Reflections with Pratima Amonkar

By Ekaterina Azizova

Pratima Amonkar is an APAC (Asia-Pacific) Lead for working with Cloud ISV (Independent Software Vendor) Partners at Microsoft Corporation. She has 23 years of experience in different positions in the IT industry, including work for universities, start-ups, SMEs and large multinational corporations.

How would you describe a typical workday?

My team and I work with companies which create solutions for different industries and for different Microsoft cloud partners, for example hospital management system for health care, analytics dash board for the energy sector, etc. based on cloud technologies.

A typical day for me may be divided to internal focus activities and external focus activities. Internal activities mean running teams in our organisation, while external activities involve connecting with partners.

My work also includes a lot of my own self-learning on a day-to-day basis.

At the managerial level, being busy with multiple tasks, with little extra time, how do you manage to find time for learning?

Just being very focused on dedicating some time for it. It doesn’t matter on your position – you should constantly be learning even at the entry and senior level position.

I take one day a week, usually a Saturday or Sunday, for reading, studying and learning what is happening in the industry. It is especially important in IT industry where the pace of changes is so rapid. Plus, every quarter of the year I do formal learning, like an online course 3-4 months long. For example, last quarter I have a course from MIT on Artificial Intelligence. It is stimulating to learn from the top university professors even if they are sitting far away from you. We do a lot of unstructured learning every day, but courses are not like reading magazines on – structured learning stimulates you to go deeper to the subject.

How did you make a choice to study mathematics and enter IT industry?

When I started to study, IT was still very new. It was a time of big floppy disks and things like that. Computers that can process large amounts of information and provide high speed calculations were also very new things. So, innovation was the first factor.

The second factor was how innovations can make an impact, like making better weather forecasts or useful analyses of utility data. At that time what made me really enthusiastic was how automation can change the lives of people, how machines can make an impact and make people’s lives better. And this passion is what motivates me every day in my job for the past 23 years.

Could you please tell us about your first job?

My first job was at the place where I first started to study IT – in a computer training institute in India. I worked for an institute lab helping students with their projects.

Then, I worked for a company which specialised in object-oriented programming and then in a start-up. After that I worked in Sun Microsystems, which finally became a part of Oracle.

How competitive is the IT industry for newcomers?

IT industry is very competitive – you might even have a multibillion dollar competing with a start-up. Of course, you must know your subject very well. However, another thing is that you need to create a solution that will be useful for people. That is where competition lies. You can create a great technology, but it will be not competitive if no one adopts it.

How much emphasis are placed on soft skills in IT? Should a young specialist focus on primary technical skills or develop their soft skills?

It really depends on the roles. In IT there are multiple roles. There are very technical roles where you need to sit down and write code. If you are involved in programme creation you must have good technical knowledge. At these positions your soft skills do not really matter much unless you have to work with a very large team. Business development positions require soft skills, so you must be able to present ideas.

In large multinational corporations we usually have roles which are a mixture of both. You need not only have a good product but also be able to explain this product.

Developing skills also depend on one’s core strengths. As advice, I would say you really need to figure out your strengths – do you really enjoy sitting up and coding, or do you prefer to talk about your solution? So, look at your core strength and then try to develop that.

It is not impossible to develop several competencies, but you need firstly to understand what your core strength is and then add to it.

How have you progressed from an entry position to managerial position?

Firstly, you need to think about what value you can bring to the business. It doesn’t matter if you are in an entry position or managerial position or if you are a business owner – you should always think how you can make this business better. The second, bring value to yourself – it is your constant learning that will help you progress as well.

Is working in the IT industry different from what you thought it would be when you first entered the industry?

The IT industry is changing very fast and when you are going through your career path there may be people entering at their twenties who are more technically qualified than you, which is very different from what I expected at first.

Could you tell us more about how you work with students?

We do a lot of technical competitions for students and programmes supporting girls to study programming and STEM. Furthermore, we develop different kinds of inclusive software that can help people who have disabilities – for example, software that can help people who have visual or hearing impairments.

From my working with students I would say that students have very new bright ideas – they can see the gaps and understand how to address these gaps with software, which is very important.

What are the challenges for women in the IT industry, and what would you like to tell young ladies in IT?

Many projects in technology can be demanding – long hours, requirements to travel a lot, different kinds of risks, the necessity to take bigger goals and bigger roles. One advice I would give to the girls in IT is to be fearless; do not keep worrying about whether “am I the best person for the project?”, “do I know enough?” or “is this project very difficult to do?” Sometimes women ask themselves too many questions before they actually start doing the things. And my key message is to be fearless. Being fearless means to take the next step when you are ready, and don’t hesitate to bring value to the business and to yourself.

What are the key features that are important for young people to be successful in IT industry?

Firstly, I would say that for both applied and continuous learning, it is very important to learn constantly and apply your knowledge. Also, it is important to have an “I can do it’’ attitude – a positive attitude to work and to take risks. One more thing that is really important is to try and make a real contribution to the company.

Some young people consider starting a business as their first job instead of joining a company. What do you think of this?

I believe it is worth working in a corporation first for some time, like at least 2-3 years, before becoming an entrepreneur. When you are in a start-up you must do pretty much everything and it will really help if you know at least one aspect of the business well. You will learn the details that will help if you eventually want to start a business. On the other hand, what can also happen is that you can start working for a start-up – get employed by a start-up instead of entrepreneurship. There are some benefits for doing so because start-ups usually give you more space for trying new things, so you can enjoy not having strict boundaries. In large companies you need to follow with company’s framework and do things accordingly. Some people may not like that.

When we invest in start-ups we look at the start-up owner – who is this person, what background this person has. And most likely than not we would count whether this person has a corporate background or not, because it gives a little bit more structure of clarity of thought.

What books would you recommend reading?

I would strongly recommend Mindset by Carol Dweck. It is a fantastic book. I would also recommend Hit Refresh by Satya Nadella. And other book is Tribes by Seth Godin. These are excellent books that are worth reading.