u/obsessionwithartists

I met this guy at a networking event/party couple of years back when I was in grad school and he shared his contact and we connected on LinkedIn. I was looking for an internship back then and he said while his company is not hiring at the moment, I should reach out to him once I graduate for grad opportunities. I ended up finding an internship and joined the same company full time. Tbh I forgot about him after that and recently saw his posts on LinkedIn and he joined a company in a similar industry as mine.

I don't have a solid professional network outside some friends and I am thinking if I should reach out to him again for a coffee chat or something? I am not looking for immediate job change but he works at a high position in a very good company so it'd be good to have a contact like that and the ideal situation for me would be getting mentorship from someone like him. He seemed like a nice guy when we talked during that event but I am not sure how it would come across as mentioned reaching out after a few years and he's not even going to remember me or our interaction.

I need help with what I should give to this younger male cousin as a gift who's around 8-10 years old. I am struggling for ideas because his parents who are my mom's extended relatives are fairly rich like own a penthouse in Manhattan rich. I am visiting nyc in a couple of days for urgent work stuff and they're letting me stay with them for 4-6 days. So I am thinking about getting a thank you gift for their son but I have met them only once and that was 4 years back at their son's birthday party when he was still a kid. I don't know what he likes and can't ask them directly because then they'll just say you don't have to bring anything. Even at that birthday party, I remember the gifts people got for him were all in the range of 1.5-3k and I can't afford anything like that. I am a recent graduate who just started working a couple of years ago and have been living frugally since most of my paycheck goes to paying my six figure student loan. I am at my wit's end on what to bring for this kid/family to say thank you for letting me stay with them on such a short notice.

Growing up I've always preferred small but extremely tight knight groups of friends with whom I can share anything and we'll always hang out together. I've never had issues talking with others but I never particularly enjoyed those social interactions the way other extroverts around me like my mom did. But recently a friend from work invited me to a dinner at her place and one of her friends from LA was visiting. This LA friend was someone I'll call an extreme version of an extrovert, she'll never get tired of talking to people, make friends easily and immediately after meeting a stranger and as a result has a huge social circle. And I saw the benefits of that first hand with her talking about changing her job as one of her friends put in a good word for her at one of the top financial firms in nyc which got her interview there and she got the job. She is someone who'll probably never have any issues finding a high paying job irrespective of bad market just because she has that kind of network to tap into that will at worst get her interviews and at best the job.

Since then I couldn't stop thinking that I need to get out more and I need a network like this if I want to survive in the current market. My problem is I struggle to enjoy talking to people whom I don't have regular interactions with in person. I know some of the older people who have large professional networks but that's natural because of how many different companies and different people they've worked with. As someone who's a recent graduate I don't know how to form and manage that kind of group without being extremely social the way that LA friend was. I am curious if anyone here has managed to do that?

One of the major reasons I chose to move to the US was the startup ecosystem here as I always wanted to either lead an early stage startup at some point or become a co-founder. I have been working at a large size company for a couple of years now and want to eventually move to a startup. But I am seeing that a lot of them are not open to sponsorship and it kinda makes sense given the uncertainty currently but assuming if I manage to find something, it's still going to be a lot more uncertain to work at a startup on a visa early in my career. I want to hear about your experiences and how things are currently going on with hiring at startups in tech.

A couple of days ago I soaked chana and moong dal and forgot to refrigerate the crushed batter that I was going to use for making chilla the next day. So the batter was fermented in the morning and the chilla I made with that tasted so good, now I want to know what other varieties can be used to make fermented batter? So far I only know about idli batter with rice and urad daal and this chana and moong dal. Drop your suggestions and open to other recommendations for fermented Indian food too.

I am currently navigating online dating in the US and it feels so overwhelming and confusing as someone with no prior experience in dating.

How has your dating experience been so far in the US and other countries abroad so far?