Career Disruption as Strategy: Solving Problems & Moving On
The Meridian Point Podcast
Guest: Reha Malik
Host: Kumar Dattatreyan
Episode Date: February 2026
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Kumar Dattatreyan:
Hey everyone, Kumar here with The Meridian Point. Thanks for joining us live. We are live. This is not a recording. And today we're joined by Reha Malik, an independent technology consultant and leadership coach who's built a career on solving problems. And when she solves them, what does she do? She looks for the next problem to solve. If it's not where she is, she looks for her next home where she can solve problems. Love that.
From a database admin working night shifts in the basement to VP of AI and Machine Learning at one of DC's fastest-growing federal contractors, Reha has consistently chosen principles over paychecks. I wish I could say the same for me. Turning down lucrative offers that violated her values around employee autonomy, she pushed early career engineers to Google when her bosses wanted to keep them, and teaches George Mason students what the tech industry actually looks like versus what's in the textbooks.
A 2024 Washington Exec Pinnacle Awards finalist for AI Executive of the Year, Reha is currently based in India doing flexible consulting work before returning to the East Coast when it's warmer, because it's really cold right now. She's here to talk about disruption as a career strategy, not just a buzzword. So without further ado, Reha, it's so good to have you on the show. Thanks so much for joining us.
Reha Malik:
Thank you so much, Kumar. It's always a pleasure to talk to you, always. And thank you for that wonderful introduction. I loved it.
Kumar Dattatreyan:
Oh yeah, yeah, you're welcome. This probably didn't quite do you justice, all the things you've accomplished in your career so far.
Reha Malik:
Oh no, trust me, it was the other way. I was like, "Wow, that's me. I can't even believe it." You know, we were just off before we went live. We were talking about how goofy we are in our normal lives. I don't know if we want to—maybe it'll come out. I don't know. We'll see.
Kumar Dattatreyan:
We'll see if it comes out. It will.
So Reha, tell me about your basement job working overnight shifts. I won't preface anything you said in our prior conversation. Tell me about that. How did that sort of shape your thinking and your career?
Reha Malik:
I think for me, my first job—I started my career off as a database admin at Freddie Mac. And while most people start with inspiration—I mean, you're fresh out of college, you're like, "This is my major, I'm going to do this"—I was a Sybase DBA and I was on the NOC team. So I was supporting the production systems and my shifts were like night 8 to morning 8. And I'm talking about 2007, 2008. So crazy, crazy times.
And while most people look for inspiration and they're so driven, my mindset from the very beginning was that I was always driven by elimination. I knew very early on, while I didn't know what inspired me at that stage in my life, I really knew what I needed to eliminate. So that process of elimination worked really well for me in the very beginning.
And I knew really early on that A, I hated basements. I loved people. I was not a very, very good Sybase DBA. I mean, it gave me more stress and anxiety than it should have. So for me, I wanted to kind of move away. And when that opportunity arose, I wanted to move away from just pure tech into roles which kind of inspired me to do more. They were more touchy-feely. They were more people-oriented. They had some strategy. And where I could look at the bigger picture, right?
My struggle used to always be, "How is what I'm doing impacting that bigger picture?" And I didn't have that working from that basement. So I wanted to see that end to end. And that is what kind of led me. And essentially, if I were to sum it up, discomfort became my compass. That's what happened for me.
Kumar Dattatreyan:
So whenever you feel discomfort, you're like, "Okay, looking for that exit, let's climb out of this basement"—the metaphorical basement—and find something better.
Reha Malik:
Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, I've always, to a certain extent, wanted to—it's almost a dichotomy, right? I want to seek discomfort. I don't want to do repetitive things. But at the same time, I do eliminate very easily. I'm able to know very easily what I don't like versus what I like. I'm not very good at that one.
Kumar Dattatreyan:
I mean, that's a good skill to have because I'm sure people feel discomfort in their jobs and their careers, and they probably learn to live in it, live in the discomfort, or get used to it until such point where it isn't a discomfort anymore. It's just, you know, that's just the way things work around here. I'm just going to deal with it. What would you say to people in that situation, in that state, if you will—the state of discomfort?
