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I am doctor Parikh, Priti Parikh
I am a civil engineer, structural engineer, urban planner,
and I am currently based in the International Development team in Arup.
Um, people generally are busy.
The good ones are quite busy actually [laughs]
For instance, when I was looking for a PhD supervisor
it's just a task finding the right person.
Sometimes I believe in destiny.
Sometimes you go to events and just have a random conversation
the conversation sticks in someone's mind and it starts a whole journey.
Like I gave... I decided that in order to raise the profile about my slum work
I'll just go and do ten free lectures in Cambridge in various colleges
just like that, randomly,
and randomly to one of the lectures Alan my supervisor-about-to-be came.
And then he spoke to me afterwards
and he said "Oh, it is very interesting"
so that registered in his mind,
so when I approached him to be my supervisor he had some context.
So I find that networking and putting yourself out there
makes a big, big difference.
As a teenager I was very, very introvert.
I had two friends in uni [laughs]
Er, I think at some point I realised that had to change though.
Um, because there's... you cannot create a change.
I mean my ambition is to create a change
and you cannot create a change if you do not communicate with people.
Like, I never kind of addressed public speaking until six years ago.
And I just had to go in and do free lectures and try, and try, and try and improve.
So I think it is important to be a bit extrovert.
I mean, you have to just be out there and keep on pushing
and be very persistent
Just let people know what you can do.