Borrowed from SAMPADA old editions – for the 10th Anniversary Special Issue – Interviews section. This one is of Sheenam Ohrie,1992 ECE.
Team SAMPADA: Can you please share a summary of your career and journey as an Engineer & Business Leader?
Sheenam:I passed out of UVCE in 1992. Just before passing out, CITIL (Citicorp, Information Technology Industries Ltd, which became i-flex solutions and now is a part of the Oracle group) was doing a recruitment drive in Bangalore. I was part of the same and received an offer to join them. I joined their product engineering team and was part of this fabulous, “made-in-India” product company for the first 15 years of my life. I had some excellent managers and leadersm great mentors that challenged me to do more, provided me with a plethora of opportunities that enabled me to grow as a leader.
I joined SAP in 2007 and spent 7+ years in their product engineering teams. This gave me an opportunity to work and lead global teams and an exposure beyond banking technologies. At SAP, I got to be the first global product manager for an test automation product and the experience allowed me to learn more about product vision and strategies. Experiences here led me to define GTM strategies in addition to customer acquisition and management.
In 2015, I joined Infosys, to lead the Delivery and Support for Finacle their universal banking product. A business development role that enabled me to learn how to run and execute large business transformations and define strategies for customer transformations.
I joined Dell in 2017 and deliver mobility and data engineering solutions to Dell globally. My teams today are responsible for engineering niche and simple experiences on Mobile apps, Data Analytics and AI/ML solutions.
Team Sampada: What do you think is the most significant barrier to female leadership?
Sheenam :I would want to reframe this question and define what is the most significant way to female leadership is. Here is what I would advise all young girls to be do:
- Be confident. Confidence in articulation, in presentations and meetings allows the other people to listen to you. It allows therefore you to build your own brand and establish credibility
- Be present. Women sometimes are not visible in meetings, especially if they are on calls. Be regular in contributing in a relevant and meaningful fashion
- Read a lot. Keep yourself updated and abreast always. Learning continuously and investing in yourself is necessary.
- Continue to be empathetic and leverage your high EQ
Team Sampada :How would you describe UVCE’s influence on your career growth and journey?
Sheenam :UVCE gave me the platform to grow myself as a professional. The professors at UVCE always nurtured learning and curiosity allowing us to expand our wings beyond what was available in the courses. Different and diverse professors brought us to value discipline, focus, continuous learning and experimentation and the ability to learn from our failures in a quick manner.
Team Sampada :What advice would you give to current students (both boys and girls) trying to break into engineering and technology fields?
Sheenam : I think I would give the following advice to all young graduates:
- Be curious. Remember there are new things in the market every second year at least. So, its important to continuously keep learning and absorbing.
- Contribute to the company you work for, beyond your job. Join Employee Groups that allow you to create networks beyond your immediate job. Learn how you can give back to the society
- Share and Collaborate. The Future of tech is going to be all about crowd sourcing. So it’s important to share and collaborate across teams, create environments that allow free flow learning and interactions
- Give back to the society.
- Go and recruit multiple mentors that will enable faster growth for you in your career
- Think Simple. Simplicity is the new mantra for sophistication!!!
Team Sampada :As alumni, how do you think we need to involve ourselves for the betterment of our alma mater?
Sheenam :I think we should create a Campus to Corporate Program for UVCE. We can have the some or any of the following there:
- Credit courses on relevant technologies like AI/ML; Mobility and Cloud Strategies
- Credit courses on relevant process frameworks like Agile / Scrum / Lean
- Credit courses on Design Thinking, Critical Thinking, etc.
- 6 months Internship for 3rd year students
- Train the faculty on the above in a train the trainer fashion
-Sheenam Ohrie, Sampada-110