Reha Malik:
Yeah, or just acceptance of that discomfort. I'll talk about it from a personal lens. I think when things become status quo, that is one point when I know that I'm done. I need a change, right? I know it works. Change is never easy. I think you, coming from that Agile space, Kumar—we've spoken about that so much because we are, quote unquote, change agents in that role. And you must have seen it firsthand how change is never easy for anybody.
Now, some people might adapt to it a little bit easier versus others who are not very attuned to random or rapid change. But it does bring us a little bit of discomfort to everybody. And how we kind of manage to navigate that space of discomfort really becomes one of our intrinsic motivators.
Like for me, I want to seek discomfort from the lens of learning something new. If I have done something or if I was brought in to make a change and I've made that change and I'm comfortable, that does not drive me. That does not motivate me. Redundancy does not motivate me. A status quo does not do that for me. So I seek discomfort there.
However, when I'm at discomfort with my principles, which I've established, which I've come to through the process of elimination, I am not very good with that. I'm not going to go into an uncomfortable spot just so that I can either be in a job or get a new job.
Kumar Dattatreyan:
Yeah, that's a great way to think about it. There's this book written by Whitney Johnson, I believe is the author's name. It's called "Disrupt Yourself." And in the book, she talks about the half-life of an employee in a company. You start in a company and it's new, it's challenging—hopefully it's new and challenging. And it's sort of this S-curve of this disruption where you're growing initially, and you're learning initially, and you feel like you're contributing initially.
And that phase lasts probably a couple of years, up until a point where you stagnate and you begin to question your existence there in that company. What are you doing? Is there room for growth and all that stuff? And generally the good companies will recognize that and make sure that, especially if the company is big enough, provide opportunities for that person to grow into another role or another department or whatever the case may be.
Or the person leaves, right? If they're motivated like you are, you have sort of goals like you do, and your focus is to solve problems and they don't feel—that person doesn't feel like they're really solving problems anymore, they may leave. Does that kind of mirror your sort of experience in your career?
Reha Malik:
Yeah, it does. You raised a very important point, Kumar, and that was around how you have—it's either people finding that opportunity to leave when they're no longer challenged, or a company or your leadership recognizing that they're constantly keeping you engaged and motivated, right? Motivation is different things for different people at different points in their career.
I think if you spoke to me 16 years ago and offered me a job for $5,000 more than what I was making in a year, I would have switched jobs. I generally would, right? But now motivation means something else for me. And when you're seeking change or you're seeking opportunities, I think it's very important for leaders to recognize that.
I've been fortunate enough that I've had good leaders who've motivated me, who've kept me engaged. And even a lot of times those leaders have also opened that door and said, "I can't—I'm not going to be able to motivate you anymore, Reha. You're either going to have to move on to a different place within the company or outside. And I'd rather you make that decision consciously for yourself." And I've appreciated those leaders for that because that's extremely hard to do.
Kumar Dattatreyan:
Well, I mean, they saw your talent and they saw your value,and they didn't want to stand in your way, right? A lot of times there are managers that want to hold on to people—like literally hold on to them. They can't, they won't let go of them because they're doing such a good job or they may not be able to replace them easily. And so they kind of hold their feet to the fire or whatever. There's various tactics to keep them there. It sounds like you avoided that and you found, you were able to find good people in your path.
Reha Malik:
I did. And I was able to eliminate the ones which I needed to. I was okay taking that risk. And that's something I tell a lot of people who come to me for coaching or come to me for advice, is that nobody is going to leave a job if they don't have options. And those options come from constantly challenging yourself.
I interview with Amazon and I decline the offer. Why do I do that? I want to know where I stand. I want to know where my skills, my technical skills or my people skills, where are they at? And maybe once a year I'll do it. Like I'll send a bunch of applications and I'll just do it. Just so that I know where do I stand in the market. Not because I'm trying to leave, but because I want to know what do I need to build? Where are the gaps?
