Meet James Nguyen, a DRBU graduate (MA Class of 2022) working as a product marketer at a tech start-up. How can a Master’s in Buddhist Classics apply to the fast-paced world of tech?

What are you up to right now?

I’m currently working at an early stage tech start-up, doing product marketing for them. I’m their first full-time marketing hire, so the days can be quite full. I’m doing a bit of everything for my job, from defining strategy, to day-to-day execution, for all our marketing programs: web, email, content, paid digital, social, launches, enablement, operations, reporting, hiring, and more. It’s a lot to juggle! I fortunately work remotely, so I still live in Ukiah after graduating, which helps me try to drop in for some of the DRBU events on occasion.

How have you applied what you learned at DRBU to what you are currently doing?

Fast paced start-up environments can be very demanding, especially given how quickly priorities can change, and it’s easy to be swept up in that flow. Some of the daily practices that I built up during my time at DRBU, and continue to work on now, help give me a bit more grounding and perspective even when the work goes in different directions. I find that mental grounding helps not only with managing stress a bit better, but also helps me aspire to bring a bit more kindness and compassion to the people I work with. It’s not easy, and some days go better than others, but it’s giving me a different place to try to engage the world around me. 

What is a favorite pastime or memory from your time at DRBU?

For me, it’s less a single memory of some event, and more the “tone of being” from the time I spent at DRBU. It’s a sense of revisiting that mental space during my studies, built from practice in quietude and reflection. My daily practice is an effort to keep a connection to that place of being, even now when the days are very active at work.

Any insights, advice, or words of wisdom that you’d like to share with new or current students?

Like most things in life, what you get out of your experience at DRBU will depend on what you put in. The more you can suspend disbelief, to lean into the readings and practices, the more deeply you can explore different modes of thought and being. If you are willing to give it an experiment, it can pull at the boundaries of how you think and engage with the world. Even if you decide that a particular book or practice isn’t a fit for you, that experience of trying it wholeheartedly can help grow the scope of your mind and scale of your heart.