Lean In Tech

The very beginning of the nation-wide lockdown, put everyone in their lazy comfort zones. Halfway through it, somewhere around the Dalgona coffee phase, a realization struck most of us when LinkedIn started filling up with posts of online course completion certificates by our fellow mates. The urge to do something productive rather than reliving the same day over and over, formed in our heads. It was one such day when my good friend Aushin J Pullattu came across the Lean In community on the internet.

A little bit about what Lean In is and how it came into existence:

Lean In is a global community that solely focuses on connecting women to help each other achieve their ambitions. This community was founded by Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, after the amazing feedback she received about her book ‘Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead’.

In her book, Sheryl Sandberg describes the struggles faced by women in building up their career. She talks about how conditions for women will improve when there are more women in leadership roles. This gives a strong and powerful voice to their needs and concerns.

“In the future, there will be no female leaders. There will just be leaders.”

A quote from her book that undoubtedly inspired many.

Lean In Circles came by the concept that leaning in is not a solo sport. In a world where women still face bias and other barriers at work, Circles are a safe space to share your struggles, give and get advice, and celebrate each other’s wins. This is how the Lean In organization came into being. Many people from all over the world started forming Lean In circles in their neighborhood, workplace and universities as a space to provide inspiration, express concerns and help each other.

The realization that there was no such community in our college led us to the formation of a Lean In circle at CUSAT called Lean In Tech on August 1, 2020. We aimed at activities like bringing inspirational people to share their experience, forming peer to peer learning groups and so on. The main initiative of Lean In Tech is a series of talk sessions called Candid Talks. The speakers were mainly alumni from School of Engineering, CUSAT and other colleges nearby. Their journey from there to the successful position where they are right now, was an inspiration to a lot of attendees. The sessions mainly covered their experiences, challenges, opportunities we didn’t know existed, what to do and not do in college and most importantly, more details and clarity to the question that lingers in the back of our head: What to do after college?

Five sessions were held in the Candid Talks series:

The very first Candid Talk was with Nikita Mallya, an alumna of Model engineering college (MEC), Thrikkakara, who recently graduated from Columbia University with Masters in Management Science and Engineering. She was working as a product management intern at Tesla. This was mainly an interactive session where Nikita answered questions about life in New York, work-life at Tesla and how being part of communities and conferences played an important role in getting into Columbia University.

The second session was by Sukriti Paul, who is working as a Business Analyst at American Express. Sukriti walked us through her journey starting from her job search. She also covered topics like

• Resume building
• Looking for jobs — effective ways to search for opportunities
• How to prepare for placements and interviews
• Important areas for ML/Data Science related roles

The third session called Journey from CUSAT to Cambridge was by Saranya S, an alumna of SOE, CUSAT who completed B. Tech in Civil Engineering in 2018. She is currently pursuing her Masters in Engineering for Sustainable Development at Cambridge University. This session was mainly focused on the Civil department and the what are the areas a civil graduate can pursue higher studies.

Our fourth speaker was Aswathi Puthanveedu who is working as a project manager in Microsoft Global Delivery. After giving a brief summary about her life she gave some thoughtful insights on making the most of college life, how to enjoy college along with building skills for our career. She shared the things she wished she knew in college and did not want us to make the same mistake. She then shared an elaborate idea on how to build a LinkedIn profile and its importance.

The fifth session was by the alumni of SOE, Anju Kurian and Amala Kurian. These vibrant twins living in New Zealand shared details about their work, post-graduate life and how it is like to live in New Zealand. This session was a fun interactive one along with some pointers about studying and working abroad.

All these sessions seemed really helpful for the members as well as participants. We hadn’t realized the importance of such a community until one was formed. Informal meetings in the community act as a platform to connect with similar minded people in the same field, share ideas and discuss various topics. Women in the field of technology looking for such a platform are always welcome to be a part of Lean In Tech. After all, “behind every successful woman is a group of women being the source of motivation”.