Her Story
About Subhasmita
I come from a very rural background in India, where I was the first girl in my family to do a job or even attend college properly. My parents, though not highly educated themselves (my mom only went till high school), were always focused on my studies and wanted me to succeed. After high school, I gave an exam in India that allowed me to join a very good university where I got exposure to computer science. I did my undergrad for 4 years and have been working for almost 8 years now, with nearly 7 years at Google. Initially, my experience was around backend, front-end, and full-stack engineering, but I've always been very passionate about data - I love looking at patterns and understanding data, it's just a natural tendency. I always wanted to be part of Google Search, so I internally changed my trajectory and teams to become part of it. Since then, I've been working on AI/ML, and when the GPT and AI boom happened, I transitioned to model training. Currently, I'm working on the Gemini model training, focusing on making these models better at very complex tasks that could take human beings a year, months, or days to complete, and seeing how models can help do it in a few hours or minutes. I've contributed to past models released by Google, and I'm very proud of contributing to the Gemini model. My approach to learning is hands-on - I generally learn more from my work rather than reading from books. I start with the problem, see what is needed, then go deeper and build expertise. Due to my diverse background, I'm very good at learning new skills and picking up new projects in cutting-edge technology. On my free time, I work on open source projects and try to build things of my own. Since I started model training, I've become so passionate that even in my free time, I investigate open source models and run experiments. I've gotten very interested in healthcare and robotics, and I'm seeing how I can contribute outside Google to make these fields better, especially healthcare because it's so important for human beings.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Subhasmita
01What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I think one thing I was told from my childhood, it was a perception, at least from where I was, that girls are not good at math and engineering. Even though I was the topper in my school and high school with the highest score in maths, everybody suggested to my parents that I should choose the medical field. I know many girls who were good at math still chose medical simply because they got this advice. I feel that girls should follow their intuition. One common thing I see among girls, even in professional careers, is that generally girls have lower confidence and slightly more imposter syndrome about doing anything. I believe that no matter how much external advice we get, one thing is that we need to believe in ourselves, and if we feel like we are good at it, we should just do it irrespective of who is thinking and what they are telling. We know more about ourselves than anyone knows. I see now also that many girls doing jobs don't go for a strong career and choose to drop out or pause. It's okay if you're doing it out of your own choice, but sometimes I see it is a lot based on what society tells them. So I would say it's very important to listen to what you feel about yourself, and connect more with people whom you want to become. It's very important to have motivating women around us, because that has been very helpful to me.
02What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
What I want to see is basically how I can impact more. I think that is one thing I'm consistently looking for, because within Google, of course, I'm able to create a lot of impact, but then I also want to touch human life more and create more impact. Like the healthcare thing I mentioned, I have been very interested, and if I want to basically build something or do something for that, I think it's not that easy, because I need to maybe connect with some doctors or understand how the field is. I don't know whether to call it a challenge or not, but it's something I'm basically investigating - mostly around how to create more impact for human beings. I feel that I have been given a lot of opportunities, and I have a lot of opportunities now. So, to create that big impact, I feel it's my responsibility, but now it's like, what is a better way to do it, other than what I'm already doing.
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