Great. So thank you all for joining this, navigating your career, getting the driver seat session with uh myself and Aisha. I am Shinda. I am a customer success uh manager at Palo Alto Networks. I've been with Palo for over a year now.How, however, I've been with the tech industry for over 15 plus years. And as I mentioned, I have got my colleague here as well. Aisha Mahmud Aisha, over to you.

Hi, everyone. Welcome. Thank you so much. Um You know, for attending this session. I'm really excited today to talk about, you know, navigating your career uh with Shilpi, I'm um uh the director of engineering on a Central UX team at Palo Alto Networks and I joined a year and a half ago before that I worked for Apple for roughly 7.5 years. Um And before that I was on the East Coast uh working for various different companies. I've always been in the engineering field uh for roughly 16 plus years. Um And I'm passionate about giving back um anything that I learned um throughout my career journey, sharing that with um all the other wonderful women and men. Um So having said that I, I guess we can dive right in. Um, so, so taking charge of your career, you know, getting in the driver's seat, what does that mean? Um, I, without trying to give my age away, I'll say when I graduated, uh, in next year I had no idea what that means. I, I couldn't, I was very short sighted. I would say I was thinking of my next steps. Uh I guess majority of us try to think what's next, what do we want to do next?

And so I didn't have any idea that I should think big or think, you know, 10 years ahead. Um So I'd, I really learned that over the years that, you know, thinking big, you, you must have a career vision and that vision should be created without any obstacles. Um or, you know, minusing all the unknowns. So that's like your passion. Where do you wanna be? So when I really learned it, um I was like, what are my strengths and my gifts? You know, because I was focusing more on my weaknesses. What am I bad at? I guess naturally human beings want to, you know, think about, OK, what, what do I need to improve on? What am I bad at? So I started thinking about my strengths and gifts and I attended a bunch of conferences and this is an idea that I got from, from there. And when I started thinking about my career vision, I thought I wanna uh be on an island and I want to, you know, maybe like sip pina coladas all day long and just enjoy and relax. Um So I was like, ok, how can I get that kind of money that I will be on an island or maybe I can own that tiny little piece of island, you know, one or two acres.

Um So I started thinking and that's how I formed my career vision. So I'm just giving you tips on how, how to think big uh remove from your mind, any obstacles, anything that that information that you might not have uh yet. So once you have that career vision, convert that vision into actionable tangible items. So how do I get to my, you know, island? It's not possible right now. Um So definitely I need to be at a level where I'm making tons of money or saving or having some investments that I can have some passive income. So from there, I created little task for myself that, ok, maybe I need to be in leadership, maybe I need to look at the C suite. And so I'm just giving you examples and your career journey might be very different career vision. Uh Some people are happy in less, some people are happy in more. So based on that you will determine actionable tangible items. Um And you'll determine those as a year once you have like a 20 year or whatever, career vision, then you'll break it down to 10, 516 months and then weekly and then daily. So you will really do this in a Google doc. OK.

So I really believe in visuals. I believe that the day you put something on a paper in front of you, you can start thinking about is this really what you want when it's in your head and it's not connected visually in front of you. It's really uh you know, uh it, it, it's like, you know, you, you don't think of it every day, but if it's visually in front of you, um and every performance cycle, you can look at it and say, hey, I'm do, am I going in the right direction? It'll, it'll be very helpful. Um So, you know, build a variety of skills. I didn't as a software engineer, I focus too much on my, you know, tech stack uh javascript Java C++. But when I say, build a variety of skills, I'm talking about all skills. Um And as you grow into leadership and management, you realize that soft skills are more important than your technical skills and don't get me wrong. Technically being a ninja is very important but soft skills become more obvious and, and um at that level um but they, they are needed at all levels, of course. Um And then think of your career as a jungle gym, don't think of it as a ladder, right? Think parallel moves, think transitions, think uh you know, being creating um a variety of skills, don't wait for your manager to provide you growth opportunities, don't, you know, plug yourself into projects like I have one on ones with people that I'm either mentoring or I'm getting mentored by or coached by and uh within the company.

And I try to plug myself and have a quick value add that expands your visibility, that expands your um network. So identify your accel accelerators and your roadblocks. Um This is very important because I feel like we only think about obstacles and roadblocks because that's where we need problem solving. But your accelerators are really important too because your accelerators are the ones that are going to give you headway. Um So having that is very important.

