Hello everyone. So we are back. So yesterday we did one mock interview session. So as per the view count and the comments, I know people are liking the concept which we bring in front of you, right? So I have Purva with me on this platform. So welcome Purva once again. So today we'll be discussing few more questions. Those interviewer generally ask in the questions, sorry in the interviews, right? So guys for your information, like if you are attending this session for the first time. So like we started this mock interview series and initially we are covering the questions which are non-technical, right? So whenever there is an interview, so interviewer directly doesn't ask like technical questions directly, right? So they start with like tell something about yourself, why you opted this company to do a job, right? So those kinds of questions. So a few questions we covered in yesterday's session. And this is part two for this mock interview session from which like you can learn how you can answer questions relating those with some real life examples, right? So in continuation to that series, I have Purva with me. So like I will be acting as interviewer and Purva will let you know like how well you can frame your answer. So she will be acting as interviewing, right? And going forward in technical mock interview sessions like we'll be switching our roles, right? So sometimes Purva will be interviewer and sometimes I will be. So that basis on our experiences, like we both have 10 plus years of experience, right? So we'll be sharing our experiences as well with you. Okay? So with this note, let's start this session, right? So Purva first question for today's session to you. So like if you are applying for any company, so this is a generic question that any interviewer can ask. So what do you know about our company, right? So let's say you have applied for Infosys or TCS or Vipro. So they can ask this generic question. So how like viewers can answer this question. Right. So again, for this question also some research is required. If you research more about the company and then you appear for the interview, that will be an add on for you. Sometimes we just randomly see the post and because we need the job, we just apply for it. We don't know about the position. We don't know about the JD. We don't know about the company also. So it's always good to research about the company that when was the company founded? Who is the founder or CEO of that company? What type of products that company is into if that company is a service provider company or it's a product based company. These types of information is very helpful for you. You can do this homework before you appear for the interview and then you can easily answer this question. So if I have to just sum up if you somebody's asking you that why you want to join this company, you can always appreciate the good points about that company that I have read somewhere the work culture of this company is really good. So that's why I want to be a part of this amazing company which can provide me a better work culture and there are lots of career opportunities also available in this company. So based on that, I was interested to be a part of this company. I think that sums up well for this question. Right. So very well framed. So one thing I just want to add like if you can research on what products that company is working. So there are two types of companies available. One is product based and one is service based. Right. So if you can explore about this. So I think guys, this will also help you out because if you're applying for a job in Infosys, so you just need to know what kind of like technologies upon they are working. Right. So I think if you can research in that direction, so that will also help you. Okay. So I can add one more point here and just click in my mind that you can also search if that company falls into the Fortune 500 list of companies also. Right. This is one thing which is an add-on for you. A good to know knowledge that I can just brief something about it. There is a Fortune magazine by US Corporation which is released every fiscal year. So they have some list of 500 companies based on the revenue. For example, this fiscal year 2023, Walmart, Amazon, Apple, these companies were listed as top 500 based on their revenue. So if you tell them that if you're applying for Apple, Google, companies like that, Amazon, you can tell them that based on the revenue your company was featured in the Fortune 500 also this fiscal year. So that's why I wanted to be a part of this good brand. That will be something which will be add-on. Yeah. So Pooja, Ashutosh is asking, is this question expected for experienced people also? Yes, of course. It will be applicable for experienced people also. In fact, I think it will be more applicable to experienced because from freshers there will be less expectations about this type of question. But it will be more as compared to freshers because people will want to know that if you have already worked in previous company, why you want to be a part of another company now? So it will definitely be a good option and good opportunity for you to explain about the company. Right. So one more thing like I want to discuss with you, Pooja. So if we talk about Salesforce, so there is also confusion like Infosys, TCS, Wipro, these MNCs work with Salesforce technology and Salesforce itself is a company, right? So like if you can tell something about that and then if you are missing something, so I will cover. So if you can go at first and explain guys like Salesforce is a product company, what they are doing and how TCS, Infosys and other companies are utilizing that product for clients. So it will help them as well. Right. So this is a very common question. Those who know a little bit about Salesforce, they know that Salesforce is itself a separate company. Yes, that is true. Salesforce have their headquarters in US and in India also in Hyderabad and they have opened and expanded their business into different cities and states in India also. So apart from that, there are like, I remember when I started my career 10 years back in Cognizant, Cognizant was only one company at that time where Salesforce expanded their support to that company in India specifically. So that doesn't mean that Cognizant is Salesforce, you know, it is one of the company who is either providing services on Salesforce platform to their clients or they are themselves using Salesforce CRM for managing their data. So if we talk about MNCs like TCS, Accenture, Wipro, these people are providing services on to the customers who are using Salesforce platform. These are service-based companies which are using Salesforce platform. Now there are product-based companies also like Seclor, Technologies, Symantec, Veritas, these are called product-based company who manufacture their product maybe on antivirus software or something like that. So they manage Salesforce customer database for their own company. So there will be in-built support or in-built Salesforce team in their companies where you will have to support internally to their employees, sales reps and whatever opportunity quotations and they will be using Salesforce internally. So there are two types of services which Salesforce has. In Salesforce headquarters directly the company which we have, there will be various type of clients. It can be the MNCs also. So you will be taking care of their Salesforce instance where the database is managed. So this is how we can differentiate between Salesforce itself as a company and the providers or the various companies or MNCs or startups who are using Salesforce as a service. Right, so like this knowledge is very much important and I think you rightly covered everything. I don't have anything to add upon it. Right, so there are two things like if you are preparing for Salesforce you can apply for a job in Salesforce as a product company and you can apply in other companies where either those companies are using Salesforce as a product for managing their day-to-day activities or they are building some solution for their clients. Right, so this way you can bifurcate. Right, and as we're talking about interviews, right, so from that aspect I don't think there is difference but I can say that there will be difference in preparing for Salesforce headquarters directly as compared to the companies who are providing solutions on Salesforce because I can see there are questions or the level of expertise which is required to crack the interview in Salesforce directly is tougher as compared to other companies. So that's the difference as from interviews point of view. Right, and I think if like if someone is preparing Salesforce properly, right, they are doing all the implementations, learning concepts theoretically and preparing interview question and answers as well. Right, so I think if you apply in any of the company you will be able to clear the interview. Right, so it depends on how much practice you are doing. Right, so keep on doing those things and like me and Apurva we are here for your support. So like we are already doing the these training kind of things. So anytime if you have any doubt if you want to interact with us, so you can just reach out to us on LinkedIn or other platforms. So we are available for you. Okay, so with this I jump on to the next question. Right, so it is also common question and most of the folks don't answer this question properly. Right, so it is how did you hear about the position? Right, so how they can like answer this question in well mannered way so that like they don't just say like we heard about this job from social media platform or from any friend. So how they can frame this question's answer. Right, so again a research is required in order to answer this question properly that whenever a company is releasing their JD's they will of course release it on different social media platforms. Right, they will release it on LinkedIn, Naokari and other social media platforms. Sorry to interrupt, you just mentioned one word JD. So I think most of the fresh freshers actually doesn't know about JD. So if we can talk about that first and then if we can continue. So JD is nothing it's a job description of each and every profile which a company releases for every vacancy without a JD they cannot release any position and it just job description means the description of the vacancy that what skill set is required or what education is required this comprises of all of these things. So for example if a vacancy is released by a company called XYZ for Salesforce admin so they will have the skill set experience and everything required in that particular JD or job description describing about what is the requirement for that particular position. So they can include some customizations and technicalities which is included or required to be a Salesforce admin in their companies and it varies from company to company. So it's very important to go through the job description of the position you are applying. The JD's are available on all the social media platforms with the vacancies attached in LinkedIn or Naughty.com or whatever platform you're applying if you're applying outside India also there are different portals but the vacancies will be released along with the JD's always. So you have to you have the flexibility to download the