Kumar Dattatreyan:
So you're kind of creating opportunities for yourself and you're testing the market.
Reha Malik:
Always.
Kumar Dattatreyan:
That's great. I mean, that's a very disruptive way to think about your career. Most people sit in their jobs and wait for the next review, right? Maybe get a raise, maybe get a bonus. And that's sort of how they judge their value. But you're actually going out and asking the market, "What am I worth?" And so that's—
Reha Malik:
Exactly.
Kumar Dattatreyan:
That's powerful. That's really powerful. And I think people should think about that. I mean, even if you're happy where you are, it doesn't hurt to go and see what's out there and see if you're being compensated properly or if your skills are being valued properly.
Reha Malik:
Exactly. And like I said, when you're six, seven years into your career, money is no longer a motivator for me. Autonomy and the problem that you're trying to solve, the impact that you're creating, those are my motivators, right? I don't care if you're paying me X dollars more or X dollars less. If you're paying me within the range that I need to survive and I've got a very minimalistic kind of a life, like I don't really need a lot—give me those perks and give me those opportunities and I'm your person. But if you're trying to restrict me, if you're trying to micromanage me, if you're trying to tell me how to do things, that's not going to work.
Kumar Dattatreyan:
So let's talk about that for a second. You mentioned that you had an opportunity, I think you told me in our prep call, where you had the opportunity to become a CTO of a company and you turned it down. And the reason you turned it down was because they had this employee monitoring software or something to that effect. Can you tell us that story?
Reha Malik:
Yeah, so this was about a year ago, and it was a CTO opportunity for a Swedish company. And they had distributed teams all across the globe. So it's not that I would have had to relocate. I could have worked from anywhere. And the pay was very, very lucrative. It was a great opportunity.
And I went through multiple rounds and I cleared all the rounds. And the last round was essentially a case presentation. And the case presentation had two parts to it. And what happened was that in the fine print of those cases, what they'd mentioned was these are actual cases which have happened in the company and we want to see how you would solve this problem.
And one of the two cases that I got was around, you've got developer A and developer B and they're having some motivation issues, they've got some performance issues. And we looked at this tool called Hubstaff and we were able to just locate that they were not on the screen, they were not actually working, working for eight hours. They were distracted, blah, blah, blah.
And I was like, if this is a true thing, then are they monitoring people? Are they truly doing this? And I got into the interview with the CEO. And before I could move further, I just asked that clarifying question. I said, "Listen, I read this and I also read that fine print. So do you actually use this tool called Hubstaff?" Because I researched on it and it's literally a screen monitoring tool.
And he was like, "Yeah, casually, like yeah, the previous guy liked it and we've kept it. And it's good. We don't use it much. We only use it where performance becomes an issue." And because, you know, sometimes people don't really work for eight hours and they say they work for eight hours.
And I was like, "So you're trying to maximize utilization. You're focused that you want to get a seat warmer whose utilization you can maximize instead of focusing on efficiency. Shouldn't that be maximized?" And he's like, "They're interrelated."
It was that moment, Kumar, and the offer was really, really good. They were giving me great benefits and everything. I was like, "I'm not going to do this job." I spoke to my dad. I always talk to my dad, that military man, you know, he's got his head in the right place, it's very direct. I said, "Dad, this is what I feel." And he's like, "What does it come to your mind?" And I'm like, "Dad, I can't do this. It's very against the very principles I stand for, right?"
I want autonomy for myself. I believe in hiring the right people for the right seats. In Capital One, I literally streamlined that process where I would go and fight with the Chief of Staff, where I would tell her, "Do not tell me the headcount. Tell me the amount of money, right? I have a way. Let me make the executive decision whether I want to hire three people or two. Maybe I'll get just a very, very good person who wants—"
Kumar Dattatreyan:
A superstar.
