Aarti Thakur

I attribute my success to my dad's incredible work ethic. My parents came from India to the U.S. in the late 70s, and my dad came here on his own with nothing, just an empty suitcase, and put himself through graduate school. Seeing him work so hard, going into the office in the morning, coming home in the evening, traveling, doing so much work while my mom stayed home to take care of me and my younger brother, really inspired me. Growing up in the South Asian culture, there was always pressure to not disappoint my parents, especially my dad, and to bring home nothing less than an A or B. That strong work ethic I got from him has carried me through my entire career. Now that we've all gotten older and wiser, I realize that my parents did the best they could do with me and my brother, and I'm trying to do the best with my daughter. I try to emulate that same hard work ethic to my daughter, but also emphasize being well-rounded and having balance, because while my dad worked really hard, work-life balance may have been lacking. So now I make it a point to shut down the laptop at 5 o'clock, or try to come home early from the office and spend time with my daughter, because I want to show her that you should have work-life balance and spend time with your family. I'm trying to break away from some of the stigmas in the South Asian culture where it's all about work, work, work, and instead find that balance between professional success and family life.

The best career advice I ever received came during one of the most challenging times in my life, when I got let go from my first company in 2023 after 20-some years. I was devastated, in tears, miserable, with no resume and having to start from scratch. Through networking, my best friend connected me with her father-in-law, who forwarded my resume to his manager. This person reached out to me just to talk, and even though he had no positions that matched what I was looking for, he looked at my resume and told me something that still resonates with me to this very day: 'You have a really great story to tell, and you just need someone to hear it out.' Those words gave me a boost of confidence that I'd been lacking since I had lost my job. At that moment, I was like, okay, I can do this, I can push through, I can persevere. That advice allowed me to pick myself back up and put myself out there. I started networking slowly, getting more comfortable reaching out to people, even almost strangers and talking to them. It's powerful when you think about it - to talk to a complete stranger on the phone for 20 minutes or so, and they tell you that you have a great story and you just need the right person to hear you out. I've tried to apply those words to every facet of my life now. I think everyone has a story to tell through their credentials, their experiences, their life experiences, and when it comes to finding a new job or any opportunity, you just need the right employer, the right company, the right person to hear you out. That's all it takes, and there's always someone who wants to hear you out.

If you want to enter technology, I'd say work hard in college, but obviously have fun along the way too. Study hard, but then also make sure you can find a good mentor or two. I think having a mentor really helps along the way - it helps to have someone give you advice, perspective, and tell you what the field is all about. When you're actually in the workforce working in a company starting out, definitely seek out someone that can be a mentor to you. Sit down with them, shadow them, see what they do, talk to them, understand their thought processes, and just observe and take notes. I think that's really important. Throughout my career, I've had great mentors along the way to teach me, especially when I had to learn things like database systems on the fly, which was a totally different field within technology from my hardcore programming background. Those mentors made all the difference in helping me navigate the learning curves and transitions.

I think the biggest challenge right now is keeping up with how fast technology is evolving, especially with the move to AI. You see all these articles and news about AI's gonna take your job, but it's not necessarily AI that's going to take your job - it'll be people that know how to use AI that could potentially put you at risk. So I want to put myself in a better position to learn these new skills so I can be in a better position for my family, both professionally and personally. For me personally, I'm learning a whole different area within technology, going from database systems to full-stack development, and I see a lot of my colleagues around me who are younger than me. When you're younger, you have more energy to put the extra hours in to learn more, to stay late, to pick up the extra work. But I'm at a point where I was hoping in my career I would have been in management by now, and I'm still working towards that with project management. My challenge is the capacity - I want to be able to do it all, that super mom complex of being able to do it all, but at the end of the day, you have to be able to relinquish some control and not bite off more than you can chew. If I was younger, I could have done it, but now I'm at a point in my life where my daughter's in grade school and I want to be there for her, attend all the school events, and have work-life balance. So it's trying to balance learning as much as I can in my current position with all these new technologies and AI, while also finding opportunities to pivot into project management and showcase my leadership skills, all without taking on more than I can handle.

I think being true to yourself is really important. Don't try to be someone you're not. In terms of values, if you're brought up a certain way, try to be true to yourself. For me, it's about being respectful - everyone wants to be treated with respect, and there's always been cases where you're not being treated with respect at the office, but you want to take the higher road, take the higher ground, and be respectful, because it can come back to you in a good way. I think you should carry yourself with utmost professionalism too. Be professional. Think before you speak. That's something I've learned along the way, both professionally and personally. Personally, I would say always remember that a job is a job, but your family is there for a lifetime. That's important, and it really hit home for me when I lost my job in 2023. Going through that process and knowing what I know now, seeing how grueling it is even today with companies laying off every day, I've learned that jobs will come and go, but your family's there for a lifetime, and your family's gonna be the one to get you through it. I think the key value for me is perseverance. I've had a lot of both personal and professional experiences that have helped mold me and shape me to where I am today - perseverance in changing high schools three times in four years, perseverance in getting through the tough computer science curriculum in college when a professor told me I should switch majors, and perseverance to pick myself up after being let go from a job after 20 years and starting over. Life throws curveballs at you, and it's how you interpret those curveballs and how you manage them, how you pick yourself back up and move forward. There's nothing that you can't take on.