Chat with Vithya Kannapan: Women are great executors!

If you were to go to an engineering college today, you will often see electronics engineers being placed in software companies. You’d even find some of them complaining about a lack of core companies during placement season. But you will also see a few students, who’ve embraced the era of computer science and code. Take Vithya Kannapan, from SanDisk, for example.

Her love affair with coding started from her days as an intern. She said, “When I started as intern in a company, I got to know that in future, embedded software would be key for electronics systems and an electronics engineer would be incomplete without coding knowledge.”

This is Vithya Kannapan’s story.

“Women are good executors!”

Vithya is very logical. She says, “I always try to solve the problems logically and coding is in line with this. It is because of this that I love to code and implement functionality in devices or systems.”

Vithya loves seeing her code in production and being recognized. She says, “I converted some of my ideas into practical devices and systems using programming thus leading to some patents in SanDisk Inc., I felt most satisfied during these moments.”

Vithya believes that a lot of women are just as logical as their male counter parts. Being execution-driven, Vithya feels that computer science is her calling. She says, “Since women are precise in thinking and efficient in execution, the IT industry is the most suitable industry for them. I personally feel that being a woman I get motivated by new challenges everyday (both at work as well as at home) and solve them effectively.”

“Women are discouraged from technical work” 

A lot of women are discourage from taking up a career in technology. She says, “Despite excelling in school/college, women in India traditionally chose jobs that were not technical in fields like medicine and education as a career. However, in the last decade, there was a rise in the number of women who chose technical careers, thanks to the growing IT industry.  I am sure more women will be seen in the tech industry in the coming years.”

During her own journey, she’s faced adversity being a woman in tech. She says, “During the initial years of my career, I had a lot of challenges in balancing work and life. Especially the expectations from my family put a lot of pressure on me. At some point of time I decided to talk to family and explained the importance of my career. Eventually I got their full support.”

Learn, grow, and achieve 

Going forward, Vithya wants to be an experienced professional. She says, “I would like to excel in my technical knowledge as well as in managerial capabilities. In 10 years I would like to see myself as a technical director and manage complex projects.”

Her advice to young professionals is three-fold. She says:

• “Learn: Learn new things every day along with the technical and leadership skills necessary to be efficient in your job.
• Grow: Grow your career along with your team.
• Achieve: Exceed the expectations and achieve your goals quicker and smarter.