JD's and sometimes if you have applied for any random position like walk-ins are there there you will not get the JD and some online virtual career fairs also there where they will not provide you JD at one hand. So you can always ask about to the HR about the job description of that particular position based on that only you will prepare. So for example if you're appearing for an interview for developer or admin or marketing cloud consultant or whatever profile it is. So if you go through JD it will help you to answer the question which was asked by Sanjay in initial session that how do you apply or how do you say that how do you came to know about this particular position. So because of the JD you can say that I have gone through your JD and I think that there was this skill set required admin customizations automation all of these things are required and I found myself a suitable candidate for this particular JD that is why I am applying for this position. So that can be an answer also for how did you come to know about this particular vacancy. Right so very well answered Pulva. So I just liked this JD thing because most of the freshers either doesn't know about this or they don't explain. So JD is important and this you can add on like why you want to apply or why you want to join the company for this particular role. Right so if you can say like I have gone through the JD and it matches with my skill set. So it will give interviewer enough confidence like you have gone through with all the requirements and you are very well prepared for the interview. Right and if we think from you know recruiters perspective when we are taking interviews we are you know there are hundreds of candidates coming in and if somebody says that they have already gone through the JD and they matches the skill set our work will become easier. So that's why it will definitely help you guys if you use this word JD and if you go through the JDs before applying for the positions. Exactly. Okay so moving on to the next question so it is related to the previous one like the position so interviewer sometimes asked like why did you apply for this position. Right and as a fresher or maybe as an experienced professional like those who are switching from Java to Salesforce or from like a particular cloud to another cloud or they are transitioning from Salesforce developer to Salesforce developer. Right so they just need to justify like why did you apply for this position so I think with the help of JD in my opinion so but I just want to have your opinion as well like how they can frame answer to this question. Yes absolutely so I will continue to the previous explanation only that whenever you are going through JD it will be a good option that if you go through the JD already and if you add that I have seen the job description of this particular profile you require these many skills for this position and I have already achieved a lot of expertise in this skill set. I have done a lot of projects and I have practical implementations hands on exercise on these particular topics so that is why I think I will be a perfect suitable match for this particular position. Right and like if you are fresher so what all projects you have done you can showcase them like these are the projects I have done and these matches with the skill set that is mentioned in the JD. Right and guys one suggestion for freshers then I will pick the experienced one as well so if you are a fresher and you want to showcase your project work so sometimes in an offline interview where you want to be able to showcase your org where you have implemented the project so what you can do along with CV you can have a booklet where you can have some screenshots of the configurations flows apex code that you have implemented so like if you remember in college we submit a project report so that kind of report you can prepare and you can showcase that to your interviewer so that interviewer will see that report and automatically questions will be coming from that report only and if you have really implemented that project so you will be able to answer those questions right so yeah go ahead if you want to add I just it was a good insight actually so what we can do is you can also create a portfolio for your own including whatever projects you have done using LWC that will be also a good practice also and with just one click you will be able to add that portfolio link in your SUA so that is something which can be done so like if you have the opportunity to showcase that online so that is perfectly fine you can have those links and but if offline so this is just a suggestion if anybody wants to apply that and if you are experienced professional then I think it is very easy for you to showcase whatever projects you have done so showcase all the projects that you have done in your CV so that interviewer will ask questions from those project work as well and for freshers like do proper implementation don't just write project names for filling the CV right because if interviewer is asking the question and you are not able to answer so it will be giving them bad impacts right so nowadays like people are taking help from other folks like please implement or do these things for me and if you if you write those things in your CV so you have to explain those things in front of the interviewer and if you are not able to explain so it will create bad impacts right and one more suggestion like if you want to practice like how to communicate an interview so if you want to improve your English if you want to improve your explanation power or technical skills so what you can do you can just try and record yourself whatever you want to explain and then try to listen that recording so automatically like you will find like where you did some grammatical or tense mistake where you explained technical things incorrectly right so if I'm not wrong Purva so whenever we do sessions if it is recorded so we just go and check like how it went right so we do this activities for ourself as well so that we can improve continuously right so right and if you remember our school times also right our teachers used to punish us that please write it down 10 times right that also makes you perfect in that aspect also yep perfect so I have one question so Ruchikesh is asking I have 2.8 years of experience in other technology and I have learned Salesforce but don't have any hands-on on real-time projects so how can I show the experience so I think yeah so Ruchikesh you won't be able to showcase experience in Salesforce but like as in last session yesterday's session we discussed like you can have your trailhead profile right so trailhead profile will be having bazes you might have you might have earned some number of bazes points trail mixes you have completed or if you have done any certification so that is also listed there so that is one thing second like whatever online resources you have I'm not saying like go to my channel only wherever you find any project maybe it is related to admin development LWC or any cloud specific projects so do implement those things and then you can highlight those skill set in your CV and how to defend that you can just say like I am working in this technology but I am passionate about Salesforce now you just need to add like why you are passionate about Salesforce so then to defend that thing what you can do you can just showcase like these things I have earned on trailhead and these many projects I have completed so that will showcase like how passionate you are and you are really willing to work in Salesforce technology right anything that you want to add to this yes exactly I mean this is the most commonly asked question to very frequently that how to showcase the experience if you are not experienced then you cannot show the experience first thing what you can do is which is in your hand is working on project implementations that's the only way we as freshers have no other option apart from that right so we'll take a couple of more questions right and then at last we'll be covering one question that like that is always running in my mind that like yesterday also someone asked like is it necessary to switch from non-technical to Salesforce and why into Salesforce only so maybe like for four five minutes we can discuss on that but before that I want to throw two more questions to you so next one is why are you looking to leave your current company so I think this goes for experienced candidates and this is like generic question because if you are joining any other company so like why you want to leave your previous company so we cannot say negative things because anyhow we are going to join this company so interviewer can say like when you will be leaving so you will be saying these things to us as well so how they can like express their feelings in positive way so that it can it can get the attention of interviewer like you are leaving for you are leaving this company for so and so purpose and this is the reason why you are giving the interview so if you can share some insight sure so here in order to answer this question you have to be diplomatic you cannot say that my manager was bad or whatever issues you were facing in your previous company you have to be diplomatic right you have to throw some light on the highlights of your current company you are applying for but you also need to make sure that you maintain good reputation of your previous organization that really matters because the world is small right we cannot say and keep negative things with us whatever it is and most of the times we always switch for a better package or for better opportunities which is so you can always say the same stuff in a diplomatic in a better manner so that it will not come or show as negative so what you can say is you can say that I have been working in this company since a long time and I have achieved a lot of good certifications and I have great achievements from my company and my time which I have spent in previous organization was really great but now I think it's time for me to go ahead and learn new things in my career which will help me to grow in my professional as well as in my personal life so that is why I am looking for a switch so basically when switching also if you have in your resume you have switched your companies every year then you cannot say this because then you have to justify that why you have left your company so early right but if you have four years of experience three years of experience in one company then you can definitely say this that now I'm looking for a better opportunities in company but in case let's move to the first scenario that you have only one year of experience and you have switched to three companies sometimes it happens like when I was in Vipro I worked there only for a year then I worked in Convertis again for a year but it was not because of my fault the process ramped down so that is something which we can say that the process ramped down otherwise I really enjoyed working in that previous company but now I have to move and learn new opportunities that's the best answer I think we can give for this question yeah perfect so one more question like what are your greatest professional strengths right so when we say strengths right usually we we are stuck into these two three common words we are hard I'm hardworking I'm punctual I'm smart worker that's the only thing I have heard about you know saying about your strengths but you can say some extra words here what are your professional strengths that's why we have this question it's not a normal question what are your strengths we have what are your professional strengths so in professional strengths you can include like include strengths like that I have good communication and collaboration skills I can collaborate with the team very well I have positive attitude I mix up with the team very well because this this matters not only your skills will take you through the interview but your communication how you collaborate with the team how your attitude is that will help the company to improve their work culture so that matters so you can see that I have positive attitude towards the team members I have great communication skills I am a good and quick learner I can learn new things very quickly and I can adopt to the new technologies very well so these are few strengths I think which one can use rather than just saying hardworking and punctual right so I think we covered lots of questions now let's take a couple of questions from chat and then we'll discuss on the topic that I told you earlier so there is one question and I think both the questions are related so one is like as a sales force admin I'm not getting any job right this is from a fresher and there's someone who lost her job in layoffs and working as admin now she's not getting any like calls for interviews so she's asking is it good to stay as admin or upskill so what we both know the answer for this because we really need to upskill in this situation sales force admin is not enough for anyone to find a job even if for experienced person freshers we cannot even imagine the situation so admin is not actually enough so we you really need to upskill either to development or something different as you always say that you need to switch to a different cloud maybe and that is why you don't wait for it I mean you just have to upskill yourself even after years of experience also we need to upskill ourselves you know in order to avoid the situation of layoff we don't know when we don't have the job life is so unpredictable so it's always good to learn new things so that in case of recession or in case of layoff we have something in our hand at least not a job but a skill set which will take us to a job right so if I want to focus on some profiles so if you have admin knowledge so admin is one profile for which you can apply other than admin there are lots of roles if you if you does if you don't know coding right so first one is QA quality analyst right so you can upskill yourself for that role then comes business analyst right so a business analyst is basically client facing role and nowadays it is growing a lot right because to gather some requirements around the project you need to communicate with the client so that is also a non-coding job so quality assurance analyst business analyst then if you want to if you don't want to do coding so you can just go for low code development right so you can learn flow builder right that is part of app builder and apart from that you can learn omni studio which is getting popular nowadays so omni studio is a tool which is a low code development tool right and this basically is used by industry clouds so if you go to salesforce.com so many of the folks doesn't know like in salesforce we have different different industry clouds available so if you go to salesforce.com so on top left corner you will find two links one is about products right and one is industry so if you click on industry you will see lots of industry like media energy non-profit right so these kind of industry names you will find under that list and if you click on particular link so you will find the details of that particular cloud so those industry specific clouds if you want to implement solutions for those particular clouds so we need to use a low code development tool that is known as omni studio so you can upskill your skill set to that particular tool right apart from that we have devops right this is also growing nowadays so if you want to if you don't want to learn coding and still want to become part of this it industry right so you can learn devops skills right so devops means like in salesforce we have different environments in a project so you just need to move metadata items from one environment to another right so there are lots of tools available through which we do deployments right so for that there is one job role which is known as devops engineer right so these kind of job roles are available and if you want to research about other job roles so just go to trailhead.com trailhead.salesforce.com there you will find a link known as careers right so there all the careers are available career opportunities their job description like what you what skill set you need to learn so a developer is one job role where coding is required other than developer there are n number of roles available one more role is available that is related to UI UX right so it is related to designing okay so you just need to explore those things instead of asking question like we have admin knowledge we are not getting enough opportunities so you just need to think how you can make yourself different from other folks right so on top of admin you can learn these many skill sets so four five job roles I told you in this session and rest you need to explore right okay so Purva let's discuss about that thing like two two major things that is coming up one is career gap right and second is from non-technical to technical right so what your suggestions are then I will conclude the session with my opinion so these two things we need to cover so first we need to enlight career gap and second we need to enlight like non-technical to technical so over to you right so first of all when we talk about career gaps we have to analyze that why these career gaps are coming in in your career I think very first thing is we should not have that career gaps unless it's a personal or family emergencies if I have seen people that they take career gaps two years three years five years even six years for preparing themselves for something particular maybe government jobs or IT sector or something like that and then in that case you are not able to justify five years I think one year is enough for you to prepare for something as for my opinion and we should not give ourselves more than more than a year to learn something new if you are trying to learn something new I think you can learn parallely also rather than increasing the gap otherwise it becomes a hurdle to justify that particular gap only for learning if you have taken if you have any emergencies or some issues then of course you will be able to justify the same in your interviews but in case if you have any that was if you can avoid it please do that so that you don't have to face it if it is unavoidable at all that the career gap is there due to maternity for women or any other issues are there for men also so in that case your knowledge has to be the strength your skill has to be the strength make sure that you stand out from the crowd the person who is sitting next to you as your competitor who has no career gap make sure you overcome their knowledge so that is something which is in your control that you can explore more new features whatever is there just learn that and whatever you are learning become an expert in that so that whenever you are giving interview this part should not be highlighted your knowledge should overcome your career gap that's what I believe we can how we can overcome the career gap only with the knowledge and expertise that's it right so I think you covered everything so I don't have anything so first like try to don't have career gap still if you are having so try to overcome that overcome with that career gap and how you can overcome with the knowledge so this is totally very well answered so this this was the one issue second one is like is it good to transit from non-technical to technical and if yes then like who should have the transition in your opinion because if someone is like listening sales forces having lots of opportunities and without any aim if someone is transitioning doing transitioning so I think that doesn't make any sense so what your opinions are yes so we can see a lot of transitions happening because sales force has the highest demand right now in the market right so people are trying to switch from various industries if they have five years of experience into aviation mechanical teaching industry they want to switch to sales force or IT so first thing is I want you to ask this question to yourself why you are switching whether the package is the concern or you want job stability or you want to switch to IT because all of your friends are working in IT you have to first analyze that why you are getting influenced if you are happy in your particular industry if you have satisfactory package if you have work good work-life balance then I would say do not switch but in case if you want to switch then research about it research about the technology you are choosing because nowadays what is happening is we have one vacancy and we have thousands of applicants applying for the same right so the ratio is not matching and that is why people are not getting job and it's all getting messed up so we need to actually figure out that why we are transitioning our career not because only we want to make a place in IT because our friends are doing what our family are doing this should not be the reason for you to move into IT I tell you some strong reasons why you should consider IT as your career there should be some prerequisites right you should have some basic um IT knowledge maybe a technical degree or some basic knowledge of Java or C C plus plus any programming language you should learn before you start moving your career into Salesforce otherwise you will be added in that crowd of people who are saying that I'm not getting job in Salesforce I have started but I'm not getting job so if you are seeing that there are vacancies but there is a lot of competition also so you have to first prepare yourself before entering into IT and why people are choosing Salesforce is because it has high demand in the market and second people think that it is easy to learn yes it is easy to learn as compared to other technologies if we compare Java it has whole programming but in Salesforce we do have no code platforms that attracts people to easy transition and I have seen it that people are able to transition their career from non-IT to IT I'm not saying it's not a good decision of course it is a good decision but it requires a lot of efforts if you are ready to put those 100% or 200 efforts then only you should decide to move to IT if you are able to put your 100% efforts learn about prerequisites which is required to be into Salesforce ecosystem or into IT then you're always welcome I think you will be able to achieve your goal right very well answered and I think you covered everything one thing I just want to add like if people are deciding like we can give our 100% so don't think like if you are learning Salesforce for one month and you will be getting the job Salesforce is vast right we have admin we have development we have LWC we have Omni studio we have different different functionality clouds we have industry clouds we have experience cloud right so if you want to really have a job so at least give six months right and like there are a lot more constraint available like people people are just paying some amount and then after learning for one or two months if they are not getting jobs so they are thinking like our money we like we just wasted our money so just search for some free resources and for couple of weeks like two three weeks just explore whether you are able to understand with those resources just try to search for some mentors right and then if you see like you are able to understand but you need some guidance one-on-one guidance so in that case you can join some premium courses right so lots of free resources are available and that this was the main reason I started that bootcamp right because through that bootcamp you can just see like whether you are able to understand or not if yes and you need more guidance you need more hand holding right like how to improve our communication skill how to improve our technical skill if you are facing any difficulty you need answer immediately with your mentor from your mentor so in that case you can go into the direction right so as poor wise mentioning with each and every question like research is very much important so do proper research and then only decide which way to go right so this I added knowingly because lots of people are asking these two things like what we do for career gap and is it better to switch from non-technical to technical right so I think we have discussed a lot about this last one thing I just want to have your attention Purva so students those who are in BTEC so if someone is in BTEC maybe in third year or fourth year so for them will it be good to learn sales force or not because it is not in their curriculum right right it will be a good option because we know that nowadays degree is not enough for you to get a job skill is required so no matter what degree you do if you are an engineer you are doing graduation in commerce or any other field sales force has all the streams for you if you are interested in finance maybe you can learn about finance cloud if you're interested in core IT you can go to development and other areas of sales force so any skill is actually required for you to get a job because even if we have done graduation or any degrees we needed sales force for us to make our career in good directions so any third year student or fourth year student I would recommend you to do any extra skill apart from your degree right and I think same goes for MBA students MBA, BPA, MCA right apart from BTEC yes it goes for them as well because sales force does not have a prerequisite that only engineers or IT background students can learn sales force but yes when you are learning a skill make sure you clear your basic of programming languages if you don't know anything about programming language it will become difficult for you to learn right so like this came into my mind like why we were having the discussion so I think Purva we can have one separate session as a career guidance for students and we can cover different different streams like BTEC, BCAMCA, BBAMBA and we can just have a chart like we have career paths those are available on railhead so we will be trying we will try to map those career paths with the like graduation or post-graduation courses that they are doing so maybe it will be having good impact on students and you rightly said like having a degree is not enough we need to have proper skill set as well and sales force ecosystem is very vast lots of opportunities are there for students as well so I think we can have one career talk conversation for our like students as well those who are doing graduations and post-graduation so I'm sure it will help them as well absolutely okay so I think this is it for today we have covered lots of questions and we'll figure out like if we'll be having some more common questions so we'll be having one more session this week and from next week onwards we'll be switching the direction from these non-technical questions to technical ones and I think those will be more interesting right because those those are the questions which are part of interview process and those basically covers 75 to 80 percent part of the interview right okay so with this note we take your leave thank you Purva for coming on to the channel and sharing all your insights and experiences with the community so I appreciate your efforts whatever you are doing for the community thank you so much for that thank you so much okay and thank you everyone those who joined the session live and those who are watching the recording thanks to you as well okay so stay tuned for our upcoming mock interview session so I have just created a separate playlist where all the mock interview sessions will be available so you can just go through with everyone okay so thank you see you in the next session bye


Right and the tradition of doing these shout-outs from close to the sea as I can get Here's to the team of the Cockleshell Atlantic Endeavour Congratulations on cracking the Atlantic Ocean Phenomenal, the true tradition of all Marines Gentlemen, how are you? Good, very well, thank you. Yeah, very well, thanks. That was nice and measured, so we didn't all talk over the top of each other You can tell these guys are professionals So friends at home, it's my absolute delight today to host my fellow bootnecks as Many of you would have seen we've had Mick Dawson on the show and we've had Lee Spencer on the show both rowing ocean rowing legends and now I've got junior Nutty, Brucey and Will who have just rowed from Canaria, Grand Canaria, too, was it was it Barbados fellas? Yeah, and Your expedition was called the Cockleshell Endeavour, have I got that right? Yeah, okay, so if we go with Will, can you just explain for our friends at home? We're why why the term Cockleshell is so Relevant to the Royal Marines Well, it's named after the Cockleshell heroes who obviously did the the daring raid in in the World War and Yeah, I guess because it was a Amphibious expedition that just seemed natural to to name to name it after the famous bootnecks Yes, so they were commandos weren't they in the second World War? Yeah, and Was it 10 or 12 went behind enemy lines in the Cockleshell kayak or canoe and Eight of them lost their lives and it was tragic like literally one of the canoes cap canap capsized Chap had to hold on to the back of another coup as long as he could and then they just turned around said fella You've got to try and swim and of course they they knew they knew these guys wouldn't make it then some were Executed by the Germans when they were caught and only Only two made it back to to the UK is am I am I roughly about right there? Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Yes And Bill Sparks I think was a Oh, Bill Bill Right old age didn't he and still still enjoyed a pint with the guys, but he was one of the the chaps that made it back Yes, what what What a bloody commitment these men were prepared to make a Yeah, when I ran the length of the country one of the women that came to meet me as a photographer and She She was called Hazel by the way. Hello Hazel her uncle was one of the chaps that died in that raid So, um one at a time we start my top left, which is junior. Do you want to give us a quick? overview of your service I'm junior John the Romerians in 2007 Shortly after passing out of training I deployed to Afghanistan on my first tour Herrick nine in 2008 Which is a yeah, it was a bit of an eye opener for me Didn't know really what to expect But Yeah, the first the first day we got ambushed pretty connected kinetic pretty busy and Yeah, it was a steep learning curve After returning after returning home from Eric nine had a bit time off deployed on Exercise of Riga to the States, which is pretty cool working over there Shortly after returning from the States, we were Get ready for her at 14 and started pre-deployment trading again Yeah, so then deployed on my second tour in 2011 with will in in J company this time My first first time was with Lima company at 4-2 second time was J company 4-2 Very was come it was completely we were doing a completely different thing to my first tour First tour we're doing strike ops and this tour we're doing like routine more routine patrols Yeah, three months into that tour Yeah, I was caught up in an explosion There's a top top cover on a massive on the GMG. We got struck by a pretty large ID Yes, it's severely injuring Every everyone really but luckily luckily no deaths we were we were Yeah, we were sort of Security for this board of army officers going around doing serial checks that day and All the army officers in the rear of the vehicle. They were quite bad quite severely injured Myself I was ejected from the vehicle Landed back on the vehicle with a with a turret system on top of me which is pretty heavy um But yeah, then that I was flown back to Bastion They were preparing me to fly back to the UK and straight away But I kicked off a bit of a fuss and said I would make a recovery in a week or so In Afghanistan stuff it kept me out in Afghanistan for two two or three weeks. I was out there While the rest of the land were flown back in the first 24 hours But um, yeah, they kept me out there and I wasn't wasn't really making a recovery or Couldn't really walk properly at the time and uh Yeah, I was flown back to flown back to England where I started my rehab at four two commander in uh, I forgot what was getting can go through I was then lucky enough to be selected to go to another Specialist rehabilitation unit called hasla company at the time where they um, where a lot of injured raw marines went Yeah, uh, and then after a few years of rehab in hasla company I was I was medically discharged Since leaving I've done a bit of security work a bit of other work as well, but uh, I was really unhappy um So I quit my security job and and then started going on expeditions on kayak and expeditions canoeing expeditions climbing expeditions um Do a lot of skiing sort of skiing two three times a year and uh and then I was offered this chance to um To row the atlantic by brucey and nutty. I just said yes too straight away I had no idea what it was going to entail even though I'm good friends with frank frank spencer lee spencer and uh, but still Still in to till I experienced it I could I was listening to his stories button till I experienced it myself um Didn't really know what I was going to feel like but yeah, um Yes, so since leaving, um, yeah, uh, I wasn't happy still always looking to find more happiness and adventure um, and the ocean row was amazing and I and I think it's something every boot neck should Want to try and do at some point. I think it was amazing amazing experience Junior for someone like me, right? I I'm I love I love adventuring. I love expeditions um But I have a son now And I I have this moral sort of dilemma in my head about Like if I was to get on an Everest expedition or if I was to row the atlantic Would I be taking an unnecessary? Risk meaning what could I fucking die, you know? um How is it when you're actually I mean when lee was on the show he said he had 40 foot waves and he was He was terrified and I watched that documentary about the canoeer who tried to canoe from Was it Tasmania to New Zealand or Yeah, or some something like that Yeah, he got within 10 miles of land and all his family and kids were there waiting for him to come in He didn't come in to And he just they heard something on the radio, but they didn't know He's going on the canoeer. I'm the canoeer and they didn't know what the canoeer was but that was him Taking his last breath basically Can you just enlighten us about that and Basically tell me to go anyway Yeah, yeah, I think there's a lot of risk and a lot of things that a lot of people do um, but for some reason my head I know that the risk could be Losing your life and a lot of things we've all done in the past, but I've yeah, I've never I don't have any kids to have any wife. I've never really been Yeah, in a committed relationship whenever I've got away on operations or on expeditions And yeah, I just yeah, I don't know. I think that's the whole Frill really as well and there were moments on the road where I was absolutely terrified Yeah, the first we left on the first day got hit but it was a beautiful day flat calm A couple hours into the road Or it was just like hell on earth. It was disgusting and that lasted a good few days So I was kind of terrified at the beginning then but it built my confidence within the boat and within our capabilities Uh, and there was a couple of other moments during the road where I was terrified But that moment pass and I think I get like get a buzz I get a buzz of that But again, if I did have a family back at home I think it'd be a complete different experience for me, but I don't and um I think in the moments where I'm terrified I sort of embrace it and feel it And then when that moment pass passes, it's just I think it's just A good a good bit and um a bit of a rush as well So yeah, so maybe come on to one of the other guys Let's go to will so will if if you were capsized Right out there in the middle of the atlantic what?  Hooked up to the boat Is it is it a chance of passing ships going to come and get you can you can you get the the the the boat Righted Can a helicopter get can you just fill this in on that sort of stuff? Yeah, well we were um, we always clipped on to the boat at all times whenever we were on deck So when we were changing over we'd always make sure we're like clipping on to the the safety line And so we'd obviously be wearing a life jacket or we had um We had little like climbing harness harnesses, which we took the lead loops out. We're just using the belt um And yeah, if we if we did capsized it, um Um, hopefully all being well the boat would would self-right itself. Um But you know, it's not 100 guaranteed depending on what You know what's going on and stuff If it didn't then then The two guys that are on the deck would still be clipped on so They'd be able to get to the boat stand on top and use use the the lines We had on the deck to to hopefully pull it back over With the assistance of the lads who are in the cabins if we can you know communicate with them um It would obviously have to be a bit of a team effort to get it back.  Um, depending on whereabouts we were and where Whereabouts other vessels were um But yeah, there are safety procedures in place for every scenario, I guess It's a big difference being in a team of being on your own as well. I'm guessing Yeah, it would have here. I mean if you that happened on your own um Then yeah, I guess it would have been a completely different experience to if you have the lads with you because You know, it just makes it a little bit easier if if you're all in it together and you'll Um, you know four brains working together is better than one, I guess. Yes And will can you tell us a bit about your service? Yeah, so I joined the core in 2009 um passed out of training 2010 in the summer and joined four two. Well, yeah got to four two commando um Pretty much immediately started pre-deployment training for um herrick 14 Um deployed on herrick 14 with j company same company as jr. Um And yeah four four months into the tour I got shot by a sniper.  It wasn't completely severed, but it was hanging on by a thread from what I understand. Um Which which which part of the body is that mate? Um my left forearm Yeah, um Yeah, it was pretty gnarly Obviously I had to get kazovak um picked up by the american rescue team pedro taken back to bastion and wheeled into surgery immediately and put to sleep and then uh woke up and sort of realized what was going on and you know Realized, you know at the end of my tour um got flown back to england and then started my Recovery, I guess I was like the pretty much the remainder of my career as a marine was just in rehab and hospital I think had six or seven different um operations to try and get the the nerve fixed and the you know everything cleaned up Um I think after about a year. I got like, you know, most of the movement back in my hand and it was My injury had recovered as much as it it was going to. Um, I got upgraded went back to work and um Went on a heavy weapons course down in limestone in the middle of winter and uh doing all the all the you know going through the drills on the guns outside In the cold weather it just you know My my the nerve damage in my hand meant that it just you know, it seizes up becomes really stiff And my dexterity just goes out the window in the cold weather. So I was unable to To do the drills correctly on the guns which meant I got pulled off the course and then um You know, I got put back into rehab and sort of realized this was probably going to be um You know, it's not really going to get any better than what it is now. So I could sort of see my career was going to end.  Yeah, yeah, I think Three years to get you know to get back on a horse so to speak But yours was unplanned and you and and you've been seriously injured Yeah, I think yeah, I definitely struggled with with adjusting to being a CV. Um I do suffer from bouts of depression. Um I've got like a underlying low level anxiety most of the time. Um Which I'm trying to work through and stuff But yeah, it was just I think it was just a lot In such a small amount of time for you know, I was only 19 at the time when I was in Afghanistan and 21 when I left so I was still, you know barely an adult really and um trying to figure out how to handle this and how to How to find my place in the world again, it was yeah, it's been been a bit of a rocky rocky road To recovery, but you know, I'm really grateful for the fact that the lads invited me on to Onto the team to to do this crazy expedition with them because it's just been a massive Um boost for me, I guess like, you know after so long not being You know, I I'd sort of cut myself off from a lot of the guys I used to work with and was friends with just out of feelings of guilt and and not feeling worthy of you know Being a you know being a being a bootnick, I guess, um So to have this was just a massive thing for me um to be able to Do something hoofing again and and represent the core And work with with the lads and we've all got a shared bond, you know Brilliant that was going to be my next next question. What did you get out of it? It's uh, Yes Hoofing as as you say Yeah No, shall we come on to you? Can you tell us a bit about your time? Yeah, sure. Um, I joined the you're still serving. That's right. Yeah, serving a lemak company for two come on day That was that was my old company Was it yeah, we didn't we didn't have j company back then. I don't think and we know We was that a fourth company that was added for afghanistan It was originally it was um for the forklings. It was made up of, um Clarks VMs and things like that and they put them all together in this one j company And then after the forklings, I think they got rid of it and then it came back again for afghan as far as i'm aware Oh, no, iraq. Actually, it was it was around a little bit of iraq fun Yeah, i'm i'm not a 28 years old joined the war marines in 2013 And uh, did a heavy weapons anti tank course in 2015 um being at four two My whole time So i've really enjoyed it.  I'll say some of us, you know, some of us have got it Most haven't unfortunately, but that's life um You get your kebab you'd throw up in a taxi and and and that was it that was your night, but there isn't Union streets just not happening anymore. Is it? um Probably not like you remember, what did you do get on the victory bomber from from four two and i'm going Yes, that Basically that yeah that that was it. I I lived um, I lived ashore. So I Yeah, so and I had I I'm I'm from that area. So I have mates that you know, we we Get the bus from yelverton or something like Yeah, then then get a cab cab home or um Yeah, we'll take a car Not necessarily one that belonged to us, but Yes interesting, uh My misspent youth basically But um, yeah, it's it's just funny when I go down there now. It's almost like desolate. I think you Is it jesters is still there? Oh, yeah sticky jesters Yes, so sorry I interrupt ruptured you so you you're still at four two now Yes, that's right. Yeah And did you come up um with the idea for this trip? This was this was brucey. Um, yeah, you know, he asked me to do it and I was like absolutely not a hesitation Without a shadow of a doubt, but we've done some We did the devices westminster together And previous to that we're on the same heavy weapons anti tanks course in 2015 So we knew each other and then when brucey came to four two um Just started grilling in in the um and then just chatting chatting again and having a couple of boozies And yeah Did the device westminster? And it's just gone up from there so What i'm going to ask you is at what point did you go right? Yeah, I want to do or or brucey at what point did you think? Yeah, let's do this let let let's because you've got to take action right and and it's one thing i'm always saying Probably 99 point percent of people just never take they they might have the idea But they never take action on it, right? But before I ask you that brucey, um, nutty were you on deployment? I'm I mean, I'm assuming you were Uh, what to i've got nothing like that. No, I didn't I didn't do that okay I'm just trying to work out where you where you fit Where where you fit into the grand scheme of things Um How long are you going to serve for me? Are you going to do the 22 or or? I'll just take it as it comes at the moment see see how see how it is. Um Yeah, that's all I can say really about that and afford to still going up to norway I thought she hasn't gone to norway for Ages. Oh really like as a as a whole unit. Yeah Is that what is that just with four five now or something or? I think four five four five has been over there recently.  We're trying to ski downhill, but hey ho. Yes So bruce. Yes when um, um, brucey when when did you actually come up with the idea? When did you think right? Let's do this All right on the pitch from mcgawson down in um the coach house in rottendon Because I filled in for him on um someone had to drop out. So I paddled the ucon with a guy called neil marshall And then I was doing like the post event boozing off down in rottendon where mcliffe's and he's asked me how Do I feel about rowing an ocean? I thought it's an amazing idea because it never really occurred to me I didn't even know row from I was one new maker done it, but I never thought about doing it So we gathered together the idea was to mix two serving the royal with two former royal in the boat and so um Yeah, that's what happened Approach knife has been raced together and he's a demon in the kayak And fit as hell. So it's like he's the first person I would imagine asking The um the ucon Uh, is it a race or just a paddle? So, yeah, there's a few events on the ucon. We did the 4 4 4 which is the river quest 444 mile Race from white horse to Dawson. We it's a lot a bit shorter than the other events on the same river But it's a lot more intense. Are you doing it in one hit? Yeah, is that the one foxy did? Oh, I think he paddled from source to sea like he walks a bit of the I can't remember what it's called it's like the chinook trail or something And then when the river's paddle of voice he paddled the full length for the Was it the Bering Sea or something in the Beaufort sea somewhere in Alaska anyway? I'm going to enter him out in white horse as well actually Did he try and borrow money? No, he was pretty sorry So Um, let's go back to junior then. Um, how did you get the boat together? How does that work? Do you buy one? Do you have it made? Uh, well, so, um I think like you can buy them have made uh, you can buy them second hand have a made or or rent them um, but luckily, uh for like through brucey Um, uh, mcdawson and and chris martin Um, they really looked after us and really really looked after us and sorted us out with a with a Really good deal on the boat and the equipment It can be really really expensive. It is still expensive, but they really looked after us Can you give us a rough idea mate? How much the gear cost? uh I think Yeah, I think from never ruin an ocean in your life They know nothing about ocean row and having no kit equipment boat um, no training Um to get all the qualifications you need the stuff. I think you could be talking um 100 grand 250 grand Um, I don't know brucey am I right there when I say that do you think? Yeah for sure mate a lot of people recover a bit of cost afterwards by selling the boat But if you buy the boat and all the kit, yeah, you're looking well upwards of 100 grand Yeah So but as I was saying then we we just got really lucky. We had some really really good people Helping us along the way and and also brucey and nutty still been serving We managed to get some help from the actual raw marines And the braum range charity as brucey's representing right now with the t-shirt Yeah So we had some really really good support behind us and We managed to make it happen for just a fraction of the price Yes Brucey just back to you. I didn't ask you about your service. How long have you been in? Uh seven years or eight years now eight years eight years. Yeah joined in um 2013 and then Was that 17 or something did it pass as Norway? And then a few exercises but well being quite far around the globe apart from the orient Did you say you have been around the globe? We haven't I have but not on any like um Deployments of action like Afghanistan or anything just like black alligator in the states and stuff like Um Sorry, I've got to think of the question. I was just about to ask. Yes. So if we go back to will um Will was it like Pushing away from the the sides setting off Um quite strange really because we just set off from um a port in grand canaria uh pure to riko Which is just you know, like a really nice sort of marina loads of nice yachts and stuff And we were there for a little while um, obviously doing some final bits of work on the boat Um, like we stored it there Um on land for a couple of weeks while we like packed all the food and as we were doing that we sort of Had a lot of people passing by and you know asking us questions about what we're doing and People really interested in it. So When we set off we had sort of a quite a nice crowd of Friends that we that we've made in the in the weeks leading up to setting off. Um But yeah, like junior said it was a beautiful day. Um when we set off and we were excited to to get off into some nice You know, perfect rowing conditions, which we did for the first few hours. Um But yeah, yeah, it was a bit strange because obviously, you know, we get on the boat and and and then Take our shoes off and that's the last time we're going to be stood on land until we get to The other side of the world pretty much, which is yeah, it's a strange thing to think about but um Yeah, we were just all excited to get started because you know, it'd been so long in the making um Our pacific plan had had gone out the window due to the virus. Um We had a load of obstacles to To get over so we shouldn't mention that mate, shouldn't we that you were gonna you were you were entering a race That originally was across the pacific Yeah, yeah, we're going to take take part in a great pacific race Which was due to set off in july june or july last year. I think um But yeah, obviously we've covered it. It got canned so um So yeah, we just we we Put our heads together and came up with the atlantic crossing. Um, which sort of worked out all right We worked out really well to be honest. Um Because we had a lot more time to train for it and get things organized And raised more money. So and um I'm guessing you You guys know kale, do you? Yeah, yeah Yeah, he's he's a bit of a legend in the old rowing isn't he? For former soldiers soldier for our friends at home that that we we all know kale Royce um, wasn't he gonna row or isn't he's planning to row the Uh, the pacific as it is a double double amputee Oh I haven't spoken to kale in a little while. Um, I can't remember the last I said to kale, but um, he put He's probably up to something mental Yes Kind of drag frank into it probably yes So, um, how long would it take to to row the pacific that must take months I think we were planning on rowing the hopes if it were planning on rowing from san francisco to hawaii Which I think would probably appreciate may correct me now Around a similar time period really in a similar distance So it's slightly short about um, it's harder, right? You had a cold weather coming down from past san fran that from the arctic.  Yeah Wow Have you guys read um Or even seen there's a film out now um the kontiki expedition No, no Is that a rowing expedition? No, it's actually a raft expedition. It was tor hayadol um, a norwegian chap basically led A team of uh former norwegian commandos, I suppose you'd say um from chili across to um Polynesia He was trying to prove an age-old theory about migration in you know in pre not prehistoric but in in ancient times and how far is that? Oh I'm sorry. I'm looking at the map now. It's it's It's a good few thousand miles put it that way two two if not two if not three if not more um But it was mental all these guys have been up there in norway in the resistance fighting germans and they they were They were full on a mental, you know Did they complete the expedition? Say again, they successfully completed it. Yeah Yeah, so one of the guys was in an op above a post office and It was something like five germans came in And he fell through the floor or saw the ceiling or something Pulled his pistol out and shot these five guys dead, right? This is this is the kind of Can I say caliber of these men, right? and um His name was I think his name was torston rabbi and when tor hayadol sent a telegram To say i'm in south america. I'm building a bolster wood raft Gonna sail the pacific um Are you in torston messes back on my way? I love that that I just love that no nonsense I'm in right so Yes, yes, um So we plan um So we plan a similar expedition ourselves right now You know, I I would love to have recreated that expedition, but his grandson actually did it um There's there's very few of those big bolster wood trees left in the world now they've already You know, you need you need sort of ancient ones that have been growing for a fair few years to get The and the the raft they made was huge. It was probably about Ah god What's that for about 50 meters long or something it was it was enormous um really good, but anybody watching it's in it's in my um Amazon shop. There's a link link below the um Contiki expedition and one of the best books i've ever ever read i've read loads of rafting books. Um But yes, anyway back to the rowing Um, how long was it before someone flashed? If our junior was flashing before even say Now yeah, I'm one for I do like a good flash every five minutes or so I'm actually drew another one now actually Yeah My flashes are harmless. They may not sound harmless to an outsider But I I flash a lot. We'll we'll probably no longer see and he knows I like a good flash But you know everyone knows I love them I do like a good flash every now and then So i'm just gonna chuck some questions out fellas and just add let's just do these um just just Off the top of your head sort of thing. So can everyone give me their High point and High point and low point start with junior uh High point Like so, yeah That's probably that's probably an easy one. Isn't it it's getting a show I On the actual row itself. I had quite a few high points um Yeah, in the first couple weeks, I know it's a few weeks in but for the first few weeks we could see Hundreds and hundreds of shooting stars every every hour. It was insane just so many Uh, but there was this one night where there was a uh four moon The stars were out the moon was shining across a flat sea um The bioluminescence as we were rowing through it was lighting up green about for either side of the boat We had a pot of dolphins following us that night Um tuna fish following us that night and we had a whale following us for three days And that whale was following us on the same night as well just circling around just popping its head up Yeah, uh, that was That was one Yeah, that was one of my high points at night was just magical all the stars the shooting stars the dolphins the tuna fish the whale The bioluminescence it was amazing Uh, one of my low points was Um, we had pretty much the same through the whole way across.   Were the were the rations did you get like a pusses brand or were they a shot?  All right, right. Let's get some food So we played an order for um Weird how long would it take let's get three months each so we had a year's worth of norway rations Like repot boxes. There's like four grams worth of scram And it wasn't officially given to us. So I don't know if I can I You're not a true Royal Marine if you don't prof stuff, that's just That's just the way it is Will over to you high point low point or most scared point. What however you want to put it Um, yeah high point. I guess We've talked about that that night that junior just mentioned quite a lot. Um, but I Guess like just just rowing at night when it was nice when it was like calm weather and um all the stars were out We had a bluetooth speakers on the boat For the first couple of weeks before our Spotify accounts wrapped their tits in But yeah, I'm into my like sort of psychedelic spacey electronic ambient music. Um Which I wish the other lads weren't too too keen on but I enjoyed it Well, like I put it on at night Absolutely just I thought I was like looking into my nose Yeah, so I put that on when I when me and junior rode it like because junior enjoyed it a little bit.  We're in the middle of nowhere and um, yeah, it's just quite a surreal experience, um And having that music just made it better for me. Anyway Was it good just getting back to nature and having all the clutter and modern life out the way and and just experiencing that That yeah Yeah, 100% it was a yeah a beautiful experience, I guess. Um Yeah, just like you know your head's way, you know way clearer because you've got The only thing you've got to worry about is what's going on in the boat and what your your mission is, I guess, um, you don't have to worry about You know anything going on back home your usual worries of life just go Yeah, they get left to For sure, so That's why I love going away is the second you get on the road or you get on the plane or what or on your bike whatever it is Like life all the worries They're behind you. You know, it's just brilliant. It's probably why I traveled so much Yes Yeah, everything's just it's just life simple, isn't it like yes it is this what what this is now Whatever this clusterfuck is this for young people watching this ain't life.  What um high and low point High and low point Yeah, what's that we will Uh, I agree. I agree with what will says about a day. Someone else nicest is thoroughly enjoyable, right? Yes, there's just serene experience and uh, like it's amazing Then the low point probably come within the first few days When we were looking at multiple different weather models Consulting a lot of experience like much more than I was experienced ocean rowers And then we're walking down the jade as fisherman was coming off his boat.   I'm like, yeah, yeah I wouldn't do that if I was you.  No, we're gonna hear about it's my one of the biggest songs we experienced still within the site of land, right? I was just looking at night on the ship like Of course we all used to the routine to change over is getting scrum on and say like that It's just carnage for about three days, mate And then um, yeah, but like junior says earlier It's better to have a storm sooner rather than later because he gives us confidence in the boat And that sells yes good rather than have the first storm halfway across Where it's a little bit more remote Nassi over to you mate. What high point low point? High point was um Having a cold crisp pipe in the boat, right? That high point was um See in the way I'll go underneath the boat Uh when it was it was so close, you know, it's about six to eight feet away um And it just it just went underneath the boat and it was spectacular. You could see it in the moonlight that was truly amazing and then low point probably was um When we hit a storm sort of like no, it wasn't really a storm. It was just like a bad patch of weather The current was going in the wrong direction The wind was going in the wrong direction and the waves are going in the wrong direction And it was heartbreaking to just be like not moving anyone Yeah, I thought I wasn't very happy with that I bet because it took you what what was it 49 days? 49 days 90 hours and 45 minutes. Is that any kind of?  At one point it was flat, it was like a milpons for a week And then we were swimming off the boat and that was like Not Even that close to the boat, but it was no real safety concerns because it it was flat as hell, you know Good good good. Yeah, we had to get off the boat to clean it every every week or so Oh the barnacles and stuff. Yeah Yeah, did you get any fish following you in and did you sort of develop an ecosystem? Yeah, yeah, definitely.  We didn't need to They jumped off the boat Well, yeah, we were chucking flying fish off by the hundreds every night and in the morning. Yeah But we didn't eat and he would just feed in the tuna fish and feeding the seagulls and There was there was one flying fish that makes me laugh like so much I was running along and It hurtled into Bruce's back and ricocheted into the water and it was so funny. I was just like Ah So, um, I got two final questions Um, so the second to last question is when you hit, uh, Barbados did you go to Nelson street? Oh I don't uh, where's that? Sorry It's like the roughest street in Barbados. It's when you go there a ship's company. I was on in on Invincery year It's like the first place everybody goes because it's it's um Yeah, let's just say one night in um Nelson street makes a hard men tumble Yeah I thought when fortunately when we got there they had a strict curfew and then a lockdown kicked in What we're in a few days, Bruce, you know, is it? Yeah about that. No We was really fortunate because there's a guy that I think you found out about us about a week before we hit land called Tony Truland There's a he's a um army commandos legend from five nine top guy And he sees me right over there like doing security on um rich people's pads And he puts in his contracts when they're not there he can use them for his own ends So we're standing in these mansions and that was just really nice looking the train And we'll over to you just for my final um question, mate What's it like when you spot land and and you know that's it you've done it Um, yeah, it's obviously a great feeling. Um Don't really realize what it's like to To not be around any sort of life Um and land for that amount of time. So when when we spotted it it was It was good to know that we Were within striking distance of it. Um, especially because the weeks the couple of weeks leading up to it was like nutty said we You know, the the elements were just against us pretty much the whole way. So Well for the for the last little leg of it anyway, um Um, so yeah, it was good to see it and and know that it was it was soon going to be over especially for me just because I was in so much pain from my um My bum injury.  So it was just agony to sit down. So For me, I was like, oh, yes, soon. I'm not going to have to sit on this seat for 12 hours a day. So That was a good feeling. Yeah, did you take sort of a serious med kit with you? Yeah, we did we had a Yeah, we had all the stuff we could we could need I guess. Um So yeah, I was taking I did take a course of antibiotics which cleared it up. Um, and During the the period in the middle where it was nice weather and we weren't getting Getting smashed by the by the waves and getting wet all the time it sort of cleared up a little bit but then you know as we got closer to the Caribbean, um We were getting wet a lot more um a lot more waves coming over the boat So it just sort of flared up again and then just became almost unbearable awful right to finish off, um We got a lot of people out there not just our brothers and sisters in the military, but I think after this Current situation a lot of people going to be struggling with their mental health um Or to just young people in general that are like Chris.  What what? You know, what how do I start? Can can we all give?  So that would be my tip. Don't listen to the naysayers Will got something for us um, yeah, I guess Everyone sort of knows like Has a Sort of idea about stuff they could be doing but if they did do it would make their life better.   I can't think of anything Have you got something for us, Brucey? Yeah, there's there's very little Actually between you and what you want to do A lot of restraints are self-imposed They've just got to go out and start doing it Spot on take take action Nae Yeah, take every opportunity that arises and um go at it classic junior The last words were you? Yes, we've got another rower, have we? I like to visualize things and manifest things So as soon as as soon as Brucey approached me with the opportunity I had a clear I had a clear I could visualize it clearly I could visualize myself in Barbados having a pint on the beach And I didn't really think about the stuff in between too much So I could visualize myself there. I felt like it had already happened in my mind But also how have the just have the bigger picture in mind all the time a clear vision of what you want But um, just chip away at it. Just take small steps to get there And that's exactly what we did as a team Every day we were doing something different working towards our working towards our goal And before we knew it We were on the start line. So have your clear Clear visualization in your head of what you want to achieve And then just chip away at the small things and before you know it you'll be there and it will all be over Yeah, brilliant I found when I when I ran the length of the country Uh I'm stood on the start line at John O Grotes I've got a 15 kilo backpack on And I've got to run an ultra marathon every day I didn't know how many I'd have to run but it ended up being 36 And I thought I'm gonna see my little boy That's all I thought I thought about Arriving at land's end and there's my little boy and we're gonna We're gonna run the last 100 meters together And That was it.  I've still Just focused on Hang on a sec. Hello mom Yeah Yeah, I'm eating well Yeah Yeah, I'm washing behind my ears Love you two hugs Sorry about that Yeah, no, just people listen It's called begin with the end in mind, right? You're getting to the end.  Thank you Very proud of you all. I'm sure that that that well, I know the whole of the core is I'm gonna put a link below. Is your fundraiser still open? Yeah I was gonna ask you to take this opportunity right in If everyone likes what I've heard just go on google and find the our own charity and just chuck them a fiver or something Because I do a lot of good stuff out there at the moment, especially Yes, so friends at home. I'll put a link below the video even if you can spare a fiver In fact when I do my challenges I only ask people to give a fiver because everyone giving a fiver is better than just a few people giving a lot. So please try and do that Fellas if you just stay on the line so I can thank you properly But I'm going to thank you now on behalf of the the camera so massive. Thank you all and congratulations Um To our friends at home if you could like and subscribe then we're going to get more of this These brilliant podcasts to you life changing podcasts, I would say because I don't think anyone tells the truth as much as as we do and Yes, that's a rare thing in in this day and age. So that's it massive. Love to you all take care Cheers Chris


Kiev gathered the necessary minimum of weapons required for the counter-attack. Kiev has set the date for the counter-offensive against Russia. President Vladimir Zelensky said Ukrainian officials have been talking about the move for several months now, with Western media warning that failure could result in Kiev losing support from its international backers. Speaking in a video address released on Telegram, Zelensky shared details of a military conference in which a number of senior military commanders provided reports. The meeting revolved around not only the supply of ammunition, not only the training of new brigades, not only tactics, but also the timing, according to the President. This is what is most important, the timing of how we will move forward. We will. The decisions have been made, he said, without providing any details on when and where the counter-offensive will kick off. In recent weeks, Ukrainian officials issued conflicting statements on the much-hyped counter-offensive. Last week, Mikhail Podoliak and Aid to Zelensky stated that the push has been going on for several days now. However, Kirill Budanov, who heads Ukraine's main intelligence directorate, said the counter-offensive will begin soon, adding that Kiev has gathered the necessary minimum of weapons required for the attack.


