Blog co-authors: Nischala Murthy Kaushik (CMO) and Manasi Kaushik (Sr. Marketing Associate)

Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, symbolizes the victory of light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance. While Diwali has a deep religious, social, and cultural significance, there are also precious lessons from the Diwali spirit that we can all learn as professionals.

Go Clean

Deep cleaning your home/physical spaces for Diwali is an age-old tradition. An annual cleaning exercise is done by the majority celebrating Diwali as cleanliness signifies letting go of what doesn’t work/serve you well and making space for the new.

Applying this thought to your professional work, think about what you can clean up from your career. This could be cleaning up the data in your phones, laptops, and other gadgets. This could also mean cleaning up your work profiles and resumes to represent the best of what you bring to the table in line with the promise of the future. You can also look at cleaning up your professional contacts/connections.

Let’s Upskill

As Diwali symbolizes knowledge over ignorance, this is a good time to invest in doing a critical skill audit of your work profile. Do take the time to look at what skills are relevant in the market based on your current profile and future aspirations. Next draw up a personal action plan for re-skilling or upskilling to be future-ready, have a competitive advantage, and ensure career advancement.

Say Yes to Networking

Diwali celebrations are about spending quality time with family and friends. Everyone makes the time to wish dear ones, catch up with close ones and re-connect with special people from the past.

Likewise, this is also a good time to build and nurture professional relationships. This can lead to new thinking and perspectives, access to valuable resources, career opportunities, and support systems that may help you navigate your professional journey better.

Dress to Impress

Another important aspect of Diwali is around dressing up. Typically, most people wear clean new and traditional attires. In addition, keeping up with the festive cheer, there is a lot of new age styling and experimentation in fashion!

Professionally, this can be an opportunity to re-look at your wardrobe and possibly invest in good business wear. This could be in terms of buying new clothes and styling existing clothes to make the right impression in work settings. While the definition of business attire can vary depending on the industry, company, and its culture, its significance is multifold –

• Confidence: Dressing professionally can boost self-confidence. When you feel good about how you look, you are likely to feel more self-assured, which can positively impact your performance.
• Productivity: Wearing appropriate professional attire can help you get into a professional mindset. If you stay in your pajamas all day, you are likely to feel lazy, similarly if you dress professionally, you’re likely to feel professional which might help you focus on your tasks more.
• Professional Growth: In many industries, dressing professionally is a part of the overall grooming and presentation that is expected for career growth. It can open doors to promotions and new opportunities. (The movie ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ is a great example of this.)

Exchange gifts 

Gifting is another important aspect of Diwali. As per tradition, it is customary to exchange sweets, dry fruits and/or home décor gifts to near and dear ones. This is a symbol of gratitude, love and appreciation for their presence and significance in your life.

In the work context, if you are wondering what to gift to your work colleagues, here are a few suggestions. You can gift a compliment to someone for work well done, gift a Thank you to someone for helping you, gift your time to someone who needs an ear to listen to their ideas/problems or stories, or even gift an online course to someone for their professional learning and development.

On that note, wishing you and your loved ones a very HAPPY DIWALI. We hope this Diwali you take the time to celebrate with family and friends as well as set aside some time to think about how you can sparkle your career with the festive cheer of Diwali!