Bhumika Pancholi

The best advice I've received from one of my mentors is that no matter how much pressure we have at work, we need to know how to balance the family and the work life, because that ultimately drives your mental health. Sometimes we don't realize how far we go when we are too much into our work, and we end up taking a lot more than we should be taking. We need to learn and possess those skills to manage that work-life balance and also manage that stress, along with focusing on your deliveries and your quality of the delivery. This is something that I've learned the very hard way in my past experiences. I think this is a very important thing, not just for women in IT industry, but there are many industries where women do lose their me time or their family time, or they prioritize work over it because of various reasons. This is something that women should always keep in mind, because this is very crucial. Once you get carried away, I think it's very hard to come back.

The biggest piece of advice is to learn how to maintain a work-life balance in today's competing world, because every day you're evolving, there's new technology you need to keep up with, and there are new competitions. Survival has become a little more harder than what it used to be in the past. You need to keep upscaling yourself, but at the same time, you should not lose your individuality with that race, and you need to know that you need to be 100% at your work, and you need to give your time to your family as well, because both are equally important. End of the day, you cannot compromise with either one of them. Upscale yourself, yes, but at the same time, learn how to handle the pressure in a very affirmative way, in a constructive way, and learn the skills of how to maintain that work-life balance. I think this is the most challenging part for young women, because when you say young people, that means they're still figuring out if they are really liking their work or not, and there are a lot of things that they consider when they settle down with their work life.

Dedication is most important to me. Whether it's work or family, responsibilities should never be just tasks, because if they are, then you would never be able to give your 100% to that. If you really want to give your 100%, you need to have the skills, but at the same time, you need to have good knowledge, you need to have interest, and you need to acknowledge and accept those responsibilities. You need to know that you are responsible for the outcome of it. So you need to make your decisions wisely, you need to strategize your tasks wisely, and at the same time, you need to give your 110%. That's the key factor to excel in your career as well as your family. It doesn't matter if you work 10 hours or 15 hours, but if there's no quality, if there's no commitment, then nothing's gonna come out of it. You can simply work for less than 8 hours also, but if you're committed, then you can bring quality to the table. Acknowledgement, quality, and commitment are very important, whether it's work or family.