Lira Chawla

I attribute my success to not getting in my own way with my assumptions. When I made that move of moving to London, getting into Google London directly after graduating with my bachelor's in India, it was freaking unheard of. Not a lot of people do it. But just because not a lot of people do it does not make it impossible. So I don't let my assumptions get in the way of what is possible and what is achievable. When I wanted to move to the US, I got an internal transfer at Google itself. At that time, because of the layoffs and everything that was happening here in the US, not a lot of people were moving, and everyone just assumed that it's not really possible at this point, or it's really difficult. But it happens. I like to encourage people to forget about what's possible or impossible. Forget about your social, economic, visa situation, every kind of thing. Think about what is it that you really want to do in life. Forget about if it's possible or not. Most of the times, what people write down is usually possible. Most of the times that I've seen, there is a path to get that. I sit down with students and people and show them how to find people who've done similar things on LinkedIn and encourage them to connect with them. So, not letting your assumptions get in the way of what you want to achieve.

The best career advice I've ever received is that it's easier to ask for forgiveness than asking for permission. So, just go ahead and do it. If you mess up, you just say sorry and move on, instead of just asking people how to do it and seeking permissions.

I have been in rooms, still, where I am the only woman in a room of like 10 men. So I think for women, and it's an age-old saying but it still goes: Do not be scared to speak up. Do not speak in a lower voice. If you need to, raise your tone a little bit, raise your voice, and speak up. I realize a lot of times that a lot of people don't know what they're doing, but they're just really confident in saying whatever's going on in their heads. So even if you don't know, just speak up. Speak up loud. And as I said before, it's easier to ask for forgiveness than asking for permission.

I think both the opportunities and challenges in my field right now come from AI. AI is changing the landscape of all jobs out there, especially when it comes to tech and software engineering. The lines between traditional software engineers and product managers are getting blurred. The job descriptions are changing - forget just job descriptions, I think the job titles and requirements are changing. That creates a lot of opportunities because if you learn fast and if you adapt to this fast, you can grow faster. But that's also creating challenges because the knowledge that was required over the years is also becoming obsolete. I think AI is the biggest opportunity and the challenge of my industry at this time.

At work, more than just simply showing up, being responsible is important to me. Being responsible doesn't have to mean that you're just delivering all the time - even if you cannot deliver because of any reasons, being proactive and communicating that proactively is important. So just being responsible and owning what you do is important professionally. Similar values go for my personal life as well - just showing up consistently and responsibly. One more thing I really value in my personal life is empathy. Understanding people and people's situations, not assuming the worst of everything. That's also important, and that somehow reflects in my work as well. I'd like to believe that it's pleasant for people to work with me. I try to create that pleasant environment for everyone. Of course, at the end of the day, it's a big tech company, it's a capitalistic world, so your deliverables and your outputs do matter, but you still can be kind to people and be empathetic to people and their situations.