figure). […]
Oh The Places We’ve Gone
Q: Tell Me About Yourself? A:?
If there’s one question that I had the hardest time answering it’s “tell me about yourself?” It could be at an interview, or with clients before/after a meeting, or even just striking up a conversation with a stranger while waiting for a train/plane/coffee/etc. The problem that I and most others have with this question is […]
The Best Decision I Ever Made (When I Was 17)
It’s been over a decade since I graduated from Drexel University with my Bachelor of Science in Marketing & Finance. I’ve been fortunate to have held 9 different roles at 10 different companies (as of August 2019) and feel like I’vebeen in control of my professional development. Although it’s been over a decade since I’ve […]
7 Years in California
Is it even possible to fit in the last 7 8 years of my life in a blog post? As you can already see by the title, I’ve taken some time to get this one post off the ground, so here we go. I moved to northern California in the summer of 2011. I didn’t […]
Why Build A Site?
I’ve owned this domain for many years but have never really done much with it. All those years ago I believed it would be a place for me to mark my territory on the internet. With the advent of social networks, both personal and professional, the need for a managed site was becoming less and […]