My Current Role & Responsibilities:
I kept trying to get as much experience and exposure in the different facets of the Learning and Training world. At that time BPOs were a boom - and I started with Communication Training. Incidentally that led into Culture training, and surely it carved the path for Service Training.
Telecom was a booming industry during the early 2000s and started by Sales training and Service training experience. I was so inspired by the Greenfield expansion plans that when I volunteered to participate, they told me to lead the function.
Which also taught me if you raise your hands, the silver spoon gets
handed over to you (but rarely does it come on a platter). My interest to
genuinely help started my fabulous experience in the Gender Diversity and
Inclusion place. I continued to seek newer pastures and moved from Country, to
Regional, to Global spaces to perform; and in all of this, tried making a
positive impact in all that I did.
Beginning Of Your Journey In The Corporate World:
Interestingly my career and my marriage happened at the same
time in my life - in the documentation space in the city I grew up in. Little
did I know the corporate world or what lay ahead; neither did I know how to
manage and maneuver around. It has indeed been an enriching experience -
stepping from one stone to the other - being agile and always trying to get
experience and exposure in as many projects as possible. Definitely not an easy
journey - but it surely has been a helluva journey so far!
Challenges Faced:
To be very honest - I never realized if those challenges were
because I was a woman or because I was a performer; I feel those were gender
agnostic problems at the workplace. The challenge that honestly, I had to brave
was managing home and hearth, and always donning multiple hats at any given
time, the colleague, the team member, manager, mom, wife, daughter, daughter in
law, supervisor at home and one day I decided, I have to take my cape off and I
cannot be a super woman at everything. It is now about the priorities of the
moment.
Advice:
Don't be shy to raise your hands - ask for exposure and believe you me - your seniors are more than obliging to give you works if you have the right drive and ethics. Never give up girl - some days are not the best and that's when you can just talk or cry or vent out (it is normal). Have the highest quality of accountability and responsibility- and a sponsor will give you a seat at the table (ownership is yours). And lastly, don't let people walk over you - you slogged to win your stripes, so move where you are celebrated and not tolerated (the choice is in your hands.)