Entrepreneur and content creator Ankur Warikoo recently shared a personal career lesson on X, recalling how his first job paid him Rs 15,000 a month. He said he had a physics degree, had dropped out of a PhD programme and found himself working with MBAs to create training content for sales professionals. "I felt out of place," Warikoo wrote. His career took an unexpected turn when his boss told him that her husband worked at the Indian School of Business (ISB). That introduction made him aware of the business school, which was only five years old at the time.
Warikoo said the programme was extremely expensive and would require him to take "the biggest loan of my life" to pay for it. He applied, got through and secured the loan. "And that year changed my life," he wrote.
My first job paid me Rs 15,000 a month.
— Ankur Warikoo (@warikoo) October 1, 2026
I had a physics degree.
A PhD dropout.
And here I was - surrounded by MBAs - meant to create training content for sales professionals.
I felt out of place.
One day my boss told me that her husband worked for a place called ISB.
That is…
But looking back, Warikoo said it may be easy to make his career journey appear perfectly planned. In reality, he had no idea that his first job would lead him to ISB. "But I did not join that job knowing it would lead me to ISB. I just needed an income!" he wrote.
Warikoo also questioned the pressure young professionals often put on every career decision. He said people expect each job to answer questions about their long-term career, calling and future.
"Sometimes the job just needs to pay you, teach you something and put you around people you can learn from," he wrote. He added that "Money is a need. Experience is a need. Growth is a need. Work life balance is a need. Network is a need."
Warikoo concluded that it is okay to take a job without being able to explain its importance in an impressive career story immediately.
