For me, it’s one life, so it doesn’t require balance. I am the same at home and in office. Both the responsibilities are equal. Based on the priority and urgency things are handled on a daily basis. You should love what you do so that you do not need to do a balancing act ever
Journey as an entrepreneur
After my studies, I chose to work as a trainer and soon moved to a field very few women had chosen – IT hardware. I had an opportunity to work as a field engineer. This was a difficult way to move forward. I had knowledge of networks, which few around me knew about. This gave me the edge over my colleagues. As I grew, I realised that I had skills and the ability to communicate and make clients understand and put them at ease. One thing I have always done, that is upskilling myself. I would be always doing a course and getting a certification under my belt to keep delivering a service.
When everyone around was doing hardware and system integration, I chose the path to now move ahead by understanding the value of knowledge and move to a larger consulting role. With information systems getting complicated and important, I saw an opportunity to protect this information and moved to do my certification through ISACA and have been a CISA for over six years. Today we provide various services, from technology advisory to cyber security investigations or audits and assessments.
Key achievements
As a woman entrepreneur, there are many areas which I have strived to complete with competency and results. I have been the Head of Technology in two organisations and continue to do that along with the duties of my own company. With ongoing certifications and training, my team and I have been very successful in cyber security and have helped organisations save a lot of money and data during frauds and hacking. I was given an opportunity to be the Treasurer for a Microsoft led initiative and have been handling that role effectively for years. I have been elected as the Chair for Women in Technology for India. I have been re-elected this year too. I have been nominated at the Microsoft Inspire Event held this July in Las Vegas for Leadership and Chapter of the Year Award. I am very happy that I have won the Chapter of the Year Award for India. That is a double bonus, my efforts as Chair for India and India as the best chapter globally!
Role model
For me, a role model is someone who inspires me, and for whom I would be proud to be associated with. Hence, my role model is my mom, who supported me throughout my journey. She encouraged me and my sisters to study and helped us to understand the value of being financially independent. Role models are all around me, my colleagues, my friends, my clients. All of them doing such wonderful work and I would like to take the good things from them and learn.
Work-life balance
For me, it’s one life, so it doesn’t require balance. I am the same at home and in office. Both the responsibilities are equal. Based on the priority and urgency things are handled on a daily basis. You should love what you do so that you do not need to do a balancing act ever.
Women in IT – a rare breed?
We first need to get over the gender differentiation. There is an uphill curve for women in any modern field because of our legacy of not educating our girl child. We have pre-set notions on what a woman should do and cannot do. Those biases are slowly fading. Till now it was difficult for some women to continue their career in IT. Women because of personal commitments and the social construct which defines that women should play both the roles, they don’t get time to do certifications and acquire new knowledge. This is another major reason that women are a rare breed in IT.
Life ahead
Always reinvent and bring in a change. Keep moving ahead. Give back to the society and make people happy.