I, I remember I was at a conference once and a lady said, you know, whenever you wanna do something, there's an itty bitty shitty committee in your head, that's gonna say no, no, you can't do this or there's this problem that you cannot overcome. So be mindful of that committee. So with that, I know I went a little over time um over to Shelby to talk more about what are the other things that you can do to get in the driver's seat?

Great, thanks. Thank you, Aisha. Um So, no, some great points. But from my side, if you feel that personal branding is one of those key areas of uh one of the key important areas to focus on in your career journey. Um What is personal banding? It is, you know, as you know, is this is the process of actually creating an identity for yourself. And it is super, super important because your perceived value is directly linked to your brand. So it is very important to understand, you know, what is your brand? What are your co core values? What are you known for? You know, what you want to be perceived as means? Are you known for your positivity? Are you perceived as, you know, um having integrity, you're seen as a credible person and, and it's not just about yourself, you know, about knowing your brand, but do others see same as you, do people think as you as that person, as you think of yourself as, as you know, as having those brand brand items.

Now, in order to understand that it is very important to, for you to look inwards and outwards, when I say in words, you know, to identify your brand, it's important to look at your core values. What are the things you relate to look outwards, look at things like, you know, different professional sites in linkedin, things like strength finder, look uh ask for feedback from people to understand, you know, what actually is your brand, how people perceive you, you know, and how you can build on that brand.

And it's not not, it's and it's also not just about knowing your brand, it could also be about, you know, what you want your brand to be, what you want to be known as, right? So for that, just look around, you see, you know, look at some of the people who people who inspire you, look at linkedin, look at people, you know what is, you know, you know, people with the kind of skills you want people, you know, the band you're aspiring to be like, you know, people who ha who are, who are the role models for those brands, what qualities of skills they have, you know, what are people saying about them and then try to incorporate that in your, you know, daily uh dealings also like, you know, um Aisha mentioned earlier, it's, it's not just about obstacles and looking at your weaknesses.

I think the key here is to look at your strengths, you know, identify what your core strengths are. So rather than looking at your weaknesses and saying, OK, you know, this is my weakness, this gap I need to build. But instead of that, look at your strengths because they are already inherent in you and build on those. And of course, you know, make yourself visible. It's important to network volunteers to engage. So make your brand visible and you know, expand your horizons. Another thing I see, you know, we, we did touch upon the um you know, uh getting feedback about your brain or getting feedback about yourself. But why, why, you know, what's the purpose of getting feedback, feedback actually helps to, helps you to achieve your goals, you know, achieving goals requires frequent targeted feedback. So the more input you get from the others, you know about yourselves about equality of work, the more, you know, you'll have a better understanding and clarity in terms of what areas you need to improve on. You know, it is very, very easy to have a view about ourselves. Like, you know, we have a certain perception about ourselves, but then we have a limited view. So it's always good to have an external view, you know, external feedback.

So you get that completed picture, it's always a good practice to ask for feedback as well because it, it actually increases your sense of status certainty and control autonomy. When I say a sense of status, it makes you, you know, when you ask for feedback, it actually makes you appear as appear as like you being more curious, you know, you're open to learning, you're willing to grow, it increases your sense of certainty because, you know, you are get a clear sense of, you know, your performance goals and where you need to improve.

Um you know, it's a targeted view and then increased sense of control because you know, it is your choice to ask for your feed, ask for the feedback. So, you know, asking feedback is good and don't take feed, look at feedback as being a criticism, you know, people tend to have this negative feeling around feedback. See, look at it more as like an opportunity to learn and grow and, and like I said, you know, it's good to have that, you know, uh proactiveness around it. So practically ask for feedback rather than waiting for people to give you feedback, ask for it, make it, make it a habit of asking feedback and then reflecting on it, you know, and identify the opportunities, you know, based on the feedback, look at the opportunities what you need to change, whether it's like, you know, changing in certain behaviors.

And then based on that, you know, maybe take into account one or two things which you need to do more or do less and then try to apply that, you know, in, in a specific period of time, let's for a week or two so that it becomes a habit and also make sure that the feedback is not just limited one or two persons, you know, it, it's always good to have multiple data points.

Look for feedback from outside of your team, outside your, you know, um of your department, organization, even outside your company, you know, you can ask for feedback from friends and families. It's, it's, it is that, you know, you know, everybody has a different perception about you and of course, people have different experiences and different takes on things. So when you get that feedback from multiple different sources, you know, you get a complete view and complete picture which always, you know, will help you to move forward and improve in your career. So always good to have a 360 degree feedback. Um Again, receiving feedback is great, but giving feedback is good as well. So it is give and take. However, you know, um when you're giving feedback, be mindful of, you know, um that people, you know how people, how people perceive the feedback. So feedbacks could be um usually it has got that negative, negative connotation around it. You know, people get very defensive judgmental, you see that as a criticism. So when you're giving feedback, make sure you are aware of that, aware of that flight and fight response and these reactions.

