The tech industry is very good for women nowadays. We have lots of sections where any woman can choose a part as per her interest. They can be a good designer, a good developer, a good QA person, or a good DevOps person. A good manager can handle both their subordinates and top management
When asked her to share about what she does and what a typical day for her is like, Sandhya Singh, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at MyGoldKart, by Kundan Group, in an exclusive interview with CIO News, said, I am Sandhya Singh, a girl from a small town, Ranchi. I completed my BCA and MCA through IGNOU and came to Delhi in 2007 to build my career. I started my career as an executive in 2007 and did MCA side-by-side with a four-digit salary. And after 15 years of hard work in technology, I am the CTO at Kundan Group. Aside from that, I am a mother of two children, my daughter, 11, and my son, six. Typically, I start my day by making breakfast for my kids and husband and getting them ready for school. After that, I get ready for the office. My office is in CP Delhi and I live in Gurgaon, so it takes almost 1 hour and 30 minutes to reach the office. I then start my work with a cup of black coffee. I have a daily scrum call with my team at 10:30AM to solve their problems if they have any. Then start with meetings and calls. At 7:30 p.m., I return home and play with my child for 30 minutes before teaching them for an hour. At 9:00PM they take their dinner, and now it’s talking time with my kids and storytelling time. We mostly work at night as well, because we are in technology, so we do our deployment at night. And on each deployment, I am with my team, so they don’t feel that seniors are only giving orders. If they got stuck somewhere, I gave them an instant solution.
When asked if she always knew that working in technology was what she wanted to do, she said, no, I didn’t know. I am a PCMB student and my father wanted to see me as a doctor.
Because he was an engineer and didn’t want any of his children to be engineers, but I prefer Math to Biology. For him, I also tried for medicals and got a chance at Kasturba Gandhi medical college, but for some reason, I was not able to get admission there. Then I took an admission in BCA IGNOU and then I felt I was very good in logic, coding and reasoning. When my BCA was completed, I started to get admission in MCA at a good college and I also passed the BIT entrance exam. Here is also my bad luck, as for some reason here I was also unable to get admission. Then I took admission in MCA with IGNOU and started my career in Planman technologies and started doing coding in JAVA technologies. After that, I never looked back. I have learnt almost every single language myself.
When asked if she has ever been in a situation where gender has affected the way she has been perceived or treated in the technology industry and how she handled the situation, she said, “Yes, I always felt in my initial career in my college also.” I was the only girl in the whole class. And initially, when I worked in a company, they treated women like they were not hard-working or good managers. But I joined Allianz and my boss, Mr. Bipin Kumar, encouraged me a lot in my career. He told me, “Don’t feel like being a girl, you can’t do anything.” He told me that I have the potential and that I can do anything in tech. Also, I want to give credit for my success to my family. They always support me to give my best to this industry. Because of my husband’s support, I can’t make this happen. He supports me in each and every step and also gives me advice when I’m stuck making any decision.
When asked her about the best part of being a woman in the tech industry, she said, the best part is that I can encourage more females to join the tech industry while also demonstrating that women can not only work in technology but also rise to positions of power.
When asked if she notices a lack of women in technology, and if so, why she thinks that’s the case, she said, yes, I noticed a lack of women in technology because the management thinks women will not do late-night work, having lots of responsibilities so they can’t focus on work.
In IT, we have to work late at night mostly, and we have to work on weekends as well.
When asked about her advice to a woman considering a career in the tech industry and what she wishes she had known before starting her career in the technology industry, she said, the tech industry is very good for women nowadays. We have lots of sections where any woman can choose a part as per her interest. They can be a good designer, a good developer, a good QA person, or a good DevOps person. A good manager can handle both their subordinates and top management.
Also read: We are seeing that the technologies have continued to thrive and grow
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