Do not let anyone tear your confidence down
Published on : Sunday 08-03-2020
Engineering was not a popular career option for women, then. How did your family react to it?
When choosing my career, I let my interests guide me. I’ve always enjoyed solving puzzles, working with numbers. I was looking for a career that would test my critical thinking skills. Prior to college, I didn’t know much about engineering, but I was academically very strong and had great interest in mathematics but not in biology. As I got to know more about what engineers actually do every day, I started to warm up to the idea. I wanted to do something where I could use my skills to tackle real-world problems, rather than just learning about the theory of it – Engineering allows me to do exactly that. During those days, girls in engineering colleges were rare and I aspired to become the first Lady Engineer from my school. I am grateful to my parents who were a rock-solid support and believed in my dreams and allowed me to live them with full zeal and dedication.
Career in engineering comes with a lot of baggage, literally – travels, projects and remote locations – how was the early experience?
I worked for Contracts Department for 11 years and it helped inculcate the various qualities in me like project handling, meeting deadline pressures yet maintaining the right level of accuracy, better presentation, and customer interactions. I even remember working without lights and only candles on a Sunday to meet the project deadlines. My second job at Phoenix Contact as a Global Key Account Head for India has been both challenging and rewarding. It’s been 18 years now, and requires facing escalations, meeting deadlines, and pressures of customers to reply in time. Travelling to different places has been a wonderful part of my role. I enjoy customer interactions and building relationships with a variety of people from different cultural backgrounds has been a great experience. At first, I struggled a little bit as a manager as I felt I didn’t have any time to do the management work, but I eventually realised I could delegate stuff. I do think it’s very good for me that I get to do a bit of both. Several key qualities helped me balance the pressure that includes a healthy dose of pragmatism, an ability to set priorities, organisational skills and a clear, structured mindset.
What about the pulls and pressures of family life, where the woman is the anchor – was the family supportive?
For women, our career clocks compete with our biological ones. At several points in my career, I had to take a step back: when I got married, had kids, etc. But then I always doubled down on my commitment and determination to get back on my career track without losing sight of my goals. It wasn’t easy, but I wanted to have it all – professional success and personal fulfilment. Of course, I was incredibly lucky to have a supportive family and workplace to help make that all possible. I have been very fortunate to have supportive parents at the beginning of my career. People generally assume that for women, career takes a major setback after the marriage, but I have only seen my career graph grow to new heights after marriage, thanks to my husband, in-laws and my lovely daughters who believed in my potential and gave wings to my dreams.
Often projects demand stays away from home. How is that experience?
I have travelled a lot locally, within India and abroad during by career and that is the best phase because what customers and market can teach you, no one else can. At a personal level, it had been challenging at times to manage the home remotely, but as I said earlier, my family had always been supportive, so I could tackle it efficiently.
Any regrets about the career choice and did you ever wish you had chosen another?
There was a time after my second daughter’s birth when I thought of leaving the job and try for something of my own like coaching of maths, which was my passion so that I can devote more time for my family, but it didn’t work out. Then came another option of searching for a new job but obviously after a one-year break, it is difficult as I had to join at a lesser package, but workplace near to home was my first priority.
Have you ever missed a career opportunity of promotion due to the gender?
I don’t think I have missed a career opportunity or promotion due to the gender. But I had to compromise while choosing the job as I had to join at a lesser package but workplace near to home was my first priority.
Have things changed for the better for women at work today in the corporate sector?
Yes, I had to overcome quite a few gender barriers during my career. During the earlier times, there was a great deal of difficulty to get the job for lady engineers due to reluctance of acceptance of ladies in a corporate setup. I was the first lady engineer to join in both the organisations during my career and I had to prove myself at every step. During my second job, I was reporting to a person who had problem in talking to ladies and he was not ready to share anything with me. I still remember the day when I cried so badly because of his rude behaviour but luckily other seniors understood his behaviour and changed my hierarchy to avoid that person. While doing my job I had to learn quickly not to take comments or criticism personally, be it my clothes or lipstick. Being part of a minority in the engineering sector and especially the sales department, I felt I was different, which eventually led me to work harder and push myself to new limits. Yet, this continuous pressure allowed me to grow as person. It’s very easy for the young girls these days as they have lot of opportunities which were non-existent when I started my career.
Are there areas at work that still restrict women when it comes to leadership role?
Why not? It’s a men’s world and there are many people who don’t want to work under women and their ego comes in the way. There are many areas where leadership roles are restricted for women like production, sales, etc. However, being a woman in the engineering sector can also bring benefits. Any minority group stands out and is therefore spotted much quicker within an organisation, which is advantageous for networking. This consequently helped me to complete my tasks in a more efficient way and I am sure this would not have been the case if I were a man.
What would be your message to the youth, your children for that matter, in career choices?
Do not let anyone tear your confidence down, especially not yourself. Try and try again. You can do so much more than you think you can. Don’t be afraid to ask more questions and be afraid to fail. Failure just makes your success so much sweeter. Follow your passion and excel in whatever you do. Work honestly, work hard, work with full dedication and success will follow you but don’t forget your roots.
If asked to sum up your life and career in just three words, what would that be?
For me, defining my career in three words is Work Work Work!
Meenu Batra, Key Account Head for India at Phoenix Contact, currently manages several global accounts including Schneider, Siemens, General Electric, ABB to name a few. She has earned a B.Tech degree in Electrical Engineering from NIT Kurukshetra University. Her career started in Contracts with C&S Electric, where she worked for 11 years. Her drive and kindness along with a clear mindset make her a wonderful asset to the team. Meenu practices Yoga in daily life and gives health top priority, and hence healthy diet cooking is her favourite activity of the day.
.jpg)