So use positive and encouraging language state, what you know, people have done, the person has done right and follow up with the areas of opportunity. So I'll say, you know, take that build on, think about approach or build on what are their strengths, what are they doing well and think about, you know, what they can improve on and also make sure that the feedback is timely as well because if it's not timely, then it's of not, it won't be of much value.

So I guess over to you, ASHA, next one.

Awesome. Thank you, Shilpi. That's amazing. And don't get feedback when you're angry I've done that and it does not work very well. Um True. So the, the next um, topic is managing up, down and sideways. Um, this, you know, leans a little bit into my point that don't wait for your manager to, uh, approach you and give opportunities. Um I think I will talk in terms of whe when you are um in a job and let's say, you know, your manager is giving you, you know, projects and you have one on ones, make those very meaningful, understand your uh company's goals, understand your team's goals, understand your manager's goals and then align those with your goals, right?

So that's why it's somebody said to me, hey, Aisha, people choose company, you know, or the people choose team, you know, they don't choose the role. So you, you, when I was working for Apple, I thought I was, you know, working for the greatest company on the planet. And we were, you know, changing the world for better. And so that's the kind of uh vision, you know, if it aligns with your vision and the values of the company, if they align with yours, that's a better environment for you. So once you are in that environment, uh and I know when we are just starting off our career journey, we may not have that many choices to choose. But as we grow in our career, we should become picky. So um because having a positive environment where you can thrive, uh you know, is very important, so align your goals, um communicate often and clearly. So, you know, communicate to your manager, what your needs are, um you know, and communicate to them um what your strengths are and, and you know, ask them if you can help. Um there's no faster way to grow than to understand your manager, their pain points and take that stuff off of their plate. Um That way you become dependable, you add quick value and you will get your um goal as well be comfortable with the uncomfortable.

I was the kind of person who likes structure and I do not thrive in or I did not thrive in chaos right now. My job is all about chaos. So how did I make that journey? I, I started to become comfortable with the uncomfortable. I started to think in the moment that OK, what do I have control over? Let's focus on that first so I can calm down. Um And then after that, I'll approach, you know what? I don't have control over and try to see who can I tap into who is in my network and help me solve that problem. Add surprise and delight to your work. So we, this was a phrase used a lot at Apple um which actually means that you do your job, you know, to the best of your abilities if you've given a task. And after that, think of how you can add some surprise and delight. How can you make it even better? How can you add some surprise that people weren't expecting from you or expecting from that task? But it, it was something that you did as a value add. Um And remember there are only so many hours in the day, so you won't be able to do that with all projects. So remember the the main top priority goals on your team, you can do that. Uh This kind of surprise and delight for those.

Um So the only thing constant is change. I like to say this because change is good when we have fear. Uh And we have like these uncertainty feelings in our heart, that means that we are becoming uncomfortable. Now, we need to be comfortable with that. And that means that we're growing. So nothing comes without fear and uh without, you know, some strong feelings generating in yourself. So be be very self aware. Um provide value add to cross functional teams. This is very important. I put it here because when I was uh you know, starting my career, I just wanted to sit behind a black screen and not interact with people. Um So that's why I became a backend engineer. No hitting on the vacuum engineers, but I loved it. Um I realized that today in any job, you cannot get away with not interacting with people. You may you be a backend engineer, full stack So real quickly start engaging with cross functional teams, you know, um ask them what their pain points are for engineers. It, it might be Q A for um some other function area. It might be another function area where you uh overlap or connect. So try to go outside of your own um functional area and reach out to people learn about what they're doing. Um This helps you build your network which Shilpi is gonna talk on the next slide. So I'm not gonna give away too much and then someone had a very good point, find yourself a coach.