Reha Malik:
"I'd rather have that person instead of hiring two people or three people in that seat who I'll have to micromanage. I don't want to micromanage people. I want to hire really smart, driven, motivated people. And I just want to push them and then get work done."
And I ended up hiring interns. I remember I had three interns under me. Two of them—I would push them so hard. Within a year they ended up going to Google because I would train them. It's not about me wanting to keep you for myself. It's me wanting to motivate you, develop you, right? And if you decide to stay, that's great. If you don't, that window is still open. And I still talk to those guys.
Kumar Dattatreyan:
Yeah, so for you those are the things which you've held very, very dear. And those are some non-negotiables for you and for your team too.
At the same time, I can see where we could have a really good conversation around not just your journey, which is really interesting, and it seems like you've accomplished a lot, you know? I was looking at your LinkedIn profile here. It's also about your philosophy in leadership in general, right? So as a disruptive mechanism, how you lead people, right? You lead people.
I don't know if you read the book "Multipliers"? I mean, I think it's by—
Reha Malik:
I've heard about books, yes. So I'll tell you what I read if I find it. So I'm very into reading, Kumar. I love reading. I'm a thorough reader since my childhood. I actually got my first set of encyclopedias when I was in kindergarten from my dad. But I was never good at reading course books.
Kumar Dattatreyan:
Yeah, I cannot stand course books. I didn't do well in school. That translated to jobs too. So every single time people would be like, "Have you read Atomic Habits?" I'm like, "I have ChatGPT'd what it means."
Reha Malik:
Those are the books I will read. I do try to—
Kumar Dattatreyan:
Yeah, yeah. But those are the books I'll read. Like, yeah, you give me nonfiction, you give me theology, you give me all of these—well, it depends on the book though.
Reha Malik:
There's some nonfiction that are written really well. They read like a story, like a fictional account. The books from Patrick Lencioni, for instance, he always writes them as business fables. So there's characters and there's a lesson, of course, but it's a story and you learn the lesson by reading the story, sort of.
Now, "Multipliers" is more about how you multiply yourself, basically. You're creating protégés, if you will. Not exactly like you—you're not like cloning yourself—but you're creating people or helping people become the best version of themselves, right? And so it sounds like your career has been more about molding people to be self-starters, thinkers, and doers all at the same time. And leaders of themselves, right?
So these people that you plucked out of school as interns are going to work at Google in a year. I mean, that's a huge accomplishment for them because they put the time in. But also, people that achieve things—it isn't just on their own usually. It's usually because they have someone supporting them, right? A mentor, a good support system, good family, perhaps, whatever it is, right?
So I don't know, it seems like that would be a great angle to talk about. It would be inspiring.
Reha Malik:
I will actually—if it is on my LinkedIn profile—but I actually had written a blog post for the Women in Tech, like about four or five months ago, which was around mentorship and how it's worked in my career space and how I transcended out. And it was along these same lines, but also how, at least I found, like everybody who's—when you talk about mentorship and people tell you, "Find good mentors."
Something which nobody told me, or something I figured out on my own, is you don't have to have the same mentor for everything. Like there's not one person, one-stop shop. And maybe you grow out of a mentor and you find new mentors. That is something which I had to figure out for myself. Maybe because I've not read a lot of books.
Like I love "The Phoenix Project," for example. That was one book I read because that was again, like almost like a novel, right? It wasn't really a book. It was a story. But when I wrote that article, I wrote it because I didn't come across that concept. Like nobody told me about that, right?
And I would always get frustrated because you can go and Google, and I have been that person who's gone and Googled and said, "I'm going for my first session of mentoring. What are the questions I should ask?" And it gives you a standard set of questions, right?
Kumar Dattatreyan:
It'll talk to you about, okay, you can make probably a plan for four sessions or five sessions. What do you do after that?
Reha Malik:
I've been stuck there. Only to realize that as you move in your career and your aspirations change, where you learn new things or you want something different from life, your mentors also change.
