Her Story
About Bhavana
I am a Solutions Architect specializing in AI and Amazon Connect, and I currently serve as the head of the AI integrations and operations team at Cirque du Soleil, where I am responsible for the entire cloud contact center of the enterprise. I've been working in the technology field for almost 5 years now, and during that time I've had the privilege of working with multiple Fortune 500 companies. Before joining Cirque du Soleil, I worked for John Hancock, a life insurance company, where I was a senior AI and Amazon Connect developer. There, I was part of the Solutions Architect team and the delivery consultant team, working directly with clients and customers in technical sales. Throughout my career, I haven't been chasing titles but rather challenging roles and passionate opportunities that give me diverse chances to implement the techniques I've learned. I've always been on the technology side, in innovation, and I've always been passionate about being a woman in tech who can achieve when she refuses to limit herself. From leading complex Amazon Connect and generative AI implementations to representing my professional work and personal communities, I've always stood for the simple belief that influence is through impact, not noise. I see myself as that calm, influential woman in the tech industry who has been chasing challenging roles in AI in this male-dominated side of technology.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Bhavana
01What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
I know it's been a little tied these days because of the ongoing layoffs and everything, but I do see that anybody who can fast-pace themselves with AI and who does not treat AI as a threat, but instead who treats AI as a friend and grows along with it, would really have great opportunities. There are multiple companies that are really trying to recruit people who can build things on AI. I recently been to a conference, and there's this one person in the panel that used a statement which has been stuck in my mind. She said that LLMs and AI have now become electricity, so it doesn't matter where you fetch the LLMs and stuff now. It all matters on how and what we are trying to build with electricity. So that's how I think the freshers have to tune their mindset. They have to think AI is a friend of them and has to grow along with it and has to learn how to build things with it, and if they do, there's pretty good openings in the market now.
02What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
At the core of everything I do, whether in technology or life, I always believe that integrity comes first. I believe in building systems that are reliable and secure, and when it comes to personal life, it's like doing the right thing even when no one's watching. Integrity has always been my principle, whether in professional life or personal life. Something else that I believe in is growth over comfort. I've always chosen learning over ease. In my career, that meant stepping into complex AI or cloud systems when I belonged to a totally different full-stack background. Instead of staying in familiar roles, I always have been choosing challenging roles that always challenged me, that questioned if I can do this or not. Every time I took a role, it was always that I had to come out of my comfort zone to learn. So that's where I always chose growth over comfort in professional life. And then in life, obviously, constantly challenging myself to evolve, even when it's uncomfortable, when I've been challenged that you cannot do this, you have to come out of your comfort zone, I always go for it. I constantly learn languages and now can speak 6 languages. I always keep my aim so high that I come out of my comfort to get it done.
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