Your starting salary determines all your future raises and bonuses — meaning it will have a long-term impact on your career earnings. Still, most companies have fixed pay ranges for entry-level positions with little to no scope for negotiation.

You are new. You don’t have years of experience. You probably went to a decent college. But you have very little bargaining power even if you have to negotiate. You also risk losing your job in an ultra-competitive employer’s market.

There’s a good chance that you want to say “yes” immediately and skip the negotiation process entirely. What do you stand to lose? Should you negotiate? Where is the line?

On this episode of TFTY, host Akshaya Chandrasekaran invites Mansee Singhal, Partner, Mercer, and Roopank Chaudhary, Partner, at Aon India to help us decide when to negotiate and when to not.

If you like this episode, share a note with the host at akshaya@the-ken.com or take this form and let us know. We might have you on the show! The First Two Years is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive business stories, deeply-reported newsletters, and a whole lot of stuff.

P.S. Check out the most recent episode of Two by Two, our brand new business podcast, where the hosts ask: why has all the disruption and joy gone out of startups? Stream on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or other platforms!

In his first few months at his first job, Arya had made some lifelong friends. Unlike many work friendships, his just happened to include a nearly three-decade age gap. It all began when Arya, a multimedia producer, decided to join a TV news company. Shy and new to the city, he looked around to see there was nobody in his age bracket except him. “Initially, it was a bit daunting,” Arya says. “But slowly, we became friends only to realize that, despite the age gap, we are all the same. That was a wonderful feeling.”

After all, as of 2024, there are four generations in the workplace - baby boomers, Gen Xers, millennials, and Gen Zs. It’s never been harder, or more essential, to forge intergenerational friendships in the workplace. There is a fascinating body of research that an ideal work friendship with someone senior can help you thrive by delivering honest assessments of how you come across on the job. Especially, without any competitive rivalry that you would otherwise experience with work friends of the same age group. It’s never been more essential to forge intergenerational friendships in the workplace.

On this episode of TFTY, host Akshaya Chandrasekaran brings to light stories of people who have formed deep relationships with coworkers across generations. Do you have a career question we can help you to solve? Share a note with the host at akshaya@the-ken.com or take this form and let us know. We might have you on the show! The First Two Years is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive business stories, deeply-reported newsletters, and a whole lot of stuff.

From over here at The Ken's newsroom, we have a very exciting announcement: our first premium podcast – India's first premium business podcast – is now live!

It's called Two by Two – and this podcast will be your personal investigative brain. Each week Two by Two will be where hosts Rohin Dharmakumar and Praveen Gopal Krishnan will be joined by a few interesting and opinionated guests to discuss some of the biggest questions from the world of Indian business.

But, why's it called Two by Two?

Here it is: each episode of the Two by Two podcast will feature an important story investigated and discussed and visualized as a 2x2. A simple matrix that's the purest form of conflict – that places the players and their motivations on both axes. Along with incredible guests, the hosts will discuss what is going on, why is it happening, who gains and who loses, and where is all of this leading to?

Two by Two is a premium podcast – but for now, the first episode is free for all listeners. On this episode, the hosts speak to Professor R Srinivasan and Srikanth Rajagopalan on the brewing rivalry between Flipkart and PhonePe, once parent and child, but now more like cousins. Flipkart, which is now venturing into FinTech with Super.money and Phonepe, which has launched the grocery delivery app Pincode are both stepping into each others turf.

What happens next?

Listen to the episode on Spotify, Apple or YouTube – and if you like it, please leave a review, wherever you get your podcasts?

The first two years are the foundation of one's career. But for many, it is just a stepping stone to an MBA. Our listener this week, Priyanksha, knew she didn’t like her first job within three months of joining the company. An MBA was her escape route. She stayed at the company for two reasons a) to gain work experience which is a pre-requisite for an MBA b) to support herself financially during her MBA preparation. Right from the beginning, she knew the company would not support her future plans. So, she kept it a secret till she cracked her CAT and the subsequent interview rounds, and got an admission letter from an IIM. It came as a complete surprise. Her immediate manager did not receive it well. He was angry and upset.

