Tech Communities: A Remarkable Journey
Meet Ananya R, Community Manager, Google Developer Relations
‘Surround yourself with like-minded people. Find your tribe. Who is the core group of folks that you can lean on, and support’
- Ananya R
At TinkerHub Foundation we’re passionate about community, and Ananya has done amazing things to always foster growth and support among women communities in Kerala.
Ananya reminds us that we need to focus on what we enjoy and that learning should be part of it. Being brave enough to make a change can make a huge difference!
Read her perspective, struggles, and inspiring story as she created a remarkable space for herself and supported and mentored other women as well.
Hi Ananya. Can you introduce yourself and what you do?
Hi! I am Ananya R, a developer and designer. I am currently working as a Community Manager at Google Developer Relations. I am someone driven by curiosity and I love learning and trying out new things. I always listen to my instincts and rarely have second thoughts.
I’m keen on supporting women communities and my work with TinkerHub Foundation, GDG Trivandrum is an effort to bridge the gender parity for women in education & employment and provide them with equal opportunities and mentorship.
Check out my blog on Power of Communities here.
Can you tell us a little bit about your career path? What role did communities play in shaping that path?
I did my B.Tech in Electronics and Communication Engineering from LBS Institute, Trivandrum. Since I was a Biology student, I had to learn a lot of things from scratch. I was determined to take up as many learning opportunities that crossed my path. During my first year in college, while I was still figuring out whether I should learn about hardware or take up coding, I attended many workshops and boot camps to help me in the process. I didn’t have the privilege of owning a laptop or mobile phone at that point, but I didn’t let that stop me from learning.
I was part of communities like IEEE, IEDC, GDG, etc.
Even though I studied in a women’s college, I was unaware of the existing Gender disparity in the tech community. It’s only once I started getting actively involved in communities that I realized it and wanted to contribute to change that.
Thanks to communities, I was able to take up roles such as Women In Engineering Coordinator that helped me in my vision and was awarded as Outstanding WIE Volunteer, IEEE Kerala Section.
I learned a lot through communities as I conducted Bootcamps, Hackathons, and multiple events and I enjoyed managing people as well. I definitely wanted to learn more and my curiosity helped me in being a part of GDG. Their Machine Learning workshop was a game-changer for me as I started learning about an entirely new subject and found how much I liked it that I even did a project based on ML.
What are some of the challenges you’ve encountered, and how have you overcome them?
As I started college and wanted to learn new things by involving communities and attending events, there were a lot of difficulties I faced. As I said, I didn’t have the privilege of owning a laptop or mobile phone, yet I still wanted and tried my best to attend Boot Camps and workshops in other Colleges.
Being a girl, I had a lot of restrictions in traveling, attending events, etc. That is probably the reason why I can empathize with and understand the problems of Community members of the WIT Wing and provide them with the right mentorship to help them achieve their goals.
During the fourth year, when On-Campus placements were going on, I was going through one of the most stressful periods of my life. Things started looking even more glum as I got rejected by 3–4 reputed companies. I found myself going through a rough patch as On-Campus placements were a big deal in my college, and I experienced a lot of self-doubts when I saw all my friends getting placed in their dream companies.
I now realize that if you try to build a better version of yourself and are ready to learn, opportunities will come to you. From worrying about on-campus placements, I was at a much better place where I was getting a wide variety of opportunities through off-campus placements and that helped me become more self-aware and build my confidence.
How was your experience at your first job? What did you learn?
Around September 2019, I got placed as Application Development Associate at Accenture and I joined by December 2020. It was a totally different experience with a lot of training and projects. Accenture helped me become more empowered as a woman, as the company had women leaders. Being a fresher, I found my own learning grew significantly by being mentored by them and being exposed to new perspectives, questions, bugs, and ideas.
What impact does TinkerHub have in your life?
I got to know about TinkerHub when I participated in their Learn from Home program on UI/UX. It has been an incredible journey since then.
Being a part of this community proved a huge turning point for me on both professional and personal fronts. When TinkerHub put out their very first Intern call, I joined as a New Initiatives intern because like I said I don’t regret missed opportunities and I make sure that I gain as much exposure as I can.
As a New Initiatives intern, I executed the Office hours mentorship program, test-run and set up essential learning courses, co-organized the Digital Skills Hackathon, and was the SPOC at Coopathon 3.0 team.
Later, I joined as the Women In Tech Fellow as I was always passionate about taking up that role.
