According to the World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Report 2021, women make up 14 percent and 20 percent of the total workforce in cloud computing and engineering, respectively. The stats speak for themselves.

On Women’s day, we look at the journey of Priya Kanduri, CTO and Vice President, Cyber Security Services at Happiest Minds Technologies. She comes with over 20 years of experience, having spent more than a decade at Happiest Minds Technologies and another decade at Wipro, in leadership positions in cybersecurity.

Love for mathematics

“It all started with my passion for mathematics. It was my favorite subject while in school. It led me to take up further studies in engineering. Back in those days, the idea of what computers could do in the future fascinated me and I wanted to be a part of that journey. Throughout my engineering days, I really enjoyed every subject of my computer science curriculum-software development , mathematical logic, algorithms. While pursuing engineering , the area of security also sparked my interest. The whole concept of cryptography fascinated me and this is what led me to the path of cybersecurity,” said Priya.

Solving people’s issues, technical issues, business problems of customers at different levels kept Priya going.

“Never in my career have I questioned if I am in the right field or I want to switch fields. Being a problem solver has been the motivation everyday for the past twenty years,” she said. 

Work-life balance

Though Priya feels she has been lucky in her career, she found it tough to strike the work-life balance. “I have two daughters and balancing work and motherhood, especially when my children were very young, was hard. I was in a client facing role and had to travel quite extensively. Though it may sound stereotypical, the constant doubt of whether I am giving my best both at home and work was hard to overcome,” said Priya.

Breaking Stereotypes

“Every conference I went to, every team I led, I was the only woman. The diversity discourse has come to the forefront in the last four five years. Breaking into a male dominated world, fighting my way in and marking my territory was challenging,” said Priya.

Priya won the “women in tech award” at the 19th Edition of Asia Pacific HRM Congress and Awards. She counts the award as a recognition of all the hard work she had put in. Representing HappiestMinds at the Red Herring Top 100 – APAC event at Bangkok was also a proud moment for Priya. “Every deal me or my team wins I consider it an achievement,” she added.

Priya is all for spreading awareness around the importance of women in STEM. STEM jobs are not for women is a myth, and should be debunked at the earliest, she said.

“This mentality has to be changed immediately. STEM jobs also pay very well and give  job security, growth, and financial stability. While deciding for a career that will span over 30-40 years, these are crucial factors. From the employer’s point of view, creating a friendly and encouraging environment is crucial,” she added.

Fixes

The field of cybersecurity is all about fixing things that are not yet broken. What does it take to become a good cybersecurity professional? Priya shares a few pointers:

  • Attention to details is key
  • Thinking on your feet and ability  to look at things holistically .
  • The desire and motivation to constantly learn as the field is ever changing. Keeping up with the trends and technologies and upgrading yourself is essential.
  • Think out of the box and have a hacker mentality.

Opportune time

There has never been a better time to be in cybersecurity. Cybersecurity is at the forefront of everything now. With hybrid work and rapid digitisation, investments are pouring in this space and it will remain so in the near future. 

One hack is all it takes to bring down a company.

Cybergurus on board

Earlier, boards mainly had financial gurus, then tech gurus came in and now companies are bringing in cybergurus. 

“In the future we will see more and more investments to make enterprises zero trust ready. Identity first is also going to be a big trend for the next couple of years. Entire concept of identity access management is going to be at the forefront. Data privacy, data protection and privacy enhanced computing into all areas of digital transformation will be a focus area as well,” Priya said.