Deepali Agarwal

I attribute my success to my persistence and my willingness to take certain decisions in my life that I was not afraid of. It's my willpower. Everyone comes to me, and whenever they hear my story about how I came here, they say, you have a great willpower. Not everyone can do that. So, when it comes to attributing my success, I'm going to give the sole responsibility to myself. I'm not going to give it away to my parents or to anyone, even though they're supportive. I feel it was just my hard work and my willingness to do what I wanted to do.

Throughout my career, I guess, in the first semester, in the very first day of my MBA class, it was a professional development class, and I remember the professor's name. He came in, and he said the entire MBA is going to be summed up with one thing, which is networking. Just network as much as you can. I took that advice very seriously, and in the next two years, I just saw myself networking with so many people, not just in the industry, but outside of the industry. It was the greatest advice, which I didn't get back in my undergrad. I never even knew the concept of networking before coming to the States, being very honest. Even for my internship and my job, I got both of them through networking. It was not through, like, I applied and I got the role. It was through rigorous networking, and that's how I got to the position where I am at. So, yeah, just network.

Best career advice is just be very adaptive and flexible to the changing environment. Things are changing so much. Every once there is a new update, and it's high possibility that you are gonna miss out on a 10,000 things that are happening around the world. It is in your industry, just be aware, because you never know with AI coming in the picture. A lot of things are becoming automated. I also don't feel that I am as updated with what's happening around, and that happens when you connect with not just your colleagues, but network with people who are just around the world, or just maybe in a similar industry. Just go on coffee chats and meet them. Let's see what they are doing. Since I'm at the very early start of my career, I will put it that way. The cultural is different, the working environment is different. So, I'm also learning and experiencing. That's my one advice, like, be updated so that you surround yourself with influential women and people who motivate you for everything that you are doing, and not degrade you, saying, oh, you can't do that, or you don't have that technical background. They should say that it's okay if you don't have that, but you can learn through it, right?

I guess everyone is talking about it, AI. AI is both the biggest challenge and the biggest opportunity. You never know every morning, every time, and then you see people getting laid off, people losing their jobs. And as an international student, for us, our visa status is tied to our job. We don't have a job, we don't have a visa, and that means we need to leave the country. So, I guess these things, every other day, that insecurity has increased to a level that no one can express, even though I have a stable job. I know I'm doing fine. I recently got promoted. But I still don't know what's coming next on my plate, right? Overall, if the company takes certain decisions and they say, we are going to replace this role or replace this task by AI, because it is doable. The biggest challenge is AI and being more adaptive to AI. It's not about how you can replace someone with AI. It's more about how you can use AI in your work. But AI is also the biggest opportunity. It's like two things at one place, because this is something that no one has ever seen. Something so unique that people are just being so interested in AI. There are several certifications, several courses, just on AI. If you are applying for a new job, you see that the job description does mention about AI in a lot of roles. There are separate jobs that are just being created for AI. Like, there are project managers, especially for AI. It's also opening a funnel and a channel in the tech industry to make you upgrade your skills to be more adapted to what's coming in the tech industry. You can learn how to use AI in a way that the company wants you and the AI together. I feel AI is like a threat and also a biggest opportunity in the tech industry.

For me, in my personal life, I guess the values that are more important to me are being transparent and honest. Even if you don't know something, it's fine to say that, you know, you don't know this task. Nobody is going to judge you. Everyone is a professional, everyone is a mature person, even in a corporate setting. You don't have to create a perception of yourself in front of your manager that you know everything just to impress them, right? Let's be transparent, just be honest, and don't take thousands of tasks at one time just to be in the good books. Say, this is my burnout time. I cannot work more than this. I cannot take more than these many tasks a day, or whatever it is. It's honesty, whatever the situation. And being transparent with your manager, with your partner, with your parents, it's very important. For me, I guess the biggest value and belief for me is just honesty.