You became the Fellow of the WIT wing in TinkerHub and created a massive impact on the WIT collective across the campuses of Kerala, a strong community of women. Can you talk about your experience as the lead of WIT?
I always wanted to be a part of the WIT Community even when I joined as an intern back in 2020. It was important to me that I become the mentor that I never had during my college days, and provide the support, mentorship, and guidance to these wonderful girls to help them reach their full potential.
We launched the 1–1 Mentorship program for young women to provide one-on-one mentoring wherein mentees will be matched to a woman mentor from various industries to get a comfortable space to learn, ask questions, get support and teach each other, i.e. women supporting women. The event received huge responses from 500+ registrants. We shortlisted 100 participants with 10 mentors onboard. It was a wonderful experience and received largely positive feedback.
Besides this, we also conducted a lot of recurring events and sessions that contributed to the amicable rapport our community has. It is very fulfilling to see them share this bond and continue to support each other, learn together, and celebrate each other's success and I am happy I am a part of it.
Can you talk about the Digital Skills Hackathon?
I co-organized Digital Skills Hackathon with Vimal. It was wonderful. We were conducting an Offline event after so long given the Pandemic scenario and it was something I definitely needed to experience.
This hackathon, jointly organized by TinkerHub and iLAB, was all about giving its participants an opportunity to learn more than 15 digital tools, ranging from analytics to project management. We had participants from all over Kerala from diverse educational backgrounds try their hand at these tools, demonstrating how to start, operate and expand an enterprise with their help.
Congrats on your new job at Google DevRel! Can you tell us a little about how you found out about the opening and your experience so far?
Every community manager has a unique story of how they got there.
After I became actively involved with TinkerHub, I was made aware of the open position at Google DevRel through Muhammed Shibin via Farish CV. It came as a surprise when I actually got the job after weeks of selection interviews and also working with students and managing the communities was something I was indeed looking forward to.
At Google DevRel, the developer communities work with the objective of empowering the tech community via training, learning opportunities, mentoring, and celebrating stories. These form the basics of tech talent we have in any country. With our work, we have the potential of unlocking a country’s true digital potential and bridging the gaps that exist in industries.
Dreaming long-term, what do you hope TinkerHub Women in Tech will be able to achieve one day?
Give a voice to women in tech and facilitate communities to learn, grow, and ultimately, create opportunities for women in tech.
When I had graduated and joined my first Job at Accenture, I was greatly motivated watching so many female leaders guide and mentor. Later when I became a fellow at TinkerHub WIT, I wanted to contribute to the community, by addressing and solving the existing challenges faced by women in tech.
Many say it is a matter of skill that decides how people grow and build their careers but for women, there is an added hurdle of a “gender problem” as well.
At TinkerHub’s WIT wing, we are building a community that advocates for social change — increasing diversity and inclusion. We are committed to building a comfortable space for women to learn, receive mentorship and build their confidence.
In your career were there any mentors who have helped you grow along the way?
I grew every way being part of communities and for all of that and more, they have my utmost gratitude.
I am very lucky that people like Muhammed Shibin, Mehar MP, and my mentor at Google DevRel, Lakshya Sivaramakrishnan (Technical Program Manager at Google), Nandan, Lizy Abraham, took me under their wing, guided, and supported me in every way. And that, quite frankly, has made all the difference for me.
What advice would you give to women who like to start a career in tech?
Be curious. It’ll help you learn more and seek different opportunities. There might be a lot of struggles and pressure you are/will face from your family and society. But don’t let any of that stop you from dreaming big. Become financially independent because that is very important for true empowerment. There are a lot of opportunities out there, tech and nontech that will suit your skill set and talent, so be ready to explore, learn and seek.
Talk about yourself more, self-promote, make networks because opportunities come through referrals. Showcase your work and don’t shy away from publishing your work and promoting it because you think that is preachy or too much. Talking about you is the one thing that will make people remember you and refer you for positions that you rightly deserve.
Thanks for your insight, Ananya! We are so glad we got the chance to be a part of your career and are especially excited for your future in the tech industry! 👏
If you want to further discuss the topics presented, you can reach out to Ananya on LinkedIn
We hope you had a great time reading Ananya’s story 😄
This TinkerHub story was brought to you by — Anupama Moncy Thomas and Fathima Nihla Latheef from the TinkerHub Team! If you loved reading this post, show your appreciation by clapping below! Stay tuned to us for more reads on learning, building, and collaborating.
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