Niharika NM’s rise to fame on social media was almost meteoric, with the 25-year-old having amassed over 3.2 million followers on Instagram. The popular digital content creator is best known for her hilarious Instagram Reels that are relatable to most of us.
She recently revealed that she had walked away from a job at Google.
Armed with a computer science engineering degree from Bengaluru’s BMS College of Engineering and an MBA from Chapman University in California, she said the decision to turn down the Google offer was a conscious one.
So how did her parents react when she told them she does not want to take up the lucrative job?
“It didn’t really go well, obviously. Because it was their dream and also mine to get a job at a company like Google. It came at a time when the pandemic was over,” Niharika said at the News18 Rising India Summit.
.@JustNiharikaNm had a job at Google which she let go of to become an influencer. How did the conversation go with her parents?Like every desi parent ever said... Watch! #News18RisingIndia @Sonal_MK #Google #SocialMedia #Influencer #ContentCreator pic.twitter.com/hCaGBbbSIz
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— Moneycontrol (@moneycontrolcom) March 31, 2023
“And I got the job. I have three degrees for no reason. They spent all their money on those degrees and I said I probably won’t take this job. They were like, ‘but why?’”
“I showed them my pay cheque that I would get at Google vs how much I could make,” she said.
While she managed to convince her parents, they cut a deal with her, that she should get into content creation on a full-time basis only after completing her education.
Niharika NM, who grew up in Bengaluru and later moved to Los Angeles, gained massive popularity on the internet during the pandemic years by making Instagram Reels in which she speaks in the quintessential Bengaluru accent.
Last summer, she won the Youth Icon-Entertainer of the Year Award at the Cannes World Influencers And Bloggers Awards. She was also part of the season finale of Koffee With Karan Season 7, along with other influencers such as Kusha Kapila, Tanmay Bhat and Danish Sait.
She had won the Cosmopolitan Entertainer of the Year award in 2020.