Kumar Dattatreyan:
The mentee definitely picks the mentor. Actually, I'm teaching a group of people—you mentioned IC Agile. I developed a coaching class that borrows from ICF and, of course, the learning objectives from IC Agile. And so I'm going through that right now with a group of attendees. And the lecture coming up—lecture participation, whatever you want to call it—coming up tomorrow is going to be around mentorship.
So yeah, I really enjoy that part of the teaching part of it because, like you, I also enjoy developing others. It sounds like you really get that. It's a passion.
Reha Malik:
Yeah. And that was one of the major reasons I went back to Mason. That is my alma mater. And the only reason I did that is because one of my HODs, who was my professor back then, who now leads the Data Science department there, he called me one day and we used to be in contact. And he was like, "What do you feel about just coming and teaching courses for graduate students?" And I was like, "I don't have a PhD, professor."
And he's like, "You don't need a PhD. You've got that much experience. You've got your master's. I really want you to be an adjunct faculty." And I asked him why. And he said, "Because there is a big gap. We've got a lot of folks from the academia, right, and there's very good folks. We don't have anybody from the industry."
And I swear to God, Kumar, the first lecture I took was on Big Data Analytics. I walked into that class and I was a nervous wreck, right? I did not know—you will not believe, I opened—I needed to—and I did not know how to turn on the projector and connect my laptop to it, only to realize that there was a giant monitor sitting in front of me.
Kumar Dattatreyan:
All I needed to do was log in into that stuff.
Reha Malik:
Yeah. So that was me. But to realize these kids—and you can't call them kids, they're graduate students—but their expectations of the industry are so different. They're international students. 90% of my class was international students from India, from China. I had a few from Korea.
Kumar Dattatreyan:
Yeah. And their aspirations of what to expect in the workplace are very different because the books are written very differently.
Reha Malik:
Yeah, right? So my courses got designed in a way where I would actually put them through designing an actual big data system.
Kumar Dattatreyan:
Which is very practical. They learn by doing.
Reha Malik:
Yeah, yeah. And I have been a very harsh teacher sometimes where I would actually tell them practically that it's not going to work this way because people—when you go into workplaces, not everybody is going to be kind to you.
Kumar Dattatreyan:
So how do you create a space of your own? How do you get it?
Reha Malik:
So that has been for me too. I love that aspect. Again, money was not a motivator for me. They pay you peanuts anyways. But it's about, oh my God, the lives you impact through this. One of the interns, the one I was giving an example of, he stuck with me through all this time. He messages me at least once a week.
That guy was an international student from India. He was on his OPT. It had been two years where they were applying for his H-1B and he was not getting through. It was his final year. And I was like, "What's your plan?" And he's like, "Yeah, I spoke to HR. They're like, just go back and do your master's." And I was like, "Why would you go back for your master's right now?"
He's like, "Yeah, because I'm not getting it. I'm stuck in a small company."
Kumar Dattatreyan:
This was at Alpha Omega.
Reha Malik:
And I was like, this was one year—like this is eight months ago when I got him into, pushed him to get into Google. And I was like, "You're a brilliant guy. What makes you think, why don't you apply to a FAANG company? My brother works for Apple." So I was like, "I'll offer him up for mentorship to get into FAANG."
Kumar Dattatreyan:
He's worked in three or four FAANGs.
Reha Malik:
And the guy was like, "I don't know if I can do it. I don't have much experience. That's Google. How do you get into Google?"
Kumar Dattatreyan:
Yeah.
Reha Malik:
"You built a bloody entire voice-to-voice AI trainer on your own on your machine when you knew nothing about Python, and you did that in three months. You're brilliant. You'll do it." He's like, "I don't know how to do it."
I got him in touch with a couple of people I knew at Google, at Netflix, at Amazon, at Apple. They kind of told him what to expect out of the interview. I told him, "Prepare. I will take your mock interviews." He cracked the first interview, the first interview he was on. And the guy's in Google.
Kumar Dattatreyan:
That's a testament to you as well, not just him, right? Because he had so many people behind him.
Reha Malik:
I was the loudest, biggest cheerleader.
