How I Got Hired
Hey there! Welcome to ‘How I Got Hired’: a show about ordinary people like you and me, and how they created extraordinary success in their career. We uncover how they got hired in those career defining roles, whether it's by companies, whether it's by their very first paid clients and we are all about fully practical strategies and tactics; who’s got time for fluff? Not us! So if that is what you are about, you are in the right place. My name is Sonal Bahl, International Career Strategist and Founder of SuperCharge and here I am, every single week to help you to supercharge your believability, networkability, marketability and hireability, so you have a career and life that you are proud of. Now go in and listen with an open heart and an open mind and believe really believe if they could do it, you can do it too. Now let’s get you supercharged! Reach out to us: www.SuperChargeYourself.com. (Podcast music credit: Teamwork by Scott Holmes, under Creative Commons license.)
How I Got Hired
120: Shweta Aggarwal: How a Computer Science Engineer moved from India to Japan & UK & became an Anti-Colourism activist
To introduce my guest, I’m going to steal some rather uncomfortable, inconvenient facts from her new book. For hundreds of years, Asians, especially Indians, have believed that if you are fair, light skinned, it means that you are superior. That’s right – white supremacy doesn’t just exist among white people. Sadly, this is still the case even in modern, ‘liberated’ India. Global sales of skin lightening products are expected to cross $8.9 billion by 2024, according to the World Economic Forum.
Ever since the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 following the brutal murder of George Floyd, my guest found herself sharing innumerable stories with her husband and kids about her painful past. Ever wondered what persistent bullying will do to a 6 year old in the long term? Ask a 45 year old. Ask Shweta Aggarwal.
Shweta is an anti-colourism activist with a colourful life. A computer science engineer by trade, her passion is dance and writing. Shweta grew up in India and Japan, and has lived in the UK for almost 25 years. We have a lot to unpack with Shweta, and talk about things like how skin-tone bias affects racial equality at work and also, all things career pivots.
Learn more about Shweta Aggarwal: https://shwetaaggarwal.com/
Follow her on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theblackroseway/
https://www.instagram.com/theblackroseway/
Get The Black Rose and Shweta's other books:
https://shwetaaggarwal.com/product/the-black-rose/
The semi-final at Britain’s Got Talent 2010:
https://youtu.be/5CnWXjr68p4?si=dlSl1w-0rpR3A29J
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