Her Story
About Punya
I've been in marketing and sales for automotive for about 4 years now, working at Ford where I serve as an analyst for the collision space. I also support the Ford Customer Service Division, handling dealer incentive programs, part sales, and rare orders. We do a bunch of debate programs, marketing programs, and parts and pot seal programs. Before entering automotive, I worked in the data field across different industries. I started at Great Minds, a content provider for K-12 across all government and public schools in the US, then moved to Learning Care Group as a data engineer, where they operate child care centers across different brands as the corporate head. In my current role, I'm focused on helping my team transition from older technologies to newer ones, particularly moving from on-prem and local machines to cloud-based solutions. I build small tools to make it easy for everyone on the team to use these technologies, since we all come from backgrounds that aren't very technical in terms of coding. One of my major achievements was discovering through auditing that we were overpaying some collision shops due to incorrect audit methods, which saved the company a million dollars. I'm certified in Azure cloud and have worked with GCP, and I take a hands-on approach to learning new technologies through projects. I use various tools from the different companies I've worked for, and I rely on resources like Udemy courses and ChatGPT in my daily work.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Punya
01What do you attribute your success to?
I don't know if I'm still successful, but I think hard work and persistence are key. Believing in myself, whatever happens around me, just believing in yourself - that's been crucial. And of course, my family and the support I get from everybody means a lot to me. That support system has been instrumental in whatever I've been able to achieve.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best advice I received was from one of my managers who told me to speak up where you have to speak, and ask questions, even if it's silly. No question is a silly question or a dumb question. This has really helped me learn the business aspect in a very closed industry. Automotive is pretty closed in terms of learning the business - unless you are exposed to a lot of things, you generally don't learn it. People are literally hush-hush or secret about their business, so you need to stand up and ask questions if you need to learn things and figure out your way in a company.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Believe in yourself. Multiple things can be thrown at you, but worry only for things that are within your capability or your capacity, and just do your work. Things will definitely fall in place. One more important thing that I always think in my mind is manifestation - always keep small goals and big goals, and manifest towards them. It'll definitely happen, and it might take some time, but it'll definitely happen.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
I think definitely the newer technologies are a boon and a bane, I would say, but use them wisely, and use them to make you work smarter and faster. The transition from older technologies to newer ones, especially moving to cloud-based solutions, requires specific skill sets, and helping teams who aren't highly technical in coding to build those skills is both a challenge and an opportunity.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Being true to yourself is paramount. I believe in seeing everyone with a little bit of compassion lens. Don't jump into conclusions, and always, always trust your data and your instincts. These values guide both my professional work and personal life.
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