Worldwide Girls in Engineering Day offers us with the chance to acknowledge the work and achievements of ladies engineers all internationally. At present I have fun all of our Cisco Girls in Engineering by spotlighting two extraordinary girls, Priya Ayer and Christelle Mombo-Zigah. Each share their profession journeys, together with their expertise collaborating in Cisco’s Exemplar Numerous Feminine Mentee program which has been sponsored by Cisco SVP and Common Supervisor Alistair Wildman and can proceed below Cisco SVP Buyer Expertise (CX) Americas Harry Caldwell.
Priya Ayer: A ardour for course of enchancment
Priya Aiyer is a System Engineering Chief who has been a know-how chief for greater than 15 years at Cisco. She started her profession in India as a folks chief and transitioned to customer-facing buyer expertise roles in america. With a concentrate on know-how transformation and companies, she supported clients throughout service suppliers, enterprises, and the general public sector. Later, she moved to Gross sales management. Cisco is an organization that gives many careers, and Priya has skilled these in her journey.
“I knew I used to be keen on a customer-facing position, however on the enterprise unit, I used to be restricted in what I may do,” says Priya.
Priya at all times knew that she wished to land a customer-facing position. Her ardour for course of enchancment, for addressing gaps and for offering end-to-end options was acknowledged with a supply excellence award. She is an energetic member of Girls of Cisco and presently, she leads the Chicago chapter of the Girls in Science and Engineering. The inclusive group is targeted on making a optimistic affect within the lives of ladies and women in STEM fields inside and outdoors of Cisco. She is captivated with supporting girls early of their careers and connecting them to alternatives.
Participation in Cisco’s SVP and Common Supervisor Alistair Wildman’s mentee program significantly expanded Priya’s community. As part of the mentee program, Priya and different mentees had been launched to every of the senior management staff members and he or she’s grateful to have had the chance to listen to from senior executives about their management journeys.
“After I take into consideration mentoring and sponsoring, it’s a journey,” says Priya.
“Every of the mentors gave me a unique perspective and shared beneficial nuggets that helped me broaden my very own perspective and helped me in my management journey,” she added.
Christelle Mombo-Zigah: A life-long learner
Christelle is a Buyer Success Americas Regional Chief who has labored at Cisco for 9 of her 15 years as an expert. Christelle started her profession in France the place she was born and raised and labored in a number of industries, together with luxurious items, client items, and banking. She began her journey in know-how at Cisco Meraki for 4 years earlier than shifting to Gartner. She then returned to Cisco to affix M&A integration. She later discovered her present dwelling in Buyer Expertise (CX). Her first position in CX was as a Success Program Supervisor in GES West earlier than being promoted to the position of Buyer Success Americas Regional Chief.
With greater than 15 years of expertise in gross sales, enterprise improvement, M&A integration, and buyer expertise in numerous industries, Christelle has taken benefit of quite a few skilled improvement alternatives at Cisco and past.
Having at all times seen her profession as that of a common supervisor, Christelle knew that what she wanted was to study from completely different enterprise features, enhance her management abilities, her visibility, and publicity. She participated in Cisco’s Subsequent Technology Chief program designed to assist underrepresented minorities develop management abilities. She additionally participated within the firm’s Soar Girls’s Management Program, the Government Shadow Program yearly and within the Multiplier Impact, which leverages sponsorship to foster variety and inclusion and speed up the pipeline of numerous expertise inside the tech trade.
She was additionally an energetic member of the Related Black Skilled (CBP) worker useful resource group (ERO), the place she served as a co-lead of the San Jose chapter. She then joined the Girls of Cisco San Jose Chapter management staff together with the Accountable AI committee to align her work, values, and objective. By the CBP, she has mentored 10 to 12 early-in-career professionals yearly to offer again, elevate as she climbs, and develop her folks’s management abilities. Serving as a mentor additionally offers her a possibility to grasp what her personal mentors anticipate from her.
A lifelong learner, Christelle accomplished Stanford’s LEAD program, an govt training program by means of the Stanford Graduate Faculty of Enterprise (Stanford GSB) the place she now serves as a course facilitator. This system proved to be a transformative expertise for her. She subsequently launched improvements at Cisco to unravel issues impacting buyer expertise by means of provide chain and cross-functional alignment and was quickly promoted.
Wish to supercharge your profession? Use Priya and Christelle’s 5 key takeaways
1. Have a transparent imaginative and prescient.
“Be intentional. Know your passions. Make your plan. Have a imaginative and prescient in your future and consider in it and the universe will conspire to make it occur,” advises Priya. “This program has helped me construct my mentorship tree. I’ve mentors and sponsors throughout completely different verticals in addition to in industrial consequently.”
2. Be daring and brave.
When Cisco’s SVP of World Buyer Expertise Alistair Wildman joined the Americas from the EMEA area in 2018, Christelle reached out as a fellow European dwelling in america, to welcome him to Cisco’s Americas staff and to let him know that she loved his All-Arms assembly. She additionally made certain to share her work in Buyer Success World Enterprise Gross sales West by cross-functionally aligning buyer success, gross sales, and renewals. She additionally shared her two improvements. Later, she was nominated to take part in Alistair’s Exemplar Numerous Feminine Mentee program in addition to Gross sales Champions 2022.
3. With mentors or sponsors, attempt to make the dialog as useful for them as it’s for you.
“In case you have a mentor, at all times summarize what you study and ship a thanks word,” says Priya.
“At all times observe up and share your learnings. Share your perspective and your takeaways from these conversations. Essentially the most vital is to be intentional along with your relationship along with your mentors and sponsors. This can go a great distance.”
4. Give attention to sponsors, not simply mentors.
“Most of my sponsors have come by means of the Government Shadow program through which I shadowed and added worth,” stated Christelle. “One in all our executives was new. I used to be working in M&A so I may share insights on Cisco tradition, and our acquisitions integrations working mannequin [with him].”
Completely different from mentors, sponsors, “will use [their] personal capital to advocate in your behalf so you should be in a trusting relationship in order that they’ll characterize you properly and advocate for you if you’re not [in the room],” she continued.
“In any case, you may enhance your skillsets by means of on-line studying by way of Coursera [and] LinkedIn Studying however tapping into the connection you develop with a sponsor two ranges above your personal is a useful asset with an incredible affect in your profession.
5. Make your work seen and get as concerned as doable with quite a lot of packages.
“[There are] many elements you may’t management however having a sponsor in a task advocating for you, saying try to be thought of is most necessary,” says Christelle.
“One vital program I participated in was the Government Shadow program. It helped me discover my mentors who then grew to become my sponsors. Get as concerned as doable with these packages. Benefit from these to study, develop your abilities, and construct relationships at Cisco.”
When you’re trying to take the next step, discover your house at Cisco with
Assets
Take time to study extra about Cisco’s packages and communities:
Subsequent Technology Chief Program
Soar Girls’s Management Program,
Share:
