[Exclusive Interview] World's First DNA-Based Self-Discovery, Upskilling & Employability Platform

Recently, we interacted with Mr. Sachin Sandhir, Founder and CEO, GENLEAP – India’s #1 self-discovery and career lifecycle management platform enabling students, parents, and professionals to make the right career.

Here are the interview highlights:

Q1 How does DNA contribute to career management and decision-making?

Our DNA was discovered decades back, but the impact of DNA is still not commonly understood. We think DNA has a role to play in our physical attributes like the color of our hair, eye, height, and hereditary illnesses. But the impact is also seen at a much deeper level that is linked to a person’s abilities, traits and behaviour. Genleap has taken this mission to bring this story of the DNA to the masses – helping them reveal the inborn abilities and talents that can play a determinant role in deciding their career and major life decisions. 

We employ 3 sciences to curate a report which gives you an opportunity to learn about your traits, characteristics and behavioural aspects that provide you with the most profound knowledge of your personality. Knowing one’s personality helps guide an individual to make better career decisions that are more suitable and enriching for their life.  This is where Genleap as a DNA led career lifecycle management platform enables you to first understand your personality and then how it is aligned to certain professional arenas. 

Mr. Sachin Sandhir, Founder and CEO, GENLEAP

Q2 In what ways can DNA analysis help individuals gain insights into their strengths, weaknesses, and potential to strengthen their career paths?

Human personality and behaviour is an area affected by multiple factors. DNA is one such factor that impact upto 60% of our personality. At Genleap, we are devoted to provide high-quality DNA sequencing technology that reveals the secrets behind what makes you unique and it starts with a simple saliva DNA test. From something so minor we are able to give you exciting information that can create a major impact in your life.

Your personality is explained through the Big 5 dimensions (most researched and accepted personality paradigm) that describes five basics human personality traits regardless of language or culture – namely, Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism. Our proprietary algorithm is constructed on a polygenic approach that links multiple SNPs and Genes with each of the 52 behavioral characteristics derived from these big 5 in a unique, novel and accurate manner.

These characteristics include risk taker, strategic, stress tolerance, innovative, spontaneous and many such attributes that help define a personality along with aptitudes like mathematical abilities, spatial learning, language processing, aerobic capacity, muscle strength, musical abilities et al. 

Every individual has a unique set of DNA, so no two reports are ever the same. The report analysis the common average of the population with the individual and indicates what are the areas where the individual is much better than the average (strengths) and which areas are below average (weakness). Alongside there are areas where the individual is inherently stronger by birth but are yet to be exploited (opportunities). In a totality, the person is able to understand what comes naturally to them as strengths and where are they following the path of least resistance making them to make choices that result in early success and satisfaction. 

Q3 Can you share an example of how a GENLEAP user’s career trajectory was positively influenced by the integration of DNA analysis?

We see such influences on a regular basis. One such incident is when a 12^th class student who was preparing for Civil Services consulted us – civil services by the nature of work needs self-discipline and a structured mindset. Since his ambition to be in Civil Services was certain, we suggested to go for our GenDiscover test, what we found out changed the direction of his ambition. The student was more flexible (instead of disciplined) and more creative than structured. Definitely not the default alignment for a Civil Services role. He would rather do incredibly well in more creative roles where his flexibility would find the right opportunities. 

So far 8000 students across India have experienced the product and majority of them have come back with ‘scarily accurate’ and ‘highly recommended’ feedback. 

Q4 What role does GENLEAP play in delivering personalized learning experiences to users in their career development journey?

The core of our business is based on the belief we all are unique and have different needs. So it was crucial right from the beginning to build an ecosystem of partners and personalized learning providers that can meet the individual needs of our users. Once you have realized your key areas of strengths and improvements, you would not like to wait to get on the path of success. Hence we have built about 100+ partners in varied areas of interest to help fulfill the career development journey of our users. 

For instance the JaiSimha Mind Education is a specialist in brain performance enhancement and any individual looking to boost his memory can benefit through them. 

Q5 How is DNA analysis relevant even for school-going children?

Our personality is shaped in our foundation years through parenting, schooling and environment. When we are ignorant of our inherent genetic makeup we unknowingly underdevelop our genetic abilities wanting the right attention at the right time. At times building individuals who are in conflict with their own core personality leading to stress, hyperactivity, inattention and resistance to change. Hence, it becomes almost a societal responsibility to resolve these issues right the foundation level by aligning the core (DNA), with the environment and provide the right opportunities for the individual to thrive and succeed. This is the reason, why we offer our DNA testing for kids as young as 5 years old and let the parents benefit with the knowledge of understanding their child inside out. 

Q6 How does GENLEAP leverage data analytics and insights from DNA analysis to continuously improve its career management offerings?

As a matter of fact, 99% of the human DNA is identical. It is the 1% of difference that is the basis of our individuality and uniqueness. This uniqueness is maintained by over 30 million variants constituting a platform for researchers to discover, study and document their implications on our health and behavior. As we build more and more data of Indian audiences, our algorithms will be more refined and bring higher accuracy to our results. We will be able to benchmark scores with regional insights and offer wider coverage of variety. 

Q7 How is GENLEAP planning its future endeavors for better user experience?

We have aggressive plans to educate the Indian market on the value of behavioral genetics; and provide individuals with tools, data, and resources that can help them take better-informed career decisions. The company aims to impact the lives of 10 million customers over the next 10 years. We are working on enriching the career discovery product with reliable proprietary data of the jobs landscape in India and how the future of jobs will emerge over the next 3-5 years horizon.

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