Pathvik.in | Co-founders Abhishek Barik (left) and Ashish Srivastava (right).
Co-founders bet that students who experience real work before choosing a career will choose better, and they have built live, mentor-led, placement-backed programmes to prove it.
Delhi, India, 17 October 2026 — Every year, millions of young Indians make a decision that will shape their working lives on little more than marks, hearsay and hope. Co-founders Ashish Srivastava and Abhisek Barik believe that is one of the country’s most expensive blind spots. Today they launch PATHVIK.in, a career clarity company with a blunt promise in its tagline: Clarity before career.
PATHVIK lets students and graduates experience a career before they choose it: exploring real industries, working on real projects and learning from professionals who have done the work.
The problem: a life-shaping decision made blind
India has one of the world’s largest student populations, and a system that asks those students to choose early and choose fast. Streams are picked at 15, degrees at early adulthood and first jobs soon after, usually before the student has seen the work up close.
The result is a familiar pattern: graduates in fields they never wanted, early-career switches that cost years, and families who spend heavily on education without the confidence that it leads somewhere right. Aptitude tests and brief counselling sessions help at the margins. They do not let a student feel what a job is actually like.
The numbers make the case. According to the India Skills Report 2025, only 54.81% of Indian graduates were assessed as employable, based on data from more than 6.5 lakh candidates and 1,000+ employers across 15 industries. That leaves nearly half of the country’s graduates entering the job market without the readiness employers look for.
The founders: building the guidance they wish they’d had
“We kept meeting brilliant people who were in the wrong career, and almost none of them had made a bad decision. They had made an uninformed one,” said Ashish Srivastava. “That is a solvable problem. PATHVIK exists so that no student has to pick a future they have never seen.”
“Students don’t need more information. They need experience,” said Abhisek Barik. “Put them on a real project, next to someone who does that work for a living, and within weeks they know more about their fit than years of guessing could tell them. That is the shift we are building, one student at a time.”
The solution: experience first, decision second
Two programmes, one approach- PATHVIK launches with two live, mentor-led programmes. Both are built on the same Career Discovery & Industry Insights approach: students explore real industries, work on real projects and learn from professionals who have done the work. By the end, they know what fits them and can make a career decision with confidence, before committing to a direction.
- Graduate Career Accelerator Program. For students and graduates who need to move from “I have a degree” to “I know where I’m going.” The programme sharpens direction, builds job-ready skills and connects participants to opportunities.
- Consulting, Strategy & Product Mentorship Program. A focused programme for those drawn to consulting, strategy and product roles: fields that are widely admired but rarely explained. Participants learn how the work is done, practice on realistic problems and get guidance from people who have held these roles.
Every programme is guided by a network of industry mentors, supporters and advisors, and backed by placement opportunities, so the clarity students gain leads to a real next step.
The vision
The founders’ ambition reaches beyond a single programme. They want trying a career before choosing it to become a normal step in Indian education, as expected as an entrance exam. “If we do our job well,” Barik added, “the phrase ‘I chose the wrong career’ will become much rarer.”
“Our measure of success is simple: a student who walks into their first job already knowing why they chose it,” said Ashish Srivastava. “When clarity comes first, confidence, performance and growth follow. We want PATHVIK to be the place where that clarity begins for every student in India.”
About PATHVIK
PATHVIK is a career clarity company that helps students and graduates experience a career before they choose it. Through live, mentor-led programmes, real industry projects and placement-backed pathways, PATHVIK replaces career guesswork with informed decisions. Founded by Ashish Srivastava and Abhisek Barik, PATHVIK is built on a single belief: clarity before career. www.pathvik.in
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