Um So people see it as a luxury or nice to have that you have a mentor coach or a sponsor. But if your career vision is really big, then I have not seen anybody make it to the C suite without a mentor or a coach. Almost all people as, as soon as they get to senior director level, they, they have a coach or they have uh a mentor. And this is something that I learned over the past few months that you could actually have a sponsor, uh which is a little different than a mentor and coach. This individual. It has, you know, a good network. So VP and above. Um and they are actually vested in your success. They know that you are a very uh ambitious and, and thorough and detailed individual and they are vested in your uh success and they can connect you with the right projects and provide those opportunities for you to grow. So, with that, I will hand it over to um Shilpi. Um I do want to wrap up by saying, so managing your manager and managing, you know, s up, down sideways, just means being aware of your surroundings that you are part of a larger ship. So don't just focus on yourself and, and get so narrow minded but be like open and, and think of people around you.

Great. Thank you, Asher some great points there. Um Just to wrap up, you've um this slide, we're just going to highlight some of the key takeaways, some, some of the actions you can actually act on once you leave this conference. Um As the first step, I'll say, you know, create a career plan with a clear vision, find your North Star, you know what your goal is and work to start working towards that. Um Make sure you sign up for a mentor, as I should mentioned, you know, um a mentor could be internal or external, you know, it can be from within your organization, but you can also seek out mentors from outside of your organization or, you know, outside of your immediate circle as well.

You can leverage linkedin or other professional sites for that. Um Make sure you, you know, we talked about the brand, so make sure you know, your personal brand, brand and what your strengths are um there are many apps and tools out there which can help you identify that besides, you know, things we already talked about. But in terms, especially in terms of strengths, you can use things like, you know, Clifton strengths finder and you know, there are other tools as well. Uh So identify your strengths and then build on those and the nose once you know your strengths, update your resume and reflect your new findings, you know, um make sure you highlight your strengths uh there and feedback. We talked about feedback, I think, which is very, very key and it has worked really well in my life in terms of my career progression, as well as improving, you know, for me to improve and learn as a person as well. Um So ask a few people feedback, you know, ask things like what to do more of what to do less of what are you doing, you know, great. What are you doing? Not so great and how you can improve on that and expand your network.

You know, you can, you know, make, make promise for yourself maybe to attend one networking event per month. There are many websites which actually, you know, it can be something which can be organized by your organization, your your friends or, you know, or people in your media circle.

But then there are some, you know, external websites like meet up and city social, different things that you can leverage to uh network and also make sure, you know, uh like, you know, I should mention be comfortable with the uncomfortable. So, you know, put yourself out there, you know, volunteer, volunteer for something outside your com outside of your comfort zone. You know, you can even volunteer for conferences like this. So, you know, put yourself out there, you know, make yourself com comfortable with the uncomfortable and you'll see, you know, yourself thriving and moving forward. So as I said, like, you know, just a few points here, this is not an exhaustive list, of course, just to, just to give, you know, this is just to give you some starting points to start, you know, driving and navigating your career. So, so yeah, but all the best and um I think that's it. So thank you so much and uh we're open to any questions if you have any and before we do that, aisha, any any closing comments, actually,

I, I just wanna share something personal from my life. Um I think being in the right environment is very important. Um You want to stay motivated, right? Especially if you're an ambitious person, which means that you are really committed to your dreams and uh your career vision.

Um No, the environment you're in, not every environment is meant for everyone. So I was living in Pakistan, I was the tallest girl in my class. That was my weakness. I was really bullied her around that and I was, you know, I always thought that that was a bad thing until I arrived in the US. And then suddenly that was my strength and that was something good about me. So if you're in the wrong environment, your strengths can be perceived as your weaknesses. So be aware of where you are and not every manager is meant to manage all personality types as well. I'll say this and managers really get furious. But yeah, we are all humans, we have human emotions and you know, if I'm very detailed and someone is not very detailed and they're, they're making, you know, tiny errors all day. I will have a perceived bias around that. So be aware of your, your biases and be aware of your environment. And remember at the end of the day, we are human beings with, with our natural emotions and at work, we're always dealing with that. I know in the in the nineties, people were like, oh no work and uh you know, personal life separate. No, you bring yourself at work and with COVID, we saw that we are all, you know, basically just no lines between work and and and personal life.

So you bring yourself to work and everybody brings themselves to work with the emo human emotions that they're experiencing for that very day. So be empathetic with yourself and others and just be aware of that. Any questions I'm looking for. Any questions in the chat. All right.

