Hometown: Foster City, CA
Title: Vice President, Senior Investment Strategist
Company: Franklin Templeton Investments
Purav Jhaveri
My Story About Me
I have like 85 or 90 new friends who will stay with me for life. We really feel we aren't coming here just to study. We're like a family.
Some kids dream of playing pro sports; others dream of rocketing to space. But as a child, Purav Jhaveri dreamed of earning an MBA. "As a kid, I always wanted to study in the U.S.," the native of Mumbai, India says. Purav got that opportunity when his company, Franklin Investments, a mutual fund and investment management firm, relocated him to California. There, he discovered the Wharton EMBA program in San Francisco, which he could do while continuing his work as an investment strategist.
Encouraged by his boss, a Wharton alum, Purav enrolled in the program and quickly found himself juggling family, school and work — but he says the challenge (and lack of sleep) was worth it.
Striking the work/life/home balance
The good thing is that I used to work mainly with Asia/Pacific. In the program, classes are Fridays and Saturdays, and by the time I woke up Friday morning, Asia had shut down. So professionally, I didn't have real-time work on Friday, which helped a lot. Many of my conference calls work around the Asian markets, and are either early morning or late at night. And I could respond to emails late at night. That does help. Mainly, though, I think it has been very tough to balance work and school, especially since I travel a lot. I clock about 60-80 days a year outside the United States. That leads to constraints because I can only fly on certain days of the month because of school. At the same time, it's an intense two-year program, so I'm just powering through.
Dynamic classroom
My favorite part has been the sheer level of class participation from colleagues. I come from a financial background and always see things in black and white. It's really interesting to meet people who have different backgrounds and various views on how the world works. I've learned a lot in class. And the faculty has done a great job in steering the discussion and eliciting responses from us. But it's basically the class participation of my colleagues and the informal conversations we have over lunch and in groups that has really helped shape my thoughts.
Life-changing learning
The Total Leadership class has really helped us understand work/life balance and how to have synergy between home-life-work-community, and self. I went in slightly hesitant — what am I doing in this touchy-feely class when everyone else is taking the more solid classes? Now that I'm through two-thirds of the class, I feel this has changed the way I look at life.
For example, if my spouse is friends with the spouses of coworkers and integrated into that community, then it helps when I work funny hours. She feels part of it. Integration between the four circles — between work, home, community (or friends), and self — is something that really works. We have done a few experiments in class that convinced me of that. Most people say it's work/life balance. But balance always says if you do something, you give up something. What we learn is integration; we don't give up something. We just do time-shifting.
Three outstanding program aspects
First is the faculty — we have had some really great faculty. When you talk to them, you realize the depth and knowledge that they have. The second thing is the guest speakers who come in and talk about their life and their experiences. What I've seen is they have such a high esteem for Wharton. When they walk into class, we feel awed by the speaker, but they also seem to be awed by the class and the caliber of the people they are talking to. The third thing is the social life. I have like 85 or 90 new friends who will stay with me for life. We really feel we aren't coming here just to study. We're like a family.
Keeping in touch
As the semesters roll by, I remember sitting in my first class and thinking two years was really far away. Here I am sitting in semester four with just two more to go and there is this slight bittersweet feeling that I will not see all my friends as often as I do now. This became like a ritual. Every second weekend you meet your friends, and incidentally you study. So that's something that's already weighing on us. Some of us are promising each other with hands on our hearts that we will keep in touch. The class before us said we would feel this way, but I was skeptical. I thought, it's just a course. I thought you go there, you sit in class, you make a few friends and that's it. But it's not. It's an entire awesome experience. You get immersed in the Wharton brand, the school, the experience. There is no out when you are in. You are a Wharton guy for life.
Stretching yourself
Now that I'm a year in, I'm constantly surprised by my capacity and level of output. I think I've stretched myself 40 percent compared to what I used to do before. I am pretty confident I will keep up this pace after school. It really stretches us, and I'm amazed what my capacity is. I never dreamt I could do that much.
