Simla Ceyhan, is a Senior Manager of Data Science for Content at LinkedIn. She has nine years of experience in Data Science as a researcher, graduate student and then in the industry as an individual contributor and as a manager. She is a mother to a one and half year old son and is expecting another baby in three months.
Q: You have an extensive experience as an academic. What made you come to the industry?
When I did an Internship at LinkedIn in 2010, I realized that I actually enjoyed being in the industry.
Working in teams of people from diverse background. I enjoyed working with people from different teams and owning a piece of a bigger project.
I felt academia gets a little slow paced and lonely. As a doctoral student, I was working on a project with one other student and a project advisor. We had one weekly meeting.
I felt I would be happier with more interaction in a fast paced, dynamic environment.
Q: How do you compare industry with academics in terms of parent-friendliness?
I can’t comment on that conclusively, as I don’t have the experience as a mother in academia. From what I have understood after talking to some of my friends:
- Academia offers more flexibility in terms of working hours.
- You are not required to work from nine to six and can manage your time around more productive hours. However lucrative it is, it can get just as distractive.
- You think you can push back work, which in turn means you don’t get the right amount of time for research.
Sometimes, fixed work hours are an advantage as I focus on work during the limited work hours and after that I only focus on my family and my son.
Q: What is your typical day like? Do you find time for yourself?
My day starts around 6:30 in the morning, when my son wakes up. We read books and play a little bit and then eat breakfast all together. I deeply care about family having meals together. I get that from my mom, I was not that particular about it before my son was born.
We usually leave home by 8. After dropping my son at the daycare, I reach office by 9.
One thing that has changed in my day is that I generally grab lunch and eat in a meeting or while checking emails to take advantage of the full day.
I leave the office by 5 as I have to pick up my son from the daycare. We come home, play with my son and prepare dinner by seven.
He sleeps early around 8:30 after the dinner. So, I have the time after he goes to bed for my husband and myself. We sometimes watch a movie or read our books.
The time I have just for myself is definitely limited compared to before I was pregnant. My husband helps me out a lot with the daily chores and getting work done. We are a great team.
Q: Are there times when you are solving a difficult problem and it goes home with you? Do you get time to ponder on the challenge at home?
It sure happens. When it does, I get support from my husband. Since he is a Software Engineer too, he understands. There have been cases when there is some emergency related to work. Then, my husband takes care of our son so that I can focus on work.
In these situations, I always think how single moms handle it. My main support and help is from my husband and I feel very lucky about it.
Q: Data Science is a fast moving field, how do you keep up with new technologies and changes in the field?
I mostly use the time in the nights or the nap times on weekends to learn something new. If I feel learning something new is crucial for my career, I block time on my calendar during work to focus on it.
We have the concept of Indays at LinkedIn, where we get a day every month to work on something apart from work. I try to take advantage of Indays as well.
We get better at time management, when we know that the time we have is limited. Being a mom has made me so much better with time management and multitasking.
I personally like it, especially when I sit down with my young one, after a long tiring day, I am excited to see how he develops and changes everyday. I look forward to that part of my day. Also, you realize that problems at work get solved eventually.
Q: How do you think being a mother has affected your career? Do you think you are consciously taking less challenging projects because you know you are a mom?
Umm.. that’s an interesting question. I’ll need to think about that one…
You know, when I think about it, I don’t think I am consciously taking lesser challenging projects. Actually, I was asked to lead the data science team for content in San Francisco, while I was out on maternity leave.
The new office was coming up in San Francisco, and there was an opportunity to lead the data science team. I was not sure if I was ready to take this role, given that I would be joining office after three months, I would have a lot to catch up with already, then the responsibility of the new role, I was a bit scared.
My husband and I talked about it and with encouragement and support I decided to take this opportunity on an exploratory basis. I thought that this could be a good learning opportunity and if it doesn’t work, I can go back to being an IC. So I took the offer and I am glad I did.
First couple months were definitely challenging. But once you put everything together it has been a great journey thus far.
