PWiC Silicon Valley: Mentoring Circles

One of the upcoming PWiC’s chapter, PWIC Silicon Valley arranged a mentor session on 4th August, 2019 at Big Mug Coffee in StevenCreeks, California. The purpose of this session was to expand the viewpoints and consider new ways of approaching situations in a career.

First Half

The event started at 11:30 am and was split up into two rounds. Thr first half of the session started with an introduction from the moderator, Hiba Talat. Next, she introduced the attendees to the mentor, Novaira Masood, and also went over PWIC’s mission to enable the community to connect, learn, and grow together.

Second Half

In the second half of the seasion, Novaira Masood, who is currently an Engineering Manager at Apple, introduced herself and then asked mentees to briefly introduce themselves. Following the introductions, Novaira went over her career achievements starting from the time she graduated and joined Microsoft. Not only did she explain how and where she struggled in her career journey, but also provided an insight into how she overcame those issues.

The session was followed by a Q/A session in which mentees also shared the issues they are facing in their career.

Conversation Highlights About Navigation a Career in Tech

When is the best time in your career to switch to management?

Do spend time to build a strong foundation before jumping into management otherwise you risk being stuck in middle management. Not everyone has to choose the management track, lots of companies also offer Individual Contributor tracks leading up to Architect roles. Choose what is best for you.

How to balance personal and professional lives?

Keep it binary. It’s difficult to do both at the same time. So time at work is dedicated to work and time at home is dedicated to home (switch off the work mode). Also try to move into a role that makes this easier and set boundaries at work (e.g. no meetings after 5pm).

Figuring out which domain to go in for early career people or fresh graduates: Align passion with what you are doing

How to deal with “Bro culture”, office politics, being spoken over and aggressive personalities at work?

Try to be vocal about your thoughts and make space for yourself in meetings. If you are in management, bring a culture of “we before me” so that everyone has a voice.

How do you deal with misleading online recruiters?

Try to apply directly to the organizations.

How to apply when you don’t have all the skills asked for?

Apply to jobs even if you just have 2–3 required bullet points , you never know. Show initiative and willingness to learn.

Session Closure

The session concluded with the attendees thanking Novaira for coaching them by providing solutions towards the issues that they are currently facing and for further guiding on the new potential opportunities.

Author:

Hiba Talat is a Technical Writer by profession and currently leading the mentoring circle events as PWiC Lead from Silicon Valley.