Sneha Singh

If I have to, there would be 3 things involved. First, I would say I have, growing up, I have seen and I was very much lucky enough to got a very close relation example as my mother, being woman and taking a lot of responsibilities and being that person who is managing the entire house on her shoulders. I have seen my mom, who would come from not so much very educated background, but still has managed to provide the necessity to us. We have three siblings, and I was living in Mumbai, one of the expensive cities in India. Providing what needs to be there in terms of education, food, clothes, she has always fulfilled my requirement, my sibling's requirement, and growing up, I see that nothing has, at least not in front of us, has broken her will. It is very important for me to learn and admire by her to see that whatever, no matter whatever is the obstacles, whether you are educated or not, having that sort of mindset to drive is really important, and not giving up. Second, I think it is all the experiences, all my experiences, all the good, bad, worse people in my industry who have given me a great lesson in terms of stakeholders, in terms of team. A lot of time I have been failed initially, and I think it has, more than positive, I would dedicate it more to the negative things, negative experiences, which has really lasted in my mind and has really given me a lesson and a wisdom to make decisions forward, and I think that is something I still use in my life. And third, I think it is myself. As a woman, I have had a lot of problems, a lot of difficulties, but I think if I have managed to do it, I believe that there would be anybody out there who could do this.

The best career advice I received is never settling down with the knowledge that I already have. I think it is really great to keep learning and keep growing, even if, for example, when I work with the interns or anybody on very associate level, I think I learn a lot of things from them as well. Keeping an eye on things and checking, seeing it with the perspective of learning and knowing more, I think that is one thing that would keep you alive in your career. Also, being inquisitive at the same time is really important. I really follow that I should do my homework before speaking to the team, before speaking to the stakeholders. As you see, my industry is based on leadership and decision making, so it is very important to be the source of knowledge when people come to me and ask several details and have several information. Of course, there are so many things that are existing right now in terms of technology that I may sometimes get lost, so it is very important for me to learn things outside of my job roles or outside of my education.

One advice I think, do not assume your skills will be your asset in this industry. I think it's a saying that technology skills, tech industry skills specifics are worse than milk gets spoiled. It is very important because whatever you are learning, there are definitely a lot of chances that it may get expired within few months or within a few years. So not seeing it as a threat, and also coming with the motive of always learning and always growing, would be something that I would advise.

I think a lot of people say that AI is taking over, and a lot of things are happening, which I am also agreeing, but I think there are at the same time good and bad of everything. At the same time, I guess it is a revolutionary change that is happening right now in the tech industry. Seeing that everything, for example, I just mentioned about the coding languages which would have taken years of years experience and practical knowledge of working on those languages, but right now, seeing the AI and seeing the agentic robots or agentic agents doing the work in just a blink of eye, I think those are one of the greatest side of opportunities that people could look on. There could be a lot of problem solving with this. If used wisely, there would be a lot of best solutions for medical field, for humanity in general. It would be great to ease out a lot of tasks that requires a lot of efforts and a lot of times. As for challenges, when I started my career, I was a newbie learning things and was not really certain what I need to do. It is one of the male-dominating fields. There are engineers that I have to speak on daily purposes, and there are things that I keep learning. Initially, I had expertise in Python and JavaScript languages, but there are numerous languages that require years to learn and get expertise on. There would be advanced-level engineers, CTOs, that would often use terms that I was not clear about. Those were the challenges that I really faced. I figured out that it is of no use if I keep nodding my head and just assuming that I understand. I cope up with asking more questions, asking for clarity, and also coming prepared in the meetings.

For my work, I think the value I look for is whether I am making any improvement in my role, am I solving the pain points of the users. I see that my work should be totally dedicated for using the technology for good purpose, to make sure that if we are working on any product or any feature, it should not get misused or it should not really give access to the people who are not authorized, for example, kids and teens. I think it is very important for me to be secured with the technology in order to build the right things for right people. Those are the values I really admire professionally. Personally, I think being kind, being helpful, being supportive to the aspiring product managers, project managers, or anybody in general in tech. I think it is important to be a mentor without being titled as mentor. It is really important for me to make sure I communicate with the people who connect me on LinkedIn, who are from countries who are trying to look for international opportunities. I think I really set that example, moving all alone myself to a new place, to a new country, one of the leading high GDP countries in the world. I think it has been really a remarkable impact that I created in the community itself.