Kumar Dattatreyan:
Yeah.
Reha Malik:
And my boss would always know—I would report into the CTO. He would know I actually kind of pushed out four or five really, really good young people out of the company into big organizations. They were like, "Reha, we can't even—"
Kumar Dattatreyan:
Stop doing this. We need them here, not there.
Reha Malik:
Yeah. "You're not even harvesting them. You're sending them somewhere else. What are you going to do?" I'm like, "Listen, they deserve it." All I tell them is to keep trying because I do it. I interview constantly. I interview with Amazon just to decline the offer. Why? Because that kind of tells me where I stand in the grander scheme of things.
Kumar Dattatreyan:
You always need to—
Reha Malik:
You always need to know how can you become better.
Kumar Dattatreyan:
Yeah, and people—it's—that's an important part of my job. I don't think I could have done it without it. That's how coaching—
Reha Malik:
That's great. I mean, that's, I think we have a lot to talk about in a podcast.
Kumar Dattatreyan:
So I want to share with you my latest project. It's just a work in progress. I met this lady six months ago, and she's a coach like me. And we had a conversation. She ended up on my podcast a couple months ago. But what really struck me, what resonated with me, was her mission. And she's trying to bring coaching into the education field.
So basically teaching teachers how to coach because her example was one that resonated with me. It was about her son who was in high school, I believe. And, you know, you have projects to do in high school and they put you in a team, but they don't teach you how to be a team member. You know, they don't teach kids how to resolve conflict. They don't teach kids how to develop their sense of empathy, emotional intelligence, and things like that. It's just, "Do this work because that's what the curriculum demands," right?
And so she was thinking out loud with me in our introductory call like this. "Wouldn't it be great if we could bring coaching into the classroom?" And that stuck with me. And I was thinking and thinking and thinking. I'm like, "Ravneet, we've got to do this work together. Let's make it happen," right?
And so this was born: the Center for Coaching and Education. It's a startup. We haven't done anything yet. But what we're trying to do is connect with educators. So podcast aside, I was wondering, in my head I'm thinking your connection with George Mason might open some doors for us to talk to faculty there to say, "Hey, this is what we're trying to do."
We are looking at K-12 right now, but eventually we—I mean, you know, how do people get their degree to coach, right? It's either going through a field like getting a Ph.D. in a subject and becoming a professor in that field, or you actually go to college to learn how to be a teacher, right? And a broad range of topics. And it would be really good to connect with someone to figure out—because I don't know academia.
Reha Malik:
I'll be honest, I don't have a degree.
Kumar Dattatreyan:
I didn't finish school. I was in Mason for a while, but I never finished. I was just like, "This is not for me. I'm not a book guy. I'm not—I'm a real-world guy." So I got my education in the real world. You know, I don't know how that world works, but I want to be able to do something. Ravneet and I want to be able to do something that will make an impact on kids, on the next generation of kids coming out of school.
So, you know, because I would be more than glad to put you in—
Reha Malik:
I mean, I'm in the School of Engineering. I will have to reach out to a few contacts and other professors to see if—because there are multiple schools within Mason. So I can put you in touch with at least my HOD, and then hopefully he can put you in touch with others. His name is Dr. Rezazad, Dr. Hadi Rezazad. So I'll put you in touch with him.
Outside of that, I will tell you one thing that while in India, I was actually talking to a friend who I got connected through this whole teaching space because he wanted—he teaches in the IIMs here.
Kumar Dattatreyan:
I don't know if you're familiar with the IIM, the Indian Institutes of Management.
Reha Malik:
Oh, okay. Those are familiar, but just very, you know, sort of peripherally.
Kumar Dattatreyan:
So that's top-tier business school in India. And that's got a world ranking associated to it, depending on which IIM you're talking about. So he had actually proposed me for some guest—he's like, "Can you just come and provide a few guest lectures at these schools?" And once I get in there, I would be more than happy to even—keep this at the back of my mind—and when I go in there, I'll be in Trichy and Calcutta.
