Her Story
About Megha
My finance career spans over 10 years, beginning in India where I qualified as a chartered accountant. I started with Wipro, where I spent six and a half years working across business finance and corporate finance roles. I was selected for their finance development program, a two-year rotational program for recent graduates in the finance space. After Wipro, I transitioned to a startup in India that was launching electronics direct to customers, where I served as business finance lead for the after-sales vertical. I've always had an aspiration of moving across geographies and looking at the world at a broader scale, which led me to accept an opportunity with Amazon in Dubai. There, I joined as ops finance lead for Amazon Fresh and was part of the launch team for the region. Over my three years in Dubai, I worked on exciting projects including the launch of Amazon's 15-minute delivery program, Amazon Now. After my maternity leave, I took a leap of faith and identified my next career move in Seattle with the Books team within Amazon. I moved to Seattle two months ago and now work as part of the Books SP&A organization. In my current role, I present the financial sense of what the business is truly up to, analyzing how our numbers look, forecasting for forthcoming quarters, and understanding whether we're achieving our plans or not, and why.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Megha
01What do you attribute your success to?
I don't think I have a what. I think I have a who. I would say that is my father. I think he has played a very instrumental role in shaping up my finance journey. I started off very early with him, going to the bank when I was not even in my teens. He taught me that the real-world value is in finance. Every day at the end, whatever you do, money is what comes. So I would attribute my success to him.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Ask questions. Don't shy away from how it would be perceived in a room full of people. Ask. If you don't understand, ask.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I think this would be a bit generic, but what happens is a lot of people, not just specifically women, start to overthink as they start their career. They question whether this would be the right space for them to start. I think everybody's careers, on an average, spans over three decades, at least. And it is a very long time where you will see a lot of things changing. So don't question it, grab the first opportunity that you get. Don't think if it's the right move. Definitely think, but don't overthink. Grab the opportunities as they come by.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
For me personally, I've been with finance for 10 years, and while I've done a lot of business finance and SP&A roles, I personally would want to transition now to a different domain. I'm looking to transition to a product role. And while being in a company like Amazon, it seems like I have a lot of resources that I can tap into, and I am doing that. But it is not very intuitive that you can easily move on to such roles. So I would say you start to get a bit restricted on the domain that you have been in when you've spent 10 years into a certain field.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Integrity is very important for me at workplaces. I truly believe in bringing value to what you're doing, and not just doing it because you're ticking off a certain metric on a calendar checklist that you've done the task. If it does not bring value-add to any of it, just don't do it for the sake of it. So I definitely counter that if I'm not adding value. And I think from a personal perspective, I like to be honest to what I'm doing, true to what I'm doing.
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