My Wife’s Journey in Tech: Sarwat Ismail
A few weeks ago, PWiC received an email from Ishfaq Ismail, a Principal Program Manager Lead at Microsoft, who wanted to share his wife’s journey in the computing industry and her role in representing, attracting and inspiring more women in the field of software development. By all accounts, it was a very unique submission and a truly inspiring story to share. PWiC was fascinated by the nomination and also thrilled by the fact that it came from a husband who narrates his wife’s journey and contributions in the tech industry with respect and pride and wants to share it with others too.
We hope that you will enjoy reading this particular submission because of the impact this amazing couple has created on the tech industry and by sharing this story with PWiC readers.
Happy reading!
Software Development Career at Microsoft
My wife Sarwat Ismail, who graduated from the University of Waterloo, Canada and currently working as a Senior Software Developer at Microsoft, has played a significant role in representing, inspiring and attracting many women into the technology-related fields, particularly in software development, where women are still a minority.
During Sarwat’s twelve years journey at Microsoft, she has worked on some of the company’s core technology and high impact projects that have a global outreach. She has developed code for products like Windows (core engineering), Xbox (gaming), and Bing (online services and security). She has helped shape and ship a number of high-value products during her career at Microsoft.
Recruiting and Mentoring Microsoft’s Diverse Workforce
In addition to her full-time job responsibilities, Sarwat also helps Microsoft’s recruiting teams with their college recruiting campaigns and interviews with a diverse set of candidates for various engineering roles and software development positions at the company. Sarwat is also very active within Microsoft various women’s and diversity groups, where she shares her experiences and provides mentorship to other women who are either entering the tech industry or in their early years of software development careers, which can be very intimidating experience for many females and mentoring at this stage can be very critical to retaining that talent.
Modern Maternity Leave Initiative
One of Sarwat’s major accomplishments at Microsoft (that I am also very proud of) is to co-lead the initiative to advocate and work towards increasing parental benefits for the new parents at the company. This project “Modern Maternity Leave” was part of Microsofts yearly hackathon event. It was focused on increasing the amount of paid time off (Microsoft has one of the most generous maternity benefits in the US), updating nursing rooms at Microsoft campuses across the U.S., where she has helped with the nursing rooms’ design, ambiance, layout, and also provided recommendations on furniture and hospital grade pumps. The initiative also included new dads’ getting two extra paid months as part of their paternity leave. In fact, as a result of this work, Sarwat was interviewed and profiled in the company’s newsletter. She has also received an award for the broad impact she had created by co-leading the initiative.
Sarwat Continues to Inspire Me
I’m very proud of Sarwat’s dedication, passion, and positive energy to continue to push herself to get the best of herself while helping others. She not only successfully drives her own career but also evangelizes the tech sector to other women, especially minorities. I myself have been in the tech sector for nearly ~20 years, and I am continued to be inspired by her!
Concluding Thoughts by PWiC
The role of men in supporting women in pursuing their careers plays a significant role in today’s industry and economy, yet it is mostly overlooked or just goes underrepresented or unnoticed. The cultural stereotyping portray men in a light where they either do not support their wives to pursue careers or feel insecure about their spouses’ achievements. Men in general, but husbands, in particular, are not celebrated for being supportive, rather discouraged within the Pakistani culture. We are aware of the countless examples where husbands encouraged and supported their wives in pursuing their dreams of pursuing higher education, having a successful career, climbing up the career ladder, or making choice to stay at home to take care of their families. These men are playing an important role in building a balanced partnership, a balanced household and eventually a balanced society. By sharing more stories like these, we can showcase the importance of supporting each other choices and displaying the dynamics of a successful partnership in today’s world, where both husband and wife celebrate each other’s roles, responsibilities, accomplishments, and contributions.
About the Author(s)
Ishfaq Ismail: This story is shared with PWiC by Ishfaq Ismail, who is a Principal Program Manager at Microsoft Corporation and currently resides with his amazing family in Washington, USA.
Huma Hamid, who made the story publish-ready, is a tech-maker mom and Co-founder Pakistani Women in Computing. You can reach out to her via LinkedIn and Twitter.
Share your journey with PWiC
If you want to share your journey with us, email us at info@pwic.org or submit it by filling out this form. https://goo.gl/forms/Tqy1kXsldBy9ZaWG2