Some people really liked, um, our session. Yeah, I'm really glad you all liked it. Um, and I'm, I hope that you can take some of this and turn it into actionable and tangible items. So we're around if you wanna come on, uh, you know, audio or video, ask questions, feel free to do so. Ok, we have, um, a question Sam, um, regarding the feedback tip about stating the positive. First, I heard con conflicting opinions about this um that the sandwich feedback is an old style and we shouldn't hide the real feedback between two layers of you're doing good. Um So I think the idea is not to do sandwich. I agree with the sandwich approach because as soon as I do sandwich with my kids, they're like mom, you're doing that thing again. So people quickly figure out that you're doing the sandwich. I think the idea is that once if I tell someone, hey, you know, Shilpi, I have some feedback for you immediately. I don't know, depending on your personality, I'll be like, oh my God, what is it like? Is it bad? Is it good? So what you want to avoid is using words that generate that peak emotion on someone because when you generate peak emotion in someone, you already lost them, anything you say after that they're either gonna fight it or flight it.

So the idea is that you make it uh in a nonthreatening or nonviolent communication that they can absorb it and they can actually hear. What are you asking them to do? Does that answer your question? Ok. There's a question in Q and A. Um, so there are several questions in Q and A. Um,

oh, and there are many in chat as well, actually. Oh, ok.

Shelby. Do you wanna take some of these?

Yeah, I'm just going through these now. Um,

oh, looks like those are generic. But um let's see,

I see, see him, but I think you've already answered that. So.

Ok. Yeah. And some of the folks in, in, in the chat are saying they're new in, in a field. Um And they're just starting in their career. So this, I, I feel like you're at this conference, um you know, attending this session, you're already at the right place. You're already doing the right stuff. So I, you know, kudos to you. Uh I had no idea when I first had my first job, I was very focused on the job, but this is great. Yeah, be part of conferences because you can take away, you know, tiny pieces of uh or nuggets of wisdom that you can use throughout your life. Someone also asked, how do you have a framework of working on your core values? Shelby, do you have any ideas on that? I personally just brainstorm and, and put, put it on the paper and uh Palo Alto offers a lot of great uh training programs on just, you know, figuring out who you are, you, what are your core values as a leader? Um

I, I think personally means I usually take, you know, I do use the feedback technique to understand the core values, but then I also use strength, you know, I've used some, you know, tools like strengths finder as well just to get a better view, you know, different, different views as well from that side.

So, um but yeah, usually I'll go for the feedback and then combination of, you know, formal feedback and informal feedback, you know, um and then using the tools like strength finder.

Awesome. Yeah, I, I feel like um YYYY, you're, you're so it's funny like I put my um core values as empathy and after one of the trainings, I'm like, oh yeah, I'm uh you know, that's my core value and I think I'm, I wanna be empathetic and when I asked feedback from my direct reports, they rated me like maybe 25% empathetic.

So you perceive a perspective so you can be like, you know, thinking about yourself um uh you know, in, in whatever way, but your perceived value is very important because, you know, at the end of the day, what you think about yourself is important to give you motivation and keep you positive.

But what others think is also the opportunity for you to, you know, fill those gaps and improve.

Definitely. And also it's really important, that's why to get multiple views and multiple feedbacks, you know, don't, don't build your vision about your core values from just, you know, one source. I think it's important to get insider inputs from different people, different apps, different tools to actually then decide, OK, these and, and of course your understanding of yourself as well to decide. OK. These are my co values, these are my strengths.

Yeah. Yeah. And so there was a question in, in um chad that can anyone with non technical background, use the tool. I'm not sure which tool someone is talking about. But um yeah, I mean, so, so first of all, a Palo Alto Networks uh is a company that makes products. Um And so there are non technical roles and there are technical roles. We make products for cybersecurity. So if you fit at any level in this, in the product development or sales, you know, process, you have a place at Palo Alto Networks. I do recommend that you check out our careers page. Um And then if you're um doing one thing, please use this special link to submit your resume because this way your resume will be tagged. Um You know, it will have priority, it will be tagged through um the conference. So please submit your resume through that, then go look at our careers page and find yourself opportunities and, and apply. Um I think we, we kind of addressed all questions here.

Yeah, it looks like I, I can't see any new questions. So I think we, I've covered everything.

Awesome. Any last thoughts? All right, I guess we can wrap up. So, yeah, do remember to give us a linkedin connect. I dropped the link in in the chat and you know, apply through, submit your resume through this special link that I just posted. Um and then check out our careers page.

Great. So I think we can wrap up, but thank you all. Thank you for joining. It's been very

wonderful bunch of

people. Yeah, definitely

awesome. I'm finding the leave button.

So right at the top, I think, top right hand side. So,

yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Thank you all. Thank you everyone. It was lovely uh that you joined and lovely talking. Uh Take care. Bye.

Catch you on linkedin. Thanks bye.