Her Story
About Sameeksha
I have 12 years of total experience across different industries, starting on the HR business side and now working in consulting. I come from a business background where I was responsible for upkeep and maintenance of HR systems, working in mining, manufacturing, and healthcare industries. My first role was solving system issues, which got me really interested in finding where those issues arise and learning how the system works in the background. Coming from the HR business side as an HR system person, I know how companies' HR business processes and operations look like, so eventually when I had already mastered that field, my next step was to cross the bridge and start implementing the system for such companies - it was a very fluid transfer for me to move over to the consulting side. I recently moved to the U.S. in December last year and have been working for about 6 months as a senior consultant for Oracle Cloud Implementation. Prior to that, I was doing a similar role at Deloitte Canada. I specialize in implementation of the time and labor module in Oracle, which means when employees work and report their time, I specialize in getting clients' requirements and building a system for them, and also streamlining their business processes if needed - essentially HR system transformation. In my current consulting role, the day can vary drastically. When I'm traveling to client locations, there's a lot of direct client interactions where we try to understand their pain points and how we can help them through the process of transformation. On other weeks when I'm working remotely, it's very heavy on system work where we try to take what the client has asked and translate that into the system implementation. Most recently in consulting, I cater to different clients from healthcare, public sector, and technology companies.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Sameeksha
01What do you attribute your success to?
I think my biggest attribute for my success has been my spouse's support. I have always been a priority, and he has always put me in the front pedestal to lead the way. Being away from home for long periods of time and being able to do what I want - I need my spousal support. That is the reality for me, for sure.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
I wouldn't say this one is the best one entirely, but one thing that curated my career was when I was at 3 years of work experience, I reached out to my leaders at the time because I wanted to enroll for a Masters program. At that time, they told me that experience matters more - and that's a debatable comment. I always wanted to enroll in Masters, which I still do, but at that point of time, I focused on my experience more than getting masters. And that brought me here.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
The first thing that I would say to a young woman is to be herself and never limit yourself in a box of what you can and cannot do. It's a very popular sentence that everyone says, that sky is the limit, and that is true. If I reflect back on my own experience in education, if I was to box myself, I would have told myself that I can do only so-and-so career-wise and in life. But I always saw ahead of me what I wanted to do, and I just reached out for it. Coming to U.S. on my own capability and my opportunity is a statement itself. You can do whatever you want to.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
I think the challenge would be to have a breakthrough in the field, even if you are an entry-level person. To get into this field, if you don't come from a technical background or if you don't have an MBA - because I think in some countries that's the minimum requirement to get into the field. So the challenge is that you have to have a certain background to come into the field, unless you have, obviously, like me, a certain number of experience. Opportunity-wise, I think in North America I do see that experience matters, and if you have the right experience and skill set, you can get into any field. But in some Asian countries, your education and your degree matters, and if you have certain degrees, that becomes your entry point. I would say that your skills matter more when it comes to getting the job and being good at what you do.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
For me, taking the ownership of what you're assigned to do and having clear communication are most important. Being a team player is also crucial. I know sometimes you can be a star as a solo contributor, but when it comes to a work setting, being able to communicate and being a team player plays a very important role. It could be that you still have some learning gaps, which is fine - we all are learning on an everyday basis. But if you lack your communication skills and you're not able to communicate properly, that kind of becomes a bottleneck and a disruptor.
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