Priyanka Baheti — Interview #1
Priyanka Baheti graduated from IIT Kharagpur with a Dual Degree (B. Tech. + M. Tech.) in Electronics and Electrical Engineering in the year 2015. With her internships at Goldman Sachs and Facebook in her college years, along with active participation in technical societies and extracurriculars on campus, she is a role model for many of us. Currently, she works at Facebook, London as a Software Engineer.
1. What motivated you to pursue a career in software engineering?
Right since high school when I was first introduced to programming, I found it very interesting and empowering since almost any field in tech eventually needs this skill for various applications like simulation, data analysis, automation etc. I think this is probably the reason why I chose software engineering since it was fun, challenging and empowering.
2. What was the one thing during your years at IIT Kharagpur that created a great impact on your life?
I cannot think of a sole major reason that helped me greatly but it was a combination of several reasons like doing a minor in computer science, participating in robotics with AGV and hardware modeling and doing CS internships in my 3rd (Goldman Sachs) and 4th year (Facebook) and some of them.
3. If you could go back, is there anything you would have done differently at Kharagpur?
I would have focused more on academic excellence. During the first two years at KGP, I neglected this and wish I had invested more time not only learning the ongoing courses in more depth but also explore other areas with coursera courses. I started this quite late during my time at Kgp. Participating in hackathons would also be something I wish I had done more of.
4. How do you think being a part of the gender in minority on campus impacted your experience here?
It was quite difficult to find female enthusiasts who are equally passionate in tech and learn from them as we are a minority in KGP and we have fewer role models with whom we can relate. As an example, the hardware modeling team when I joined in my 2nd year had very few people with decent experience and knowledge and seniors literally had to drag us to present something in the last week before the event. In my opinion, guys learn a lot from their seniors and peers as you can find more number of people in your hostel or batch interested in the same things as you. I hope we are able to bridge this gap in future.
5. Do you see a difference in attitude towards women in your workplace as compared to the attitude of your peers at Kharagpur?
Definitely. At workplace, everyone acknowledges the problem about managing and gender bias and you can see management taking active measures to fix this problem. Its certainly not encouraged to make sexist comments and I feel my colleagues (often times guys) would correct someone if they are making a sexist comment knowingly or unknowingly. In KGP, I felt students, especially guys are not sensitive about this topic, often fail to recognize the challenges of being a women in tech and sexist comments are even encouraged.
6. Where do you see yourself in 10 years from now?
In a tech company of my own or a early stage start-up as a senior tech lead.
7. What is the one thing that you love the most about your work?
Being able to solving intricate problems and make an impact at such scale.
8. Do you have a role model? What impact does your role model have on you?
Sheryl Sandberg is my role model. Her strength, resilience and skills have inspired me a lot. I read her book Lean In before joining Facebook and one of the things that greatly helps me is to know that there are many people like me who feel the imposter syndrome and its important to believe in yourself and be bold (fake it till you make it).
9. A message for students currently studying in college.
Don’t lose your focus on learning and academics, explore various interests and find something you are passionate about. University is the best time to learn.
Interviewed by Ayushi Mrigen.
