A bright-eyed and bushy-tailed 22-year-old woman from Uttarakhand’s Dehradun is the talk of her town. Why? Because he landed that elusive Google job with a salary package that most can only dream of. “I got a smart TV for my family with my first paycheck,” is the first thing Maitree Rawat, who found out at a very early age that tech was her calling, says. “My father suggested I take up Computer Science after Class X and once the course began, I just knew that I wanted to do something in this field,” she adds. She developed a keen interest in programming and went on to pursue a degree in Computer Engineering.
What it takes to score a big job
But what does it take to land a job with Google? Rawat attests that getting into a company like Google requires good communication skills apart from industry skills to do the job well. “I know people who haven’t done any internships but they had some unique factors. Essentially, you need to be able to say that you are good at something without hesitation,” she says.
By her third year of engineering, Rawat discovered the Women Engineers Programme hosted by EdTech company, TalentSprint. “They had a stipend of a lakh to attend this programme in Hyderabad. My plan was to get a good job, not specifically with Google, although the programme was also partly hosted by Google,” Rawat says. “It helped me build a network as well as polish the existing skills I had,” she adds. What is interesting is that Google itself reached out to Rawat via LinkedIn by the end of her engineering programme. She does add that a career in tech often comes with a certain privilege. “Both my father and my aunt are also in tech. I was lucky on that front,” she adds.
Let's talk about women in tech
“While more and more young girls have started opting for a career in tech, the situation is still not up to the mark. There is often a perception that girls are not good at Math or Science,” she says, adding that in her engineering batch there were only about 8 female students out of a total 75. What may come as a surprise to many is that India is actually better off than a country like the United Kingdom in terms of careers for women in tech, according to research conducted by the UK’s Open University in collaboration with NASSCOM. The study found 35 per cent of people with specialist technology roles in India are women, compared to 17 per cent in the UK.
On her way to a new start
Rawat grew up in Delhi and eventually moved with her family to Dehradun. “This is a small, relaxed city but I am looking forward to moving to Bengaluru for work. This will be the first time I will be living away from my family but we don’t know for sure when the office will open.” She is now looking forward to building her home in the IT hub of India.
