How Two Cisco Girls Leaned In and Supercharged Their Careers

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How Two Cisco Girls Leaned In and Supercharged Their Careers

06/24/2023

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World Girls in Engineering Day supplies us with the chance to acknowledge the paintings and achievements of ladies engineers all the world over. Lately I have a good time all of our Cisco Girls in Engineering by means of spotlighting two ordinary ladies, Priya Aiyer and Christelle Mombo-Zigah. Each proportion their profession trips, together with their enjoy collaborating in Cisco’s Exemplar Various Feminine Mentee program which has been backed by means of Cisco SVP and Common Supervisor Alistair Wildman and can proceed underneath Cisco SVP Buyer Enjoy (CX) Americas Harry Caldwell.

Priya Aiyer: A keenness for procedure development

Priya Aiyer is a Gadget Engineering Chief who has been a era chief for greater than 15 years at Cisco. She started her profession in India as a other folks chief and transitioned to customer-facing visitor enjoy roles in the USA. With a focal point on era transformation and products and services, she supported shoppers throughout provider suppliers, enterprises, and the general public sector. Later, she moved to Gross sales management. Cisco is a corporation that gives many careers, and Priya has skilled those in her adventure.

“I knew I used to be serious about a customer-facing function, however on the industry unit, I used to be restricted in what I may just do,” says Priya.

Priya at all times knew that she sought after to land a customer-facing function. Her interest for procedure development, for addressing gaps and for offering end-to-end answers was once identified with a supply excellence award. She is an energetic member of Girls of Cisco and lately, she leads the Chicago bankruptcy of the Girls in Science and Engineering. The inclusive group is fascinated with making a sure have an effect on within the lives of girls and women in STEM fields outside and inside of Cisco. She is captivated with supporting ladies early of their careers and connecting them to alternatives.

Participation in Cisco’s SVP and Common Supervisor Alistair Wildman’s mentee program a great deal expanded Priya’s community. As part of the mentee program, Priya and different mentees had been presented to every of the senior management crew contributors and she or he’s thankful to have had the chance to listen to from senior executives about their management trips.

“Once I consider mentoring and sponsoring, it’s a adventure,” says Priya.

“Each and every of the mentors gave me a distinct point of view and shared treasured nuggets that helped me increase my very own point of view and helped me in my management adventure,” she added.

Christelle Mombo-Zigah: A life-long learner

Christelle is a Buyer Good fortune Americas Regional Chief who has labored at Cisco for 9 of her 15 years as a certified. Christelle started her profession in France the place she was once born and raised and labored in a couple of industries, together with luxurious items, shopper items, and banking. She began her adventure in era at Cisco Meraki for 4 years earlier than transferring to Gartner. She then returned to Cisco to sign up for M&A integration. She later discovered her present house in Buyer Enjoy (CX). Her first function in CX was once as a Good fortune Program Supervisor in GES West earlier than being promoted to the function of Buyer Good fortune Americas Regional Chief.

With greater than 15 years of enjoy in gross sales, industry building, M&A integration, and visitor enjoy in quite a lot of industries, Christelle has taken good thing about a large number of skilled building alternatives at Cisco and past.

Having at all times seen her profession as that of a normal supervisor, Christelle knew that what she wanted was once to be told from other industry purposes, build up her management abilities, her visibility, and publicity. She participated in Cisco’s Subsequent Technology Chief program designed to assist underrepresented minorities broaden management abilities. She additionally participated within the corporate’s Soar Girls’s Management Program, the Government Shadow Program yearly and within the Multiplier Impact, which leverages sponsorship to foster range and inclusion and boost up the pipeline of numerous ability inside the tech trade.

She was once additionally an energetic member of the Attached Black Skilled (CBP) worker useful resource group (ERO), the place she served as a co-lead of the San Jose bankruptcy. She then joined the Girls of Cisco San Jose Bankruptcy management crew along side the Accountable AI committee to align her paintings, values, and function. During the CBP, she has mentored 10 to twelve early-in-career pros yearly to present again, elevate as she climbs, and broaden her other folks’s management abilities. Serving as a mentor additionally provides her a chance to grasp what her personal mentors be expecting from her.

A lifelong learner, Christelle finished Stanford’s LEAD program, an government training program in the course of the Stanford Graduate College of Trade (Stanford GSB) the place she now serves as a path facilitator. This system proved to be a transformative enjoy for her. She due to this fact introduced inventions at Cisco to resolve issues impacting visitor enjoy thru provide chain and cross-functional alignment and was once 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 on your long run and imagine 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 other verticals in addition to in industrial in consequence.”

2. Be daring and brave.

When Cisco’s SVP of International Buyer Enjoy Alistair Wildman joined the Americas from the EMEA area in 2018, Christelle reached out as a fellow Ecu dwelling in the USA, to welcome him to Cisco’s Americas crew and to let him know that she loved his All-Fingers assembly. She additionally made positive to proportion her paintings in Buyer Good fortune International Undertaking Gross sales West by means of cross-functionally aligning visitor luck, gross sales, and renewals. She additionally shared her two inventions. Later, she was once nominated to take part in Alistair’s Exemplar Various Feminine Mentee program in addition to Gross sales Champions 2022.

3. With mentors or sponsors, attempt to make the dialog as really useful for them as it’s for you.

“When you have a mentor, at all times summarize what you be informed and ship a thanks word,” says Priya.

“At all times apply up and proportion your learnings. Proportion your point of view and your takeaways from the ones conversations. Essentially the most important is to be intentional along with your dating along with your mentors and sponsors. This may occasionally pass a ways.”

4. Focal point on sponsors, no longer simply mentors.

“Maximum of my sponsors have come in the course of the Government Shadow program wherein I shadowed and added worth,” stated Christelle. “One in every of our executives was once new. I used to be operating in M&A so I may just proportion insights on Cisco tradition, and our acquisitions integrations working type [with him].”

Other from mentors, sponsors, “will use [their] personal capital to suggest in your behalf so you wish to have to be in a trusting dating so that they’re going to constitute you neatly and suggest for you while you’re no longer [in the room],” she persevered.

“Finally, you’ll reinforce your skillsets thru on-line studying by way of Coursera [and] LinkedIn Studying however tapping into the connection you broaden with a sponsor two ranges above your personal is a useful asset with an amazing have an effect on in your profession.

5. Make your paintings visual and get as concerned as conceivable with plenty of methods.

“[There are] many elements you’ll’t regulate however having a sponsor in a job advocating for you, pronouncing you must be regarded as is maximum essential,” says Christelle.

“One important program I participated in was once the Government Shadow program. It helped me in finding my mentors who then was my sponsors. Get as concerned as conceivable with those methods. Benefit from those to be told, broaden your abilities, and construct relationships at Cisco.”