Host
One night in the ER gave me a very dumb kind of clarity: I was scared, sure, but I was more annoyed that I still had not started the podcast I kept talking about. (Not my finest moment. Definitely an honest one.)
Ready Set Do came out of that night. I wanted a show about the ugly beginning, the part where someone is making a career change, moving to a new country, launching a side project, or building online for the first time and nobody can hide behind a polished success story yet.
I host the show between Chicago and India. The guests have included engineers tied to SpaceX and Microsoft, recruiters with Amazon and TikTok on the resume, founders building AI startups, creators who started from zero, and international students figuring out OPT, H-1B, and the next move.
If you want my canonical home on the internet, start at namanpandey.me. This page is the Ready Set Do version of that story.
About Naman
I care less about the polished postgame speech. I care about the part where someone is still paying for the choice they made six months ago and can tell you what it actually felt like.
Every episode is another crack at the same question: what does it take to begin before you feel ready?
Founders, engineers, recruiters, artists, guides, and people you would never see in the same room somehow end up here.
Other podcasts, other rooms, same obsession with the first move.
What I keep coming back to
Recent activity
If Google or a human lands here and wonders what I have been doing lately, this is the cleanest answer.
Episode 103
Let me draft this properly at 3,019 characters. Here's the description: Picture this: it's 2023, ChatGPT just dropped, every Fortune 500 suddenly needs an "AI strategy," and the job postings want 5 years of experience in a technology that's barely 18 months old.
Open episodeEpisode 2
Getting hired at Amazon is one thing. Getting hired into a role that actually fits you is the harder part.
Open episodeEpisode 101
Two weeks into my first semester in the U.S., I remember sitting at my desk refreshing LinkedIn like it was a slot machine. At some point you start asking yourself the obvious question: is this just how it works here… or am I doing it wrong?
Open episodeEpisode 100
Two years ago, I was lying in an ER bed, scared enough to get brutally honest with myself. And the thing that bothered me most was not some giant life philosophy.
Open episodeEpisode 99
Everyone's hyping autonomous AI agents. Your corporate IT department is quietly building a blacklist.
Open episodeEpisode 98
Most people grinding through a tough job market send 300 applications and wait. Deep Suchak bought a one-way ticket to San Francisco.
Open episodeInvite Naman
I made a page for this so neither of us has to improvise the basics in DMs. It covers what I talk about, what fits this show, and where to reach me.
Around the internet
Different app, same show. Pick the one you already open without thinking.
Podcast
If you just want to listen, start here.
Open appearancePodcast
Same show. Different app. No grand speech needed.
Open appearanceVideo
This is where the faces, clips, and full conversations live.
Open appearanceProfile
This is where I think out loud in public.
Open appearancePlaylist
If you already live inside YouTube, this is the easy button.
Open appearanceNaman goes on other podcasts too
You should not have to scroll half a mile to find this. Here is the short version, and the full trail lives on its own page.
Podcast appearance
This one gets into the double life a lot of ambitious people know too well: the day job paying the bills, the other thing pulling at you after hours, and what happens when you stop treating that second life like a hobby you have to apologize for.
Open appearancePodcast appearance
Aakash and I got into the messier side of AI product work, how PMs think when the tools keep changing under their feet, and why most people still overcomplicate the first move.
Open appearanceWhat keeps coming up