Why Your First Job Isn't Your Final Destination

Most placement conversations revolve around three things: the company, the package, and the comparison.
Very few prepare students for what actually determines long-term career success: the decisions you make after the offer letter arrives.

Srishti Gupta’s placement outcome would have been most students’ dream. Simultaneous offers from Google and Microsoft. She declined both.
Today she serves in the Indian Defence Accounts Service (IDAS) after clearing UPSC Civil Services, along with SSC CGL, EPFO EO, IB ACIO, CBSE Grade A, and NIEPA. Before that, she spent five years in corporate across EY and PwC, led a 1,300-person team at Internshala as PAN India Marketing Manager, mentored 3,000+ professionals, judged 60+ hackathons at IITs and NITs, and interviewed senior bureaucrats and business leaders on her podcast ‘Legends with Srishti’.

This session is not about UPSC. It’s about how to think about your career when every signal around you is pushing you toward the safe, visible, comparable choice.
Srishti will walk through how she made career decisions across engineering, MBA, five years in consulting, and eventually civil services — and what the common thread across all of them was. She’ll talk about evaluating options when something feels off, building an identity beyond your job title, and why your first role is a chapter, not the whole story.

Whether you’re sitting on an offer you’re unsettled about, still figuring out your direction, or already two years into a role that feels uncertain — this session will give you a perspective most career guidance doesn’t.