5 - Staying Relevant and Being Human in an AI World - Viral Doshi on Careers, College choices, AI and on adopting the Rolex Approach to his journey

Viral speaks about his journey from Cathedral to Cornell to Wall Street to setting up a Super Alloys business with his father. When he shut down the business in early 2000s, he speaks about pivoting to what he always enjoyed doing – Mentoring young students.

Viral speaks about the fork in the road when he and his father shut down the Alloys business in early 2000s. He mentions that if he hadn’t come down this path of counselling children, he would have loved to be the headmaster of a Boarding School.

Viral Doshi speaks about how he has chosen to operate closer to a Rolex model than a Swatch model. He talks about the structure of his typical day and month.

Viral Doshi speaks about the fact that he has chosen to stay small and focus on excellence rather than scale and go after the large commercial opportunity in this space. He speaks about what gives him joy and how he thinks about the trade-offs between growth and flexibility to travel, spend time with family etc.

Viral Doshi speaks about how he has stayed relevant by staying in touch with the trends in the world of education and by engaging with parents and students across cultures. He also speaks about how he has conducted research and presented his findings through books, talks and presentations to many relevant forums over the years. He also shares how he weaves in a personal touch in the way he engages with children and parents.

Viral Doshi speaks about the evolution of trends in how students make choices over the years. He also speaks about the distinction between how children in cities are making choices compared to those in Tier 2, 3,4 towns in India.

Viral Doshi speaks about some common mistakes people make. He specifically speaks about some of the mistaken notions people have about pursuing Computer Science and AI.

Viral Doshi speaks about how the financial context often shapes choices children make around the first and second degree. He also speaks about how 1st degree should often be about pursuing one’s passion while the second degree should possibly be about a particular career pathway.

Viral Doshi speaks about some of the intrinsic traits that students have and career direction. He also speaks about some gender biases that exist in the way students think about choices.