Interview with Dr. Aishwarya Kalley
On a lovely Tuesday evening, 3rd of November, we had Dr. Aishwarya Kalley, Cisco Systems, USA, join Mr. Arvind, CEO of team.i on our Instagram live series 2021 The Year of the new and exciting promise of change
Tell us about yourself:
Hailing from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, Dr. Aishwarya became a doctor and was studying still when she got married. “ I got married to the software engineer and we then shifted to Bangalore. “So when I came to Bangalore, at that time, it was like the US for me.
Coming from a small town to Bangalore, the glamour and everything. And everything went so fast that I had a baby also. And then I wanted to spend some time with the baby. So I didn’t want to do any job or practice”.
She always had an inclination for organising events such was pretty active during her teen years when she would organise cultural programs, colony fests etc. Then one fine day her husband advised her to study or pursue a degree in something shes quite interested in. “I can’t attend a full college. So I was looking for a weekend, Saturday, Sunday, so my husband can take care of the baby and I can, you know, go to the college. So when I started looking out in the newspapers at that time, right, I saw an ad about team.i, and I then decided to give it a try”.
Here she loved the atmosphere of the institute and had a great time learning. “They say you’ll never get what you pay for. But I think I got more than what we paid for. I felt because we got great exposure here”.
So right after she finished her degree in event management, she and her husband then moved to USA. And luckily because of her husband’s work visa, she was allowed to work in USA too. Wondering again what to do, she decided to get another degree. “So then I again started thinking about what to do and you know, that journey of studying always kept happening. So then I studied, I enrolled in again, a college here, UC Santa Cruz. Also there was night shift colleges, I studied human resource certification, given that my path was always non coding, non techie, but I wanted to be in the technology world”.
Initially she worked in the HR department after graduating. And then slowly she rose up the ranks as a project manager. Because of her bulk od degrees, it made it easier for her to get a job, because according to her, many Americans don’t have many degrees since education is very expensive here. She then joined CISCO in 211, and since then she’s risen through the ranks, and
How was the lockdown period for you?
“Yeah, I think work wise, I would say that it industry is one unique industry, which did not get impacted. Given that it work can be done from anywhere, right. But as a society it did affect us. The BLM movement had a strong impact here in the USA , and there were rallies around the corner here.
But also I got to rethink about life. This pandemic made me realise the importance of going out. I started cooking many dishes at home. So I learnt a lot of things during this pandemic.
Any Advice for the youngsters out there?
“One piece of advice that I have is that whichever field you work in, just be honest in what you do. Be Passionate, and do it full heartedly. This should reflect on your work. Let your passion grow, and it will reflect on you and your work”.
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