Krish Raja is the General Manager at Captify Australia, a leading search intelligence platform for the open web, and the largest independent holder of first-party search data outside of Google.
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1) To kick things off, could you tell us a little about your career background and current role?
I started off my career working for Microsoft, and since then I’ve spent my whole time at the juncture of data and media at some great businesses like Nine Entertainment, Singtel (Amobee) and a couple of start ups, moving from specialist to generalist roles.
I guess my sail caught the wind at the right time when data became a really important topic for everyone, and as such I was lucky enough to have some really amazing roles evangelising and educating around these areas.
2) What does a day in the life look like for you? Can you take us through a recent workday?
I’m currently relatively new in my current role – and when you add how quickly we bounce between lockdown life and normality, it’s safe to say that even though my daily routine is pretty different every day!
But WFH life always starts by connecting and checking in with the team, and I make sure I physically get out of the apartment before I start doing any work! That helps me to not start the day in a funk.
3) Does your current role allow for flexible or remote working? If so, how does that fit into your life and routine?
We’re building a culture where flexibility and remote working is at the core of our business. We’re lucky that we grew the team after COVID was a thing, so we don’t have to play by any pre-COVID rules.
4) What does work-life balance mean to you and how do you work to achieve that goal?
Work-life balance for me is about balancing your personal life with your work life, and it’s on businesses to promote that.
I don’t really mind when anyone starts or finishes their work day; we’ve got a wonderful group of people that care deeply about each other and their work, so they’ll hopefully thrive in that environment.
It just means that the onus is on us even more so to balance work and life well, and manage our own time. Working more hours sometimes doesn’t equate to being more productive, and that’s a balance we all need to find.
5) In the past 12 months, have you started or stopped any routines or habits to change your life?
I have moved my daily workout to the mornings to give myself a boost (I’m a night owl normally). That’s helped during a severe lockdown where it’s all too easy to stay in your trackies and work from the couch.
I also scribble down 3 new things I’m grateful for every morning. This is more of a mindfulness exercise, to remind me to be positive and enjoy the small things in life. I love the idea that we create our own prophecies with our mindsets.
6) Do you have any favourite books, podcasts or newsletters that you’d like to recommend?
I absolutely loved the Harry Potter audiobooks – they were better than both the movies and the books! Freakonomics Radio is always an interesting podcast as is Making Sense (if you want something pretty deep and philosophical!)
7) Are there any products, gadgets or apps that you can’t live without?
I’ve started to let algorithms run my content a little bit; YouTube, TikTok and Spotify regularly recommend some awesome short videos and podcasts like Ted-Ed, Tifo (for football) and Vice for random mini-docos. Aside from that, my Bose headphones are pretty much a permanent part of my face now – I’m an audiophile!
8) If you could read an interview about work-life balance by anyone, who would that be?
Barack Obama. He’s done so much in his life and dealt with about as much pressure on one person’s shoulders as I can imagine. But he also seems to have a very balanced and healthy family and personal life. Whenever I feel like telling someone I’ve got too much going on or I’m busy, I think about people like this. You need immense balance to get to that level.
9) Do you have any last thoughts on work, life or balance that you’d like to share with our readers?
For me personally, being busy is a mindset. If I feel busy but still am not accomplishing what I want to, I confront myself and realise it’s a prioritisation issue, or that I just don’t want to do that thing enough – as opposed to being too busy to accomplish it. I believe that if I can control my mindset around work-life balance, I can have it all – and that optimism keeps me going!
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