THE WOMANKIND

3 min read

Sudharshini MH

Year 2001 wasn’t a great year for job market opportunities. I passed out as a proud Engineer in this lucky year. I was fortunate enough to get a job in 2 months out of the college. I was super excited, I got to work on the computer, was learning to type really quick. I learnt excel shortcuts, formulas and macros pretty well. I loved the environment, it just felt like college!! We played at times, it was a 6-day workweek, it definitely didn’t feel corporate, but it still felt collegiate. 6 months into the job, after feedback from known circle of experts I realised I wasn’t into the software job (the taboo for Engineering graduates) and that I was a “Data Entry operator”. Doesn’t matter I learnt and acquired skills and I could be the fastest person typing sitting next to you. Thank you, my first job, you got my financial independence

Fast forward 2006, I started as an implementation engineer (This was real engineer job, by engineering standards). I was swapping disks inside the datacentre, stacking up storage controllers and JBODs into the rack, carrying out user data migration, complex database migrations from old to new storage and more. I needed to know the rack, railing, nuts and bolts, cable and connector types, legend for speed, type and protocol of cables (multimode Fiber optic was an orange cable). I was feeling confident my degree did not let me down. Guess what!!! back in 2001, I was entering data for part numbers of bolts, nuts, railing, cables and more which I was using in my job in 2006.

My first professional lesson, no job is ordinary and each has it’s value. No degree is a measurement of your knowledge, the skills you build on your education is a metric of your learning.

2010, I started in a presales role. How business is run for corporates was not only a learning, it was a new degree I acquired (though not institutionalised). I was contributing to business, A sense of being in control!! I had grown now to assess a job or role I can do well and I would enjoy without complaining (Rather lesser complaining). There is no looking back now. I like being in a customer facing role, being able to tell a vision and sell technology. I believe I have acquired my Bachelors of sales.

My professional lesson 2: Identify your strengths, listen to your inner calling. Professional advices are great but you gotta find your own job where you know you can excel.

I became a first-time people manager and first-time mother around the same time. There was a transformation of the woman within me. I became we, me became us, Winning together gave more joy than succeeding alone. The life’s firsts have a stronger imprint in the memory than others. People policing and parent policing are 2 sides of my coin for hygiene.

Leadership is a journey, people management is an art. No psychology courses or the time you spend with the individual determine that you are a people expert. Handling with care, being tough when it calls for and being accommodative are skills I have acquired.

Designation without power is just a title. In my years of people management role, I have realised empowerment is a privilege that I didn’t enjoy earlier until joining Cisco. For one of the oldest and largest organisation Cisco is, the culture of empowering people is a sheer reflection of leadership and it’s investment in people. This culture shows up in the service longevity of employees with an employer. I am glad I made the choice to choose my employer.

My professional lesson 3: As much as I enjoy the privilege, I have learnt that Empowerment comes with obligation of conscience and brand representation and every day I make a sincere effort to live up to it.

Over 20 years now, (I still have a long way to go) I feel rich to have had the luxury of experience, corporate jobs and lifestyle. Looking back, it’s fulfilling. There were ups and downs, some errors and places of accuracies, from being shy and timid to being vocal and direct is a new mould of myself. If there is a group of adults and kids, I’d join the group of kids. When I choose to retire from corporate world, if I have a choice of teaching versus any other Job, I’d choose teaching. As long as age doesn’t catch up to my enthusiasm, I would always be a risk taker.

Curiosity of a child, forever student, not a comfort-seeker defines Sudharshini, your author for this story

THE WOMANKIND

Authors

Sudharshini MH

Manager - Systems Engineering