Manka Mishra, Reinventing Profession and Tradition from Sweden to Paris

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May 4, 2026

On May 4, 2026

Manka Mishra joined me from Paris for Episode 174. She is from Dhanbad, Jharkhand. Delhi College, post-graduation in Pune, a brief stint in Mumbai, six and a half years in Delhi, then Ericsson moved her to Sweden. 13 years in Stockholm. Amazon then introduced her to Paris, the place she works in enterprise transformation. Shut to 3 years in France now.

She pivoted from public relations in India to strategic advertising communication in Sweden on what she now calls an in a single day resolution. In Ericsson elevators on the time, Indians had been assumed to be builders. She was in advertising, which didn’t match the template individuals had for her.

The Nordic system doesn’t reward standing out. It values consensus, belief, and planning. Swedish pals schedule holidays two years forward. You meet each six months as a result of that’s the cadence. Impromptu beers with locals should not the sport. She got here from an Indian academic tradition of topping each checklist and clearing each entrance examination, and that framework stopped working the second she landed in Stockholm.

Manka Mishra, Reinventing Profession and Tradition from Sweden to Paris

A lot of the Indian males she noticed transfer to Sweden finally went residence. The ladies stayed. Her studying is that Indian girls are educated to provide, to function, to ask. Males are educated to be served. In a rustic the place no one is coming to ask you something, that distinction decides who survives.

Paris flipped the script. Partaking, social, language-gated, and heavy with paperwork. 9 months to kind her admin. Three weeks earlier than we recorded, she ended up in a Paris hospital emergency and the employees refused to entertain her as a result of she doesn’t converse French. Her husband doesn’t converse French both. A visiting buddy who did needed to intervene. She pays 42 p.c tax. She is aware of her rights. She stated the arrogance to face your floor in a medical emergency in a language you don’t converse is the sort of ability immigrants need to construct the laborious approach.

She is black and white. Straight speak. You probably have not informed her instantly, it doesn’t exist for her. That wiring labored in Sweden, the place belief is the forex. She is studying to learn between the strains in company areas, however her default isn’t any filter.

Exterior work she has a PhD in Odissi and a PhD in vocal. Licensed yoga coach. She paints. Performs golf when she will. Desires to be taught swing dancing. Signed herself as much as a calligraphy course she noticed on Instagram. She runs a Girls in Management discussion board she constructed at Ericsson and is now attempting to increase throughout Europe. The purpose of the discussion board shouldn’t be the standard range framing. It’s genuine management, together with leaders displaying as much as speak in regards to the hits they took on the best way up.

She is tough on herself. She admitted it the second I stated it. She informed me forty was the yr it began to ease.