Our Meet the Hiring Manager series allows you to get to know the people who grow teams at VMware. You’ll learn about our hiring managers’ career paths and what they look for in candidates during the interview process. This week we’d like you to meet Pragya Shrivastava.
Snapshot
- Job title: Engineering Manager
- Years at VMware: 10 months
- First job: Wipro Technologies as a project engineer
- Fun fact: I enjoy art, be it rangoli making, painting, salad decoration, or home decor; I like to present things beautifully. I love cooking and reading and am a true nature lover.
VMware Careers: Tell us about your career journey to date.
Pragya: I started my career with Wipro Technologies as a campus recruit in the telecom domain, and after that, I worked for a few other organisations, mainly in the telecom domain, which includes Nokia and Ericsson R&D. For about 15+ years, I had been working as a senior tech lead which is an entirely technical role.
The opportunity that came through VMware let me explore a new role as an engineering manager without any prior experience.
I am yet to complete a year in VMware, but I must admit my journey till now has been great as an engineering leader with lots of learning and support from the team.
VMware Careers: How is VMware different from any other tech company you have previously worked for?
Pragya: VMware’s culture is what makes it different from other companies.This is one of the best places I have ever seen where people work together to improve the product-customer experience, drive multiple new initiatives and work on continuous innovation. Here you will always find the support and encouragement to do new things. This makes me proud that I am part of this organisation that lives and breathes our EPIC2 values.
I am a first-time manager with VMware. I appreciate that they understood my aspiration, realised my potential, and allowed me to be part of VMware’s journey without any managerial experience. This shows how open, acceptable, and supportive the culture here is.
VMware Careers: What has been the biggest lesson you have learned as you advance in your career?
Pragya: No matter big or small, always try to create an impact with your work. Always think about how you can solve a problem to make others’ lives easier.
VMware Careers: Your team is hiring. Can you tell us more about your organization’s charter?
Pragya: vCenter Hybrid Platform Services (India) team is developing the next generation vCenter product portfolio, which will build foundational components that provide a familiar and consistent platform substrate that will allow VMware clouds to interoperate at a tenant level of abstraction seamlessly. This enables customers to move their virtual machines between on-prem vSphere on Subscription and to Service Providers – in the process, increasing or decreasing their usage of on-prem vSphere and paying based on what they use.
VMware Careers: If someone reading this was coming to interview with you tomorrow for a role in your org, what interview tips would you give them?
Pragya: Always bring your authentic self to an interview. I can figure out if the skills and experience fit. Still, what gets you the job is a unique mix of attitude, enthusiasm, values, and emotional intelligence that will contribute to a better team overall.
Ask all required questions you feel are necessary to understand your job description.
We do not expect you to know everything, but you should have good knowledge of the concepts you work on daily.
Could you see yourself working for a manager like Pragya? Click here to browse open roles on her team.
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