Reha Malik:
Oh, Trichy. I was born in Trichy.
Kumar Dattatreyan:
Oh, you were?
Reha Malik:
I was.
Kumar Dattatreyan:
There is an IIM in Trichy.
Reha Malik:
Oh, interesting. And that's the one I'm going to give a guest lecture in.
Kumar Dattatreyan:
Oh, very nice. Yeah. I mean, this could be useful for college professors as well, right? So it could really be broadly applied. I developed a little assessment, a survey. If you want, I can share that with you just so you have some background into what I'm thinking.
Reha Malik:
Yeah, yeah.
Kumar Dattatreyan:
And it would be great just to, you know, get your feedback on that. So I'll send you that survey.
Reha Malik:
Okay. Absolutely. I'll be more than happy to do that. And I'll take it on both sides, for sure.
Kumar Dattatreyan:
Awesome.
So in terms of podcasts, let me open up my podcast calendar here. I was going weekly and it was proving to be way too frequent for me. I just couldn't keep up because I'm like the one-man show here. And so I had to reduce it just recently to biweekly, which means that I don't have an open slot until February of '26.
Reha Malik:
Okay.
Kumar Dattatreyan:
27th. So that would be the 3rd of February, if that works for you. And we can do it one of two ways. We can go live on that date, a live show with a live audience, or which I prefer, because then, you know, you'll have some time to promote it to your audience. And I'll promote it, of course. And we can have a Q&A session towards the end of the podcast where people can ask you things, right?
The other option is we record it and I just broadcast it on February 3rd, which you can still be there sort of as an audience member in the broadcast version. So if people have questions, you can type in a response like that. It's really up to you.
Reha Malik:
So I'm okay with either way, Kumar. I will let you be the person who makes the decision because I know you run the podcast. So whatever gives you better engagement and whatever things—whatever you think would work better as a format, I'm open to either.
Kumar Dattatreyan:
Okay. And if I, you know, I've seen that engagement since I've gone to the two-week biweekly cadence has gone down a little bit. So I'm kind of worried about that. So if I see—if it stays down, I might go back to weekly, so it will accelerate your show. So I go live on Tuesdays at 12:30 Eastern, live or broadcast—the recording is broadcasted.
So tentatively, I'm going to send you an invite, a placeholder invite for February 3rd at 12:30. If it is sooner, then I'll ask you, you know, if you have another available date on a Tuesday and we can push it up.
Reha Malik:
Sounds like a plan.
Kumar Dattatreyan:
And then when you come back, we should definitely meet like in person, coffee or something, or filter coffee—we can find it. I know there's some places in Herndon that have—
Reha Malik:
I will bring you some filter coffee.
Kumar Dattatreyan:
Okay, awesome. It was wonderful chatting with you.
Reha Malik:
Likewise. Great to meet you.
Kumar Dattatreyan:
Yeah, well, let's stay in touch. I see that we have a few common connections. Do you know Jolly?
Reha Malik:
I do. Jolly was at Fannie when I was at Fannie. And now—so Jolly and I go back a little longer than that. I was in a USCIS contract back in 2012.
Kumar Dattatreyan:
I was there too. Well, I was there before you were. I did some work with USCIS back in 2011 or 2012, I think it was.
Reha Malik:
Okay. So I was in 2013 on the PAP2 contract and then the JETS. And that is where Jolly and I were coaches together.
Kumar Dattatreyan:
Okay. So he actually worked for me at the time. So I was the VP of Consulting at Santeon. And I was only peripherally involved at that point with USCIS.
Reha Malik:
So I was supporting Caterpillar at the time.
Kumar Dattatreyan:
Got it. Got it. And then he and I formed a company together.
Reha Malik:
I saw. I saw. I follow you on LinkedIn because I keep seeing those podcasts and stuff. I distinctly remember meeting you in person. I cannot place a finger on where it was.
Kumar Dattatreyan:
Yeah, same here.