Thousands of talented, accomplished, smart people have been in Priyanksha’s shoes. As we near the end of The First Two Years, we speak about lasts and why last interactions matter.

On this episode of TFTY, host Akshaya Chandrasekaran brings - Prasadh MS, head of workplace research and communications, Xpheno, and her colleague Aayush Agarwal, staff writer and IIM Kozhikode alumnus, to discuss an exit strategy at the company.

Do you have a career question we can help you to solve? Share a note with the host at akshaya@the-ken.com or take this form and let us know. We might have you on the show! The First Two Years is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive business stories, deeply-reported newsletters, and a whole lot of stuff.

Shantanu loved his first job. He had great admiration for the senior leadership. The work was fulfilling and meaningful. And his peers were great. It was the perfect job for him, except for one thing – his manager. He was "caught in the chaos" of unrealistic deadlines, shifting goalposts, and vague feedback. Is there anything he could have done to make the situation better besides quitting? How do you deal with a difficult boss?

On this episode of TFTY, host Akshaya Chandrasekaran brings two people who are known for their abilities to coach people and transform workplace cultures - Shiv Shivakumar, one of India’s longest-serving CEOs, and Nitin Sharma, Partner, Antler India, a VC firm.

Do you have a career question we can help you to solve? Share a note with the host at akshaya@the-ken.com or take this form and let us know. We might have you on the show! The First Two Years is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive business stories, deeply-reported newsletters, and a whole lot of stuff.

You just started your first job at a new company. You’re ready. You’re eager. You’re smart and capable. It’s all the makings of the take-the-world-by-storm career. But to your dismay, you end up with “grunt” work. It feels like all your achievements from college have been wiped out clean, and you’ve to prove that you can be a high achiever in the office as well.

This continues to happen week after week. You feel like you're stuffed with tasks that nobody wants to do. You feel like you're meant for bigger and more high-impact projects. What do you do? How do you get into those right teams and right projects and make an impact?

Should you just bide your time till you get to the good stuff? Or should you quit and find a different job with less of this "boring" work?

On this episode of TFTY, host Akshaya Chandrasekaran brings two people who have been there and done that – Sairam Krishnan, head of marketing at Atomicwork, and Shresth Tandon, director of operations at Media.net. Both went through this same ordeal and came out with a unique understanding of how to make the grunt work “matter.”

Do you have a career question we can help you to solve? Share a note with the host at akshaya@the-ken.com or take this form and let us know. We might have you on the show! The First Two Years is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive business stories, deeply-reported newsletters, and a whole lot of stuff.

You’re new and young and people just don’t trust you. Have you ever struggled to be taken seriously at work? How do you get the results you want if people don’t trust you or cooperate with you, especially when you have no title or authority?

On this episode of TFTY, host Akshaya Chandrasekaran brings on Dr Nashater Deu Solheim who is a pro at making connections, building trust with difficult co-workers, and connecting in a more meaningful way. She’s a psychologist who’s worked with certified psychopaths in maximum security settings and she brings those lessons into solving this complex disconnect issue.

Do you have a career question we can help you to solve? Share a note with the host at akshaya@the-ken.com or take this form and let us know. We might have you on the show! The First Two Years is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive business stories, deeply-reported newsletters, and a whole lot of stuff.

Most people believe that if you’re smart, work hard, and meet your goals, a promotion is guaranteed. But the truth is a lot of talented people fail to get ahead while seemingly ordinary peers blow right past them. So, how do organizations decide who gets promoted over whom? If it’s not entirely based on performance, does it mean you have to suck up to your higher-ups? Play office politics? Be everything everywhere all at once? These were the questions, host Akshaya Chandrasekaran, was exploring in the latest episode of The First Two Years, an early careers podcast from The Ken.

If you’re starting out, probably in the 18-25 age group, this episode is a great place to start.

Do you have a career question we can help you to solve? Share a note with the host at akshaya@the-ken.com or take this form and let us know. We might have you on the show! The First Two Years is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive business stories, deeply-reported newsletters, and a whole lot of stuff.