Remitly Hosted Event: Transitioning from a Non-Tech Background to a Tech Role
Author: Khushali Desai | SDE II, Passbook
Earlier this fall, Remitly held an in-person event in collaboration with AnitaB Seattle and Indian Women in Computing (IWiC). We had the pleasure to host this event with keynote speaker, Richa Thakur, a Product Manager at Microsoft, where she shared her career transition from a non-tech to a tech role.
The career transition from a non-tech to a tech role is known for not being easy. There were many insights shared by Richa, but one of the key takeaway was centered around the word “choice”. It’s the choices that we make as per our current scenarios that start shaping our life in the direction we want it to go. If you want to be confident in making such decisions, you need to have the instruments that help you. I hope after reading this you will feel well-equipped to make important life and/or career decisions.
Before we get to Richa’s talk, let’s recap the pre-keynote talks. Aarti Dalvi, a Lead Volunteer for AnitaB Seattle, inaugurated the event by introducing AnitaB.org, AnitaB Seattle, and IWiC. She invited Remitly’s CTO, Ankur Sinha, to share a few words — he highlighted who Remitly is and what we do, our cultural values, and how we all have north stars that push us to evolve and constantly try to better ourselves. When Aarti shared that she was the first engineer in her family, Ankur, while recognizing he sees himself as someone coming from privilege, also reflected on his own experiences based on this discovery…a truly inspirational and humble person to come across in your career. He ended his talk with the following career advice…
“Explore, Evolve and Enjoy your journey.” ~Ankur Sinha
Later on, Ankur invited Remitly’s VP of Consumer Product, Milkana Brace, to say a few words. She gave a handful of fabulous tips around transitioning from a non-tech to a tech role — they are as follows:
- Join a tech company even if not in a tech role. Work with customers — learn how to serve them best.
- Educate for the role — via a bootcamp, product school, etc. Be an incredible learner. Don’t be complacent.
- You can’t always have it all. Optimize life experiences — sometimes that might even mean for money or to obtain a Green Card necessary to stay in the country.
“Be greedy when learning from the best and be generous when you share what you learned.” ~Milkana Brace
Later on, Richa took charge of the stage — she started with a grateful meditation and set a fabulous tone for her upcoming talk. It was then that we got to know it was her first ever public talk and how she was really becoming vulnerable by sharing her life and career to help others take a leap of faith. She shared how she transitioned from a non-tech to tech path by joining a startup on the east coast — there she got to wear different hats and basically learned various aspects of the tech space and the customers they served. Later on, this same manager invited her to apply for a role at Microsoft where she currently works as a Product Manager. I will try to summarize a few of the points she shared.
One of the most important things she pointed out was that choices are not always conscious, they can be unconscious as well. Conscious ones can include what you study in school, responding to market shifts, responding to life situations, etc. Unconscious ones can include working hard, integrity, gratitude, positive thinking, helping others, and not being afraid of putting yourself out there.
Later in her talk, she dove into how your choices and/or decisions will drive your life story and how to make choices using intention, success criteria, priority, attitude, relationships, gurus, faith and trust. You need to have intention and define what success looks like to you. Prioritize, as Milkana said earlier — we can’t have it all and we need to optimize as per our own life situations. We need to have the proper attitude, relationships, and mentors we need to help us achieve success, and lastly faith and trust in our work and self as a whole.
In the end, I would like to thank the AnitaB Seattle team for partnering with Remitly to host this event. Especially Aarti Dalivi for working super hard and making it all come together; this event would not have been possible without her leadership and efforts. Also a huge thanks to the IWiC Team — Swathi Dinakaran and Pooja Gupte, for their additional support. I would also like to thank my manager Di Zhang for his support and for helping us with any bottlenecks we faced while planning and our leadership team Ankur and Milkana for sponsorship and their lightning talks. Last but not least, I would like to share a few people at Remitly who worked in the background and seldom get the spotlight — super helpful Sr. Program Manager Kristin Pankey, Facilities Coordinator Erin McClure, and IT Lead Ahmed Mohamoud for helping us with wonderful decorations, recording the event, collaborating with theAnitaB team and setting the stage for success.
“We all make choices, but in the end, our choices make us.” ~Ken Levine (an American video game developer)
AnitaB: At AnitaB.org, we envision a future where the people who imagine and build technology mirror the people and societies for whom they build it. We connect, inspire, and guide women in computing, and organizations that view technology innovation as a strategic imperative.
Our social enterprise supports women in technical fields, as well as the organizations that employ them and the academic institutions training the next generation. A full roster of programs helps women and non-binary technologists grow, learn, and develop their highest potential.
AnitaB Local Communities (or AnitaB Seattle): AnitaB.Org Local Community is a volunteer network of self-organized local communities that meet in-person to grow and support current and aspiring women technologists. Our purpose is to inspire women to pursue and remain in technical fields, and provide the guidance they need to advance their careers. We offer programming for entry level to executive level women in technology.
Indian Women in Computing (IWiC): the leading organization for women hailing from India working in tech/STEM world. Originally founded as asister group of AnitaB.Org, the largest non-profit organization for women in technology field, IWiC is now a registered non-profit in its own right. IWiC’s mission is to foster an inclusive community where Indian women in computing can learn, collaborate and grow, with vision of a world where Indian women in tech around the world unite, thrive and lead.