Jesse and I had an unrelated falling out at the beginning of 2004t, 2000, 2014t? Okay, all right, in regards to the Jesse smiles and Gabby Hannah situation, today we're gonna talk about the very important topic of learning how to let go. What is up everybody? This is Chris from the Rewired Soul where we talk about the problem but focus on the solution. And if you're new to my channel, my channel is all about mental health and sometimes what I do is I take different topics going on in the YouTube community and rather than just looking at the gigantic mess that's going on, I try to take this mess and turn it into a message because there's always something that we can learn from it. So if you're into that stuff, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. And in case you missed it, my last video about Spill hitting one million subscribers for all of you out there who entered my Shane Dawson Palate giveaway, I announced the winner in that video. So that'll be linked down in the description down in the pinned comment, go check that out. And for everybody out there, make sure you're following me over on Instagram and Twitter at the Rewired Soul because I am doing one more Shane Dawson conspiracy palette giveaway, all right? So make sure you're following me on Instagram and Twitter at the Rewired Soul so you stay up to date for when that giveaway happens. All right, cool, let's jump into this thing. All right, so yesterday I made a video about Jessie Smiles talking about, you know, her falling out with Gabby Hammond, how hurt and betrayed and everything like that, how she felt about the situation. So if you want, go watch that video, okay? But if you're new here, my videos are not just about talking about these situations, they're about us learning from them. I mentioned this in the video I did about Spill. Like the only reason I am alive today is because I learned from the successes and the mistakes of others, all right? Seven years ago I was dying from a drug addiction. So I had to start learning from other people. So when I watched this stuff, I try to see what we can learn from it, all right? So to kind of like come back and, you know, give some context to this topic. When I watched Jessie Smiles video, like I had no idea who she was, her friendship with Gabby Hannah, anything like that. But as I watched it, I was like, huh, when did this happen? Like were you guys friends like last year or whatever? Because I've never heard of Jessie Smiles. I'm just not in that corner of YouTube.  So I was like, when did all this happen, right? And Gabby Hannah just released a statement where she replies to Jessie Smiles video and she also replies to Deanna. All right, if you wanna go check it out, it's over on Gabby's Twitter.  All right, but this answered my question of when this all went down, all right? 2014, okay? So let's have a conversation real quick. And this is one of the most valuable lessons that I've ever learned, okay? And it's how to let stuff go, okay? Because here's the thing, holding on to anger and resentment. I was taught this a long time ago. It's like drinking poison and hoping the other person dies. Do you know how much time? How much time we spend sulking and thinking about all these old situations? In fact, this is something that I learned from one of the 12 step programs I was in. So hold on, let me grab my book and read this to you. All right, for those of you who know what book I'm reading from, it's page 66, all right? This was part of my fourth step, which is all about resentments. But when I got to the second half of my fourth step, what my sponsor had me do was take these sentences and turn them into questions, all right?  It says, it is plain that a life which includes deep resentment leads only to futility and unhappiness. To the precise extent that we permit these, do we squander the hours that might have been worthwhile? All right, so I had to turn that into a question in my step work and I had to ask myself like how many hours have I squandered resenting someone and that time could have been worthwhile? Like those of you who don't know me, like one of the reasons one of my first mental health books was Rewire Your Anger was because I had so many anger management issues, right? I could hold on to a grudge like you wouldn't believe. I can get this kung fu grip on something that happened years ago. So in your fourth step, you write down all of your resentments, right? From as far back as you can remember, you write down the resentments that you still have, okay? I was writing down stuff and I did this when I was 27 years old when I first got sober. I'm writing about people from middle school, all right? I'm writing about kids in middle school that I still had resentments towards, okay? Like that is bananas. So anyways, when I read that part of the book and I asked myself how many hours have I squandered? I was like, oh my God, right? Because it says that could have been spent on something worthwhile. How much time have I spent being angry at people, places and situations and that time could have been better spent with my son, with my girlfriend, with my friends, with my family, at my job, right? What about all those nights? Like you might be able to relate to this. How many nights have you laid awake being angry at somebody else, right? Like when I started to quantify how much time I spent being angry at people, I probably took years off my life.  So like when I saw that, I was like, what am I doing? Like a question I always ask myself when I'm holding on to something, when I'm holding on to an emotion or a thought or whatever it is, I'm like, is this useful to me, right? Is this helping me? Is this hurting me? We all have this person that we want to become, right? Is this thing is holding on to this, bringing me closer to that person I want to become or bringing me further away, right? Now, also in this beautiful book, it talks about how we do not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it, right? I'm not saying to pull like a men in black mind eraser on yourself. Like we remember those things but we don't hold grudges on those things because everything is a learning experience. I talked about this in my Jacqueline Hill video from the other day. There are no losses, there are only learning experiences, okay? So I want you to think about this because this is something we talked about in the last video about Jesse Smiles and Gabby Hannah, all right? Like we're talking about five years ago holding onto this thing and then coming out and doing this, right?  It hurts my soul that so many of us just sit back and watch this stuff go down and don't learn a damn thing about it, right? Like remember Tati Westbrook? Anybody hear about her and that little thing that happened with James Charles? Like she was holding on to these resentments like from her birthday and from throughout the year and she let them all pile up and then she made this epic by sister video that just created the hugest YouTube drama of all time, right? And it's all because of holding on to that anger and again, is it helping you or is it hurting you? Like I am letting stuff go on a regular basis. This is reason number 948 why you need to practice mindfulness, all right? I was taught a long time ago mindfulness for those of you who aren't down with it yet, it's about letting things go repeatedly over and over and over and over and over and over again, right? One of my old meditation teachers, he talked about how it was like holding a hot coal in your hand, right? And as we start practicing mindfulness, we start getting better at letting that coal go. We don't hold on to it and just keep burning ourselves. So when we start sitting in this moment to moment awareness and letting stuff go, we're dropping it instantly. You know what I mean? Rather than holding on to this stuff. Like I have had a rough year and like I talked about in my last video, we all have our own perceptions of different situations. We're all the hero of our own story, right? My crazy mind wants to hold resentments against everybody who hurt me, right?  So I gotta let it go and move on, all right? So the argument may be like, Chris is therapeutic to vocalize this and process this. And all of that, get a therapist, all right? Like airing this stuff out publicly, it doesn't make anything better. I have had so many missteps. And when I watch this, all this stuff go down. I try to look at it and like I'm embarrassed of some of the actions I took this year, some of the things that I made public that I shouldn't have because in my mind, I was like, you know what? This is gonna be epic. I'm gonna feel vindicated. It's gonna be amazing.  You know what I mean? And sometimes we gotta do that. Sometimes we gotta be like, all right, all right. Yeah, I know you think it's a bad idea for me to do this, but I gotta do it myself. Like sometimes we just gotta, we gotta touch that hot snow for it so we can't just believe them. You see what I mean? So like for you, right? I'm guessing, I'm just gonna guess real quick that you're not a huge YouTuber with a million or so subscribers, but how is this affecting your normal life? Think about your Facebook page, right? Are you on there just like talking like every once in a while just blowing up and outing some family member or friend on Facebook and getting all this stuff out there? Like the stuff you're watching on YouTube is happening in your life on a daily basis. Are you learning from it? Or are you just mindlessly watching it? You know what I mean? So take from this, like who came at the winner in this? Who came out the winner in this thing, right? Like Jesse probably felt better when she did it, but I guarantee she's gonna regret it, right? Same thing with Tati Westbrook. Tati sat down and made that video. She felt so good, so good making that video. Can you go find the video? You can't, because she deleted it, all right? So think about this. The last thing I'll say is something that I'm trying to do more of, and I'll talk about this in another video or mental health blog in the future, but I was just reading a book, actually it's called The Food Therapist because I'm trying to slim down a little bit, but it talked about when making decisions, ask yourself how it's gonna impact your future self, because we are so caught up in instant gratification and making decisions right now. I'm trying to slow down and be like, okay, will Chris in a year from now be happy that I made this decision? You know what I mean? Because when we start thinking in those terms, we stop doing these things that are so based on emotions and impulsive. So I recommend that you give that a try too, but anyways, before I let you go, again, watch the last video, I announced the winner of the Shane Dawson Palette, but also make sure you check out my pinned tweet and my recent Instagram posts. I'm starting this massive mental health support community project thing and I need some volunteers. I'm already getting some emails about it, so make sure you go check that out and if you wanna help out with this project, do something good, help a lot of people, hit me up, baby girl. All right, but anyways, that's all I got for this video. If you liked this video, please give it a thumbs up if you're new. Make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell and a huge, huge thank you to everybody who supports the channel over on Patreon as well as everybody who supports the channel by buying my mental health books or merch, all that good stuff. I appreciate you. All right, thanks again for watching. Learn to let some stuff go and I'll see you next time.