Reha Malik:
I just don't know. I'm sorry about that, but I know I've seen you.
Kumar Dattatreyan:
Yeah, that's totally fine.
All right, so cool. So February 3rd, pencil that in. Maybe sooner, depending on if I can get some help to produce the show. And then we'll go from there. When are you back in the States?
Reha Malik:
Well, I'm going to be traveling back and forth. Like I mentioned, my daughter goes to school here, and this is her year for—yes, she goes to school in India, her high school. So she did her schooling in the U.S. till 8th, and then starting high school, we moved her here. So she's doing 9th to 12th from India, and it's been quite an experience.
And in India, in 10th grade, there's boards. There's a nationwide level board exam where it's not like at a school level, it's at a national level.
Kumar Dattatreyan:
So it's quite incredible.
Reha Malik:
It's a kind of pivotal point in her life. And after that is when you start picking your fields, whether you're going to go into medical, non-medical, engineering, you know, do chartered accountancy or go into the arts. So it's quite a critical, critical time.
So I keep coming back and forth all this time to India. That is why I'm here because it was her half-yearly exams and she's going to have her pre-boards in November and then her boards in Feb. So I'm going to be traveling.
Kumar Dattatreyan:
Yeah, I mean, high school there is much harder than here, for sure.
Reha Malik:
It is. It is. I wanted her to get the experience of this place because I travel quite often to India. My parents are here. And very honestly, I know the kind of upbringing I've had. And it's really, really—it's been a disruptive upbringing, right?
I've never been able to call a place home for more than two years. And I've even been in different countries. For me, I've always—like growing up, I used to hate it. I've had to make new friends and everything. We didn't have Facebooks or all of that stuff. But now when I look back, I think a lot of what my personality is, the reason I love talking to people and I'm able to kind of break ice so easy is because I've been conditioned.
Kumar Dattatreyan:
Same here. Yeah, I think it was very formative for me and my outlook on life. And, you know, when I first came to the U.S., I was—it was pretty—it was pretty—I wouldn't say traumatic. It was just different because I was a teenager when I came here. And being a teenager anywhere in a new country is difficult, you know? And here, especially so, because I went to public school and it was very cliquish and all that stuff, you know?
And also I'm not really—even though I was born in India, I'm not really Indian. I mean, I am, but I don't speak any language fluently because my parents spoke English at home. And so, you know, I went through lots of hazing in India and schools in India because people would make fun of me, the fact that I didn't know anything about—I didn't know Hindi, you know? That's what I remember from Delhi.
Reha Malik:
Oh my God. No, I know. And I think that was one of the other primary reasons I wanted to—like, I'm not expecting her to ace the schooling system. Like I'm not that parent. I think the experience itself will humble her a lot of times, especially for kids in America.
Like I would keep telling them, like, "You're very lucky to be born as a woman in this country." But I think she never connected to it up until now. She's actually connected and she can feel it. So if not anything else, she's going to get an experience of having experienced something different.
Kumar Dattatreyan:
So, no, that's great. I mean, that's a wonderful experience for her. I had it. Even though I look back at my time there going to school in India as being a bit traumatic, I wouldn't trade that experience for anything, you know? Because it helped—it's all formative, right? It's how you get made. You get molded, you know, from all these experiences.
Reha Malik:
True, true, true. Absolutely.
Kumar Dattatreyan:
And that's what we're hoping.
Reha Malik:
We're like, "Good, bad, ugly—it's going to be an experience, ultimately. You'll have stories to tell your grandkids your other friends are not going to have," right?
Kumar Dattatreyan:
Yeah. Yeah, very, very true.
All right, Reha, it's really wonderful to meet you. And let's stay in touch.
Reha Malik:
Absolutely. Absolutely. We'll stay in touch, Kumar. Thank you so much for your time. It was wonderful.
Kumar Dattatreyan:
Of course. Yeah. Take care.
Reha Malik:
You too. Thank you. Bye.
Kumar Dattatreyan:
Bye.
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END OF TRANSCRIPT
