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Worldwide Girls in Engineering Day gives us with the chance to acknowledge the work and achievements of ladies engineers all internationally. As we speak I rejoice all of our Cisco Girls in Engineering by spotlighting two extraordinary girls, Priya Aiyer and Christelle Mombo-Zigah. Each share their profession journeys, together with their expertise collaborating in Cisco’s Exemplar Various Feminine Mentee program which has been sponsored by Cisco SVP and Basic Supervisor Alistair Wildman and can proceed beneath Cisco SVP Buyer Expertise (CX) Americas Harry Caldwell.
Priya Aiyer: A ardour for course of enchancment
Priya Aiyer is a System Engineering Chief who has been a expertise chief for greater than 15 years at Cisco. She started her profession in India as a folks chief and transitioned to customer-facing buyer expertise roles in the US. With a give attention to expertise transformation and providers, she supported prospects throughout service suppliers, enterprises, and the general public sector. Later, she moved to Gross sales management. Cisco is an organization that provides many careers, and Priya has skilled these in her journey.
“I knew I used to be considering a customer-facing function, however on the enterprise unit, I used to be restricted in what I may do,” says Priya.
Priya all the time knew that she wished to land a customer-facing function. Her ardour for course of enchancment, for addressing gaps and for offering end-to-end options was acknowledged with a supply excellence award. She is an lively member of Girls of Cisco and at present, she leads the Chicago chapter of the Girls in Science and Engineering. The inclusive group is targeted on making a constructive influence within the lives of ladies and women in STEM fields inside and out of doors of Cisco. She is obsessed with supporting girls early of their careers and connecting them to alternatives.
Participation in Cisco’s SVP and Basic Supervisor Alistair Wildman’s mentee program vastly expanded Priya’s community. As part of the mentee program, Priya and different mentees have been launched to every of the senior management staff members and she or he’s grateful to have had the chance to listen to from senior executives about their management journeys.
“After I take into consideration mentoring and sponsoring, it’s a journey,” says Priya.
“Every of the mentors gave me a distinct perspective and shared priceless nuggets that helped me broaden my very own perspective and helped me in my management journey,” she added.
Christelle Mombo-Zigah: A life-long learner
Christelle is a Buyer Success Americas Regional Chief who has labored at Cisco for 9 of her 15 years as an expert. Christelle started her profession in France the place she was born and raised and labored in a number of industries, together with luxurious items, client items, and banking. She began her journey in expertise at Cisco Meraki for 4 years earlier than shifting to Gartner. She then returned to Cisco to hitch M&A integration. She later discovered her present dwelling in Buyer Expertise (CX). Her first function in CX was as a Success Program Supervisor in GES West earlier than being promoted to the function of Buyer Success Americas Regional Chief.
With greater than 15 years of expertise in gross sales, enterprise growth, M&A integration, and buyer expertise in numerous industries, Christelle has taken benefit of quite a few skilled growth alternatives at Cisco and past.
Having all the time considered her profession as that of a common supervisor, Christelle knew that what she wanted was to study from totally different enterprise features, enhance her management abilities, her visibility, and publicity. She participated in Cisco’s Subsequent Technology Chief program designed to assist underrepresented minorities develop management abilities. She additionally participated within the firm’s Leap Girls’s Management Program, the Government Shadow Program yearly and within the Multiplier Impact, which leverages sponsorship to foster range and inclusion and speed up the pipeline of various expertise inside the tech trade.
She was additionally an lively member of the Related Black Skilled (CBP) worker useful resource group (ERO), the place she served as a co-lead of the San Jose chapter. She then joined the Girls of Cisco San Jose Chapter management staff together with the Accountable AI committee to align her work, values, and function. Via the CBP, she has mentored 10 to 12 early-in-career professionals yearly to present again, elevate as she climbs, and develop her folks’s management abilities. Serving as a mentor additionally provides her a possibility to grasp what her personal mentors count on from her.
A lifelong learner, Christelle accomplished Stanford’s LEAD program, an government schooling program via the Stanford Graduate Faculty of Enterprise (Stanford GSB) the place she now serves as a course facilitator. This system proved to be a transformative expertise for her. She subsequently launched improvements at Cisco to unravel issues impacting buyer expertise via provide chain and cross-functional alignment and was quickly promoted.
Wish to supercharge your profession? Use Priya and Christelle’s 5 key takeaways
1. Have a transparent imaginative and prescient.
“Be intentional. Know your passions. Make your plan. Have a imaginative and prescient on your future and consider in it and the universe will conspire to make it occur,” advises Priya. “This program has helped me construct my mentorship tree. I’ve mentors and sponsors throughout totally different verticals in addition to in industrial in consequence.”
2. Be daring and brave.
When Cisco’s SVP of International Buyer Expertise Alistair Wildman joined the Americas from the EMEA area in 2018, Christelle reached out as a fellow European residing in the US, to welcome him to Cisco’s Americas staff and to let him know that she loved his All-Palms assembly. She additionally made certain to share her work in Buyer Success International Enterprise Gross sales West by cross-functionally aligning buyer success, gross sales, and renewals. She additionally shared her two improvements. Later, she was nominated to take part in Alistair’s Exemplar Various Feminine Mentee program in addition to Gross sales Champions 2022.
3. With mentors or sponsors, attempt to make the dialog as useful for them as it’s for you.
“If in case you have a mentor, all the time summarize what you study and ship a thanks be aware,” says Priya.
“All the time comply with up and share your learnings. Share your perspective and your takeaways from these conversations. Probably the most crucial is to be intentional along with your relationship along with your mentors and sponsors. This may go a good distance.”
4. Deal with sponsors, not simply mentors.
“Most of my sponsors have come via the Government Shadow program through which I shadowed and added worth,” mentioned Christelle. “Certainly one of our executives was new. I used to be working in M&A so I may share insights on Cisco tradition, and our acquisitions integrations working mannequin [with him].”
Completely different from mentors, sponsors, “will use [their] personal capital to advocate in your behalf so it’s worthwhile to be in a trusting relationship in order that they may symbolize you effectively and advocate for you while you’re not [in the room],” she continued.
“In spite of everything, you’ll be able to enhance your skillsets via on-line studying by way of Coursera [and] LinkedIn Studying however tapping into the connection you develop with a sponsor two ranges above your individual is a useful asset with an amazing influence in your profession.
5. Make your work seen and get as concerned as attainable with quite a lot of applications.
“[There are] many components you’ll be able to’t management however having a sponsor in a task advocating for you, saying you ought to be thought-about is most necessary,” says Christelle.
“One crucial program I participated in was the Government Shadow program. It helped me discover my mentors who then turned my sponsors. Get as concerned as attainable with these applications. Reap the benefits of these to study, develop your abilities, and construct relationships at Cisco.”
In the event you’re seeking to take the next move, discover your private home at Cisco with
Sources
Take time to study extra about Cisco’s applications and communities:
Subsequent Technology Chief Program
Leap Girls’s Management Program,
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