Supporting Calculated Risks for Women Engineers and Technologists
By: Aanan Contractor
Tags: STEM, Leadership, Women In Tech

Image property of NBC NY

Everyday we wake up to multiple priorities, challenges and responsibilities. As a mother and a remote worker, my life is currently the same juggling act that many of you are probably attempting. But each morning when I wake up, I make a point not to simply leave my dreams on my pillow. My career and my life have shown me that the key to supporting and retaining women engineers and technologists is teaching them to dream big and take intelligent risks while staying grounded with the realities of life.

Finding my path

I was born in the western part of India, in the state of Gujarat, to an engineer dad and microbiologist mom. Growing up, I always looked to my mom as a role model for breaking through with a career of her own while balancing home life with work. She taught me the value of independence and organization, and she made me a lifelong learner with those little newspaper clips she would post at my study table, highlighting important messages. Even now, she is still leaving me those inspiring notes, in the form of links on WhatsApp.

Growing up in India, I had my first real tastes of responsibility taking, and eventually leading, Himalayan camping and hiking trips. On a trek to the Bhrigu peak, I found I had a cool head under pressure when some of our party got left behind. I took charge, kept everyone calm and reunited our group on that snow-covered mountain.

These trips were a risk my family allowed me to take. So often we protect ourselves and our children (especially our daughters) from risk, but my family knew I could handle it, and having my leadership skills tested gave me tremendous confidence. I rely on that confidence and leadership today — I remain calm in the “war room” during critical situations, remaining collected and in control thanks to experiences like these.

The only real mistake? Not trying

My life so far has taught me that on the path to following our dreams, the occasional wrong turn is inevitable. The only real mistake you can make is to get off the path entirely. For example, while I was always good at math and logic, I didn’t arrive at computer engineering right away. Yes, I took summer classes to learn languages like BASIC (don’t laugh, it was hot and happening back then!), but when the time came to choose between engineering and something new, I chose management and computer application training. It took coming to the U.S. to realize that computer engineering was my true calling, and I worked hard to catch up on what I missed during undergrad in order to pursue it.

I took a risk in 2002 when I moved from Ohio to California to be with my husband, just as the internet bubble had burst. I had a job I loved with Qwest Communications, and I asked if I could work remotely from California for this midwestern company. It was unprecedented to have a junior engineer work remotely, but I asked anyway, and received tremendous support from my leaders. They trusted my potential and placed a bet on me, and I learned another valuable lesson — always ask, do not assume. After all, the worst that can happen is a simple no.

Now, I find myself in a work environment which supports intelligent risks and powerful dreams and has enabled my husband and me to start the family we have always wanted. In work and in my life, I often think of our CTO Suresh Kumar’s simple principle for navigating risk. He always encourages us to know how big the “blast radius” is for our big bets. When there is clarity of data and purpose, the blast radius can be well understood, making it easier to take that risk. I have applied this principle more than once this year in making some really big and bold decisions with Walmart’s experience tier architecture. I hope that by sharing some of my experiences and my path with you has made it easier for you to weigh such decisions in your own life and career.

Handling life’s variables

Engineers know that when you write code, you start small and then extend your function. Who I am today is a result of many, many extensions. Of course, now we are in the era of multi-variable testing, changing multiple things at once and making sure you have instrumented to cleanly read results of both variables. But, luckily, life isn’t always just like coding, and when I have the luxury of taking things one variable at a time, I do, especially when it comes to my family and my career.