Aliens in Ad: Neha Bhatia
"Being international is an experience of continuous contradiction."
We had the chance to sit down with Neha Bhatia, a Senior Design Strategist at TRIPTK.
She shared with us her story of navigating life as an international, how to embrace the twists & turns, and advice for young talent entering the industry.
Take a read of our full conversation below!
Where are you from? Where do you consider home now?
“I'm originally from Mumbai, India but I've been in New York for almost 14 years now - basically my whole adult life. So I do consider New York home."
How did you end up deciding to move to the U.S? What attracted you to it?
“I was fortunate enough to be able to travel quite a bit as a kid, so I grew up with a rather global mentality. By the time university applications came around, the U.S. wasn't the only place on my list. It was much more about which programs were the best for what I wanted to do. So I ended up going to Parsons, in New York. At the time, I was quite far away from strategy and advertising. I did my undergrad in fashion design. So I'm actually also a trained menswear designer. "
How’d you find Parsons, what were the early years of your career like?
“I was in a really intense and competitive program at Parsons and it brought out my competitiveness and perfectionism. I was interning/working as much as I could while also going to school the entire time because it felt like I had come so far, I couldn't slack off and I definitely couldn't fail. In hindsight, this was a lot of pressure to put on myself, and while I didn't realize it at the time it was burning me out.
I graduated at the tail-end of the financial crisis so there was the additional pressure of not only finding a job but also getting someone to sponsor my visa so I could stay here. It worked out that I got a job on OPT, but I didn't get selected for the H1-B lottery and was completely devastated.
If I'm honest though, I had known for a while that while I love fashion design, the industry was not really good for my mental health, nor did it support my natural academic/intellectual inclinations. I was stopping myself from moving into something else because at 21, you're not really thinking about mental health and burnout because of work- it wasn’t really talked about so I thought it was just me."
What did you do when your OPT expired?
“I ended up moving back home to India and sort of took a break. I had to work through alot of shame because even though I had no control over the visa process, not getting selected kind of felt like a failure. I gave myself some time to explore different ways to stay in the fashion industry but eventually pivoted to focus on strategy. I had to get over the narrative of “Oh, you don't love it [fashion/design] enough, or you are giving up.”
I realized I’m not willing to give up my health or mental wellness for work. And I had to really sit down with that and come to terms with the fact that loving design didn’t mean it was the right career path for me. I realized that maybe it's actually more personal for me like I can do art and design and have a creative practice that is my own, but I don't have to monetize it.
Is that how you pivoted from fashion designer to strategist?
“Strategy came to me through a class I had taken in undergrad. It was a partnership program with the Columbia Business School, where design and MBA students collaborated on projects together. I really enjoyed it - it satiated that sort of intellectual component that I felt was missing in design. I was never encouraged to be nerdy in fashion circles, but in strategy, it's celebrated and encouraged.
I found that all the reasons I initially wanted to do design weren't actually things I got to practice in the profession. I love research, it's just a part of the way I process things. Even my design work was always heavily rooted in research exploring abstract concepts and translating them to visual mediums. I also wanted to think about how objects interact and shape human behavior and identity, which in theory you should be able to do in design, but it doesn't always happen in a commercial setting. Strategy is much more actively interested in those things.
For me, strategy was, and is, something that fills this intellectual curiosity for me. So during that year back home, I decided to go to grad school - something I always thought about doing - but now with a focus on strategy.”
We’d love to also talk about how you’ve navigated this all as an international in the U.S. To start off with, how have you found life as an international in the U.S.?
"Being international is an experience of becoming very, very comfortable with being a living contradiction. You have to grow up very quickly because there is little room for you to mess up - there is no safety net - but on the flip side, this makes you really good at what you do and gives you the confidence to say that you achieved these things on your own.
The constant uncertainty makes you very good at managing several priorities all at once, being on top of your game, and trying to manage your own narrative while fully knowing you have very little control over most things. It's very humbling in some ways because you have to acknowledge luck as a big factor in the process. You can’t take credit for all the good that happens, but also, I guess that takes the pressure off when things go sideways.”
Have you found any advantages or benefits to being an international?
“Being an outsider can be rather isolating, but it can also be a strength. Moving to the US, living, and trying to "assimilate" means you become very astute and observant. It's how you learn to operate socially and that comes through at work too.
It's almost like an anthropological experience if you lean into it. Personally, I found it allows me to provide an interesting perspective. The objective distance lets me see things others might not be able to because they are more steeped in it. So you end up navigating this dichotomy - between feeling like an outsider, but also having a unique and desirable perspective in the workplace.”
Imagine your younger self, back at home, before you had moved to the states. What advice would you give to them?
“One piece of advice is to get creative with how you get to where you want to go. It’s important to let go of the mentality of “work hard, persevere no matter what to achieve anything”. It doesn't always apply neatly to the reality of being international, there are too many variables at play. You should still work hard, obviously, but also don’t evaluate your happiness based on outcomes only.
I wish someone had told me that you have to be quite flexible in where you're going. Being on a visa means that you're going to be taking unexpected twists and turns. And the more you resist those twists and turns, the more you're going to suffer. So I encourage people to get playful with it.
Say you want to be a junior strategist. A lot of places might not have junior roles. So what are like sideways that you can get in, right? You could come in through media, research, even PR...Don't discount the value of adjacent experience in ultimately getting to where you want to go. It's cliche, but do enjoy the journey - you'll end up in places that you didn't expect.”
We help facilitate a community for internationals in the ad industry, many of whom are currently students, is there any advice you’d give to them in particular?
“Being international does sometimes mean you're not going to get your dream job on the first go, and that is totally ok. There are huge systemic hurdles working against you - The immigration system is complex and not designed for an everyday person to navigate easily. You basically have to become as proficient as a lawyer, I doubt any of us expected that!
Don’t discount the things you learn because of this international status. This is definitely the harder choice to make and with it, you gain this ability to endure hardship. It makes you resilient and teaches you to think and adapt on your feet. That is a strength to me, talk about it in job interviews because it's a valued skill that you might already be an expert at.
You’ve made it this far, so you’ve likely overcome a ton of stuff already. And so just remember to be kind to yourself.”
To join our Aliens in Ad community, click here.
If you’d like to nominate an international in the industry, please reach out to us!