Q: You are expecting another child soon. How have you prepared yourself for the change? What are the changes you are making in your work and home schedule to keep up with the responsibility? How do you feel about it?
I am very excited, at the same time I feel a bit nervous.
I am trying to figure out what is the best way that my work continues to be done when I am gone, I am ironing out the details for that. At home there is additional work. We need to prepare the room for the baby.
I have been reading some books to prepare my son for his sibling. Making him understand that the attention of parents is going to be divided.
At LinkedIn we can take a total of four and half months. First six weeks are company paid leaves another six weeks from California disability leave. We can take another six weeks of unpaid leave.
Also, you can divide the leave in the first year. For example, I will be taking leave from two weeks before the due date and then another three months. Later when the baby is old enough to travel, I plan to take the leave for traveling to our home countries — Turkey and Greece — to introduce our baby to the extended family.
Q: If you are comfortable talking about breastfeeding and how you manage it while working?
Yes, I can talk about it. I was breastfeeding my son for the first year, for six months he was completely dependent on me.
The nurse told us that the first month is difficult for both mother and the son. Once you get used to it, I found it quite convenient. Since I started working after three months, it was another challenge. The lactation consultant advised us to start feeding breast milk to our baby through bottle, two weeks before I actually start work, so that he and I get used to it.
Pumping is not easy. It is time-consuming and I found it difficult when I had back-to-back meetings. I worked around it by blocking time on my calendar, so that I am not late for any meetings. These days there are a lot of tools that make your life easier, for example, you can respond to urgent emails from the mother’s room.
Q: What are the resources that you find helpful as a mother and mother-to-be?
My initial resource if I have a question is Babycenter. I highly recommend it! I started using it during pregnancy since it has weekly updates on the baby’s development and how your body changes during pregnancy. It also has a lot of great information about infants and toddlers and possible challenges you can face and solutions from teething to sleep training.
Another resource I really like is Penelope Leach’s book ‘Your baby and child, from birth to age five’. I definitely find myself going back to that book every now and then when I have questions in mind.
Q: How do you handle situations when you have a demanding day at work and suddenly your child gets sick? What would you want to have in this situation?
It definitely happens in the first year, especially when kids start the day care. There is a change in environment, they have company of other kids and so much to get adjusted to.
It is definitely difficult. When your kid is sick and you come to work, you can’t really focus on work. Therefore, I think of it as myself being sick.
At LinkedIn, we have ten days sick leave and I make use of it. I have to reschedule the meetings and send out a note to my team.
Thinking about it, there are other professions like teaching, where it would be much more challenging. You need to find substitutes. For us, as we work in a team, the work mostly gets taken care of. If you have a nanny at home, this is less of an issue.
I have friends who have nannies, when their child gets sick, they take good care of the kids. But you know, nannies get sick too, that is when it gets difficult for them.
Q: How did you find out a daycare and how is your experience?
I registered for the daycare when I was pregnant. Yes, there is a waitlist for daycares in San Francisco. You know high housing costs make it difficult for the daycare teachers to live in the city and for daycares to cover their costs as well. We decided on a daycare right across the street from my husband’s office, as we wanted him to be close to at least one of us.
I came to work when he was 3 months old. But he started daycare only in another three months. We were lucky as our parents could help us out for those three months.
Q: What is your advice to the fellow women in industry and academia?
Every mom, every person, every family is different. I think you should listen to your instincts.
Once you become a mom, the first couple of months are busy adjusting to all the changes. When you get back to work, again you need a little time to find the right balance.
When I was deciding to come back to work after the maternity leave, I had the dilemma. But I decided to give it a try for a couple of months as I wanted to explore and see for myself if it would work for me.
So, I think you should wait it out, at least for the first couple months before making any decision.
I think that the moms who are the happiest are the ones who have flexible working hours.
As a company, LinkedIn is very supportive of family. As long as you get your work done, how much time you sit in the office is immaterial. The company doesn’t care about the number of hours you stay in the office. Some days, you get to leave at early hours. I changed my working hours after I became a mom. I actually like this balance between being a mom and being in the workforce.
Originally published at www.pimothers.com.
