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A (1:28)

Hello, my name is Artie Lawani and I am a knowledge leader for risk management and privacy at Align. I remember being in college and sitting pretty undecided about what I wanted my major to be. So I sat down with my parents and I told them that I was thinking about maybe taking a teaching career path. However, I grew up with very traditional Indian parents, so if you were not a doctor or an engineer or going to marry a doctor or an engineer, your career choice was probably worthless. So I know. After like many, many discussions, we finally decided that I would stick with finance as a major and I graduated with a finance degree and jumped into a financial job for a few years until one day I realized, wow, this is not me. My parents always, undoubtedly were a great support system for me. I do take everything that they say into account. It doesn't mean that I actually listen to everything, but I I hear it. My parents gave up everything to come to America and to make sure that we got the best education we possibly could get. And so I was not going to give that up. I really, honestly, I had no clue that I wanted to go into tech. It was just purely by chance that I happened to accept a job that worked in hardware and I knew nothing about hardware either. So that was kind of where I jumped into this world where I was really learning from the bottom up. One of the things I said was for the longest time is that I absolutely did not want to manage a team. So when I did take that step and I started managing a team, the first promise that I made to myself was that I never want to be one of those managers that I didn't like when I was going through work. I Want to make sure that everybody here is heard and understood. And it's an extremely difficult task to say that, and it's easier done with a smaller team than a larger one. But I don't want there to be any sort of leveling. Just because I'm above you or I'm two steps above you, doesn't mean that you can't approach me with simple questions. For me, my management style has always been very inclusive, and I think that's what attributes to the team having very low attrition status. I have a very strong personality that can come across as, you know, when I'm passionate about something, it comes across as aggressive or bossy or. And I just remember feeling like I could never. I had to be a different version of myself when I first entered this industry just to feel like I was even slightly accepted. I think it was very clear to tell when I was looking at the few other women in the industry and how they were acting and how they were perceived. I think that the judgment was just extremely difficult on the women than the men. And I feel like there were times where you could sense someone was judging you not for the work that you were providing them, but for everything else that you were. Women face, I think one of the biggest issues that they face is confidence. And for me, not only was that the issue, but I also felt like I wasn't ready to lead in this industry. So I remember reaching out to, like, a couple professional mentors, and I asked for advice, I asked for help, I asked for words of even encouragement because I just did not feel ready to lead. Not only did these mentors think that I was ready, but also my direct manager at the time thought I was absolutely ready to take it on. For the first time, I felt like someone else saw something in me that I couldn't even see in myself. That feeling of being judged because I'm a female, because I'm a minority female. I think it's constantly there. For anybody that's gonna come up into this industry or any sort of industry where they're embarking on a career change, the first thing you're gonna hit is a roadblock. If you give up at that first sign, you're never going to get to where you want to be. So keep going and find ways to pursue past that. Whether that's. You have to put more work in on your own or you find someone that can help you get past that, pursuing networking opportunities, finding people that can connect you to someone else, and trying to build that network on your own. And having a big support system behind you before you're about to pursue something like this is absolutely necessary. I like to be part of the change in this industry where women supporting and becoming great mentors for other women is the norm through managing like a team of my own. The best part has been being able to be a mentor to coach them on challenges that they will undoubtedly encounter and teach them things that no one really ever taught me. If you think back to how your career launched off, it's usually with somebody that believed in you or helped you through the process. So being able to give back in that sense is a very important thing.