When women become leaders, they form a united voice that speaks for entire generations of like-minded female professionals. Women who operate in management roles have the ability to create a supportive business environment, empower through mentorship and positively influence the professional performance of fellow women. In our quest to support women empowerment, we’ve challenged some of our colleagues in Oracle India to share the stories of their business path: the drive for career success, the challenges they faced in the IT male-dominated industry and their mentoring vision to other women technologists.

Meet Bindu Parvathy, Senior Manager Fincore Quality Assurance for Peoplesoft Enterprise FMS/ ESA, within Oracle India. 

Bindu is one of the many inspiring Oracle Women in tech that focus their efforts into fostering women empowerment in the workplace. She joined Oracle 11 years ago and today she manages a team of 10 members. When she steps out of the office, Bindu uses her time and energy for community service actions and cultural activities, but most of all she enjoys travelling across the country together with her family.

When it comes to her career choice, there’s no room to second-guessing.

“I have always been amazed by the power of technology and the way it influences our lives in many ways. Having worked in electrical design engineering and logistics, the natural progression for me was to be working in ERPs which make the businesses run better. It’s the fascination for efficient, cost-effective automated systems to run businesses that made me choose this career path”, she explains.

Think & Lead Like a Woman

Bindu admits that being a woman in a man-made and man-driven business like the IT sector, sometimes means going the extra-mile in proving yourself. “It’s harder to ‘make it’ as a woman. The biggest challenge women in tech face is that we tend to limit ourselves and do not realize the capabilities within us. We are capable of making it big in this industry provided we have faith in our abilities, drive to take us to the next level and work towards the same single mindedly.”

Furthermore, successful women like Bindu prove that striking a balance between career development and family time is possible when you learn to manage priorities. “Family is an important factor in our lives and how successfully we balance our family and work decides how far we are able to reach in our career aspirations”, Bindu believes.

“There are times when work takes a lot from you, and there are times when family needs you the most. The secret to being successful is in striking the right balance and have your priorities defined.”

Fortunately, as she further explains, working for Oracle means keeping that fragile balance in perfect shape.

“The reason many of us are with Oracle for such long tenures is because of the work/life balance that this organization offers us. What we bring to the table is the only yard-stick to measure the employee’s contribution and success.”

Grow By the Power of Example

The chances of succeeding in this business when you are provided mentorship and real-life examples from women in leadership roles are increasingly higher. That is why Bindu promotes mentorship and collaboration at all levels.

“I am always the first one to highlight and complement the good work done by the women who work by my side. I empathize with them since it’s not too hard to put myself in their place, and also have a word of advice for them whenever they ask me”, she continues.

As in any other business field, reputation, motivation and hard work altogether have the power to determine career success. Thinking or leading like a woman should no longer be negatively treated and perceived. On the contrary, as Bindu clearly points out, women in all roles, entry-level professionals to managers, all need to have faith in themselves and never shy away from having to prove their strength. Over and over again, if necessary.

Her advice?

“Sky is the limit if we believe in our capabilities. We need to drive ourselves towards the short term goals, network effectively with people and have clarity of thought on where we want to see ourselves in the next 3 years from now.”

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Oracle is Proud Silver Sponsor of the Grace Hopper Celebration India (GHCI) 2015 Conference.

The Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing is the World's largest gathering of women technologists.   

About the Author:

Passionate about turning simple ideas into creative stories. Truly in love with storytelling, Ramona Costea has been active in the media writing and publishing business for over 8 years. She is now a Copywriter for Oracle’s Global Recruiting department, where she continues to experiment with social media and improve content strategy. Her specialties include content writing, online marketing, employer branding and social media. 

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