Catch up with Shweta Raman
Shweta Raman, Director of PMO at Rally Health, San Francisco.
I am so excited to share this catch up with Shweta Raman. She is a Director of Project Management at Rally Health, based in San Francisco. Originally from Bombay (Mumbai), she lives in the bay area with her software engineer husband Tharak and sons, Arjun and Anuj.
I first met Shweta 5 years ago when she joined our very small team of project managers at Rally. She was fresh off the heels of her second sons birth and starting a new job at a rapidly growing tech company. I didn’t appreciate it then since I hadn’t had my children yet, but it was no small feat to join a cut throat start up in the valley, commuting 2.5hrs each way with a toddler and infant at home. Shweta did this with extreme grace and ease.
Very quickly Shwetas no-nonsense approach, her ability to smile in the face of adversity and her firecracker personality made her a trusted leader at the company.
Shweta and I have become somewhat of an inseparable duo over these last 5 years. Our mutual love for Bollywood, her unparalleled selfie-taking skills, navigating being outspoken women of colour in tech all while juggling packed lunches, doctors appointments for shots and often completing each other’s sentences has created a bond I am deeply grateful for. I am proud to call her a close friend and glad that I have her in my corner.
Who inspires you?
My parents. My father decided at the age of 42 to go to school to get his MBA in the US (I grew up in Bombay now known as Mumbai) while my brother and I were in school as little kids. My mother gracefully managed the home, expenses, kids, school projects, social gatherings and we never felt we lacked anything. This is very common in the US but extremely unheard of where I grew up.
My mother, who had no business background or experience decided to follow her passion and started an extremely successful business which she is still passionately running. My father returned to India and made his way up in the corporate ranks and is still working at 60+. They managed all this so seamlessly (at least it felt that way!), we kids were allowed to be kids with none of the worries as they transitioned through life.
As a mother now, I understand the sacrifices they went through to give my brother and me a better life and greater opportunities!
How do you balance work and life?
I usually say, my glass is not half full, it’s overflowing! I seriously feel lucky for the opportunities and growth thanks to my many managers and mentors who welcomed the fact I advocated for myself and allowed me to manage my work and life. I try my best to compartmentalize work and home (I still struggle with this sometimes but it’s getting better!). Especially now with most of us working from home during COVID, home is at work and work is at home!
So ensuring I have planned breaks during the day, making time to take a walk/learn a new sport, creating space for “Me time”. I make sure if I need to focus on something big at work, I find quiet time and space at home to not be distracted. And then sometimes I just have to be ok that I am talking to my team while supporting school projects!
How do you balance motherhood and your career?
Thankfully I work at a company where I can be a great mother and be great at my job. The one thing common in both — I do what inspires me, what works for me, it’s my journey, not a race with another parent or coworker. So I get to drive at the pace that works for me. And of course, I can be a great mother and professional thanks to the immense support of my family and the dear ones who make my community!
Do you struggle with confidence? How do you overcome it?
Absolutely! I try to understand what’s making me not feel confident, is it the audience I am presenting to? Is it a lack of knowledge? Knowing what’s the cause allows me to prep/ask for support and sometimes just accept and gain confidence in knowing that it’s ok not to know everything.
Advice to women wanting to get into Tech, what do you wish you had known?
There is never a silly question! Ask more, learn more! Never apologize for not knowing something, it’s a common tendency for women to start a sentence with an apology, I correct myself doing that time and again still. If you don’t know something, get the resources to know it, invest in yourself!
