My interest in STEM sparked before I started school. My father was an hardware engineer and used to work in the computing center in my hometown. I loved spending time at his workplace and especially him taking me to the halls with the big mainframe machines. I was one of the first kids at school that gets to have personal computer at home and that gave me a chance to start coding at an early age.
Your organization field and mission
VMware by Broadcom is delivering enterprise solutions in the cloud computing and virtualization sector proving a platform for hybrid and multicloud management, networking, security and modern applications development. The mission of the company is to help organizations manage and optimize their IT infrastructure and minimize their costs balancing innovation and scalability with operational efficiency.
Please tell us briefly about your role in the company / at your organization:
Му role is multifaceted. I lead and manage R&D team of software engineers who deliver cross-cutting solutions for cloud management working with cross functions to ensure our products meet the evolving needs of enterprise customers. Fostering culture of collaboration and innovation as well as talent development is essential part of my job.
Your interest in STEM
The founders of Microsoft, then Google, Apple, Amazon were the first that I admired and read a lot about growing up. When I started working as software engineers I was fascinated by women like Diane Green, one of the founders of VMware. Sheryl Sandberg and other women who successfully combine the role of executive in tech and being a mother are my biggest inspiration. We also have amazing examples of female leaders in Bulgaria like Diana Stefanova (Managing Director of VMware Bulgaria since it was founded) who have tremendous impact on growing the Bulgarian IT ecosystem.
Your studies
Reconciling all the theory that we got to study with the practical aspects of being software engineer. The educational program in Bulgaria especially in public schools and university is invested in gaining theoretical knowledge and limited hands-on and real-life experience that prepares you for the actual job. I believe this is slowly improving at least for the IT sector.
It’s an industry that gives so many opportunies to learn and grow both personally and professionally and to give back to the community in so many ways.
You at work
VMware Bulgaria is renowned for fostering culture of diversity and inclusion. Through the years we have participated in multiple local and global initiatives like Women Who Code, Rail Girls, etc.
In our industry you can never achieve much if you are not a team player. As a manager my biggest achievement is building and growing a team or more precisely a group of smaller teams that have successfully delivered key features for our cloud management portfolio.
For me the two most important lessons are:
- “Do not compare with boys” – By nature boys and girls have different “superpowers” and your job is to acknowledge them and use them to the best of your advantage.
- “Do not wait for the perefect timing, it never comes” – Whether it’s about changing career tracks, taking new job opportunity or starting a family and taking time off you career, perfect time will never come and you will never be prepared enough.
Your point of view
I believe globally technology is empowering women by giving them better access to education, more career opportunities, better chances for career advancement especially in entrepreneurship and more socio-economic power.
Engineering is an excellent and prospective area for both women and men as long as they are professionals. It is a wrong perception that it this field belong primarily to men.
Have more developers and producers of microelectronics that at present.
To finish with
- Be kind, transparent and don’t judge
- Try to guide and inspire rather than instruct and command
- Don’t stay in your comfort zone
- Invest in your development but also well-being
- Give back or pay forward whenever possible
For the forseeable future one of the biggest challenges I guess will be:
- The expanding role of AI and Automation.
- Talent acquisition and retention will always be a theme no matter how the landscape changes.
- The continuous innovation and disruption will keep on creating challenges, but also opportunies.
I don’t have such a long term career plan but the IT industry is not only transformating itself but the global economy and every day life so I am sure great opportunities lie ahead.