Sometimes we forget the humans behind the tech in our ever busy world. DSF is fortunate enough to know some incredible tech leaders across the world and has the privilege of hearing them present at our events. That being said, our Speaker Spotlight sets the stage to get to know our speakers on a more personal level and connect them with our growing community. Read the mini interview below!

A bit about Aarohi:

I currently work as a Senior Data Engineer. I am a graduate in M.S. in Business Analytics from The University of Texas at Dallas and have over 10 years of experience with software engineering, data engineering and data analytics. I have experience working on PySpark, BigQuery, Tableau, PowerBI, Alteryx and Airflow. I am also an advocate of Women in STEM and volunteers with the AnitaB.org

How did you start out in your tech career?

I graduated with a Bachelor of Technology and was offered a job as a software engineer by one of the companies that visited my campus. I eventually became curious about Analytics and decided on a Graduate degree in the same. I landed a job in Data Engineering with one of the largest retail giants and haven’t looked back.

What are the signs of success in your field?

Success in data engineering is ultimately about creating robust, efficient, and valuable data ecosystems that drive organizational success and innovation.

What is the best and worst thing about your job role? 

The best part about my role is I get to build applications that impact customers in real time and this is also the difficult part about my role as I work on applications that impact customer directly there is very less window for failure.

What can you advise someone just starting out to be successful?

Get your hands dirty. There are tons of courses you can take but the actual learning is the one that you know to apply.

How do you switch off?

I enjoy an hour of physical activity everyday. It can be running, hitting the gym, playing a sport, walking. It is my way of putting everything at a pause and just being in the moment.

What advice would you give your younger self?

As advice for my younger self I would say to focus on what you are doing. All the doubts and criticisms are just noise from people who haven’t done it before. Secondly, I would tell them it’s okay to fail because that means you did give it a try.

What is next for you?

Professionally and personally I want to be a better version of myself from yesterday. This is a goal always. I do fail at it but only to try better tomorrow.

If you could do anything now, career-wise or personally what would you do? Why?

With the AI growth I do want to get more familiar with the industry and work toward contributing towards it more. I want to do this because this is going to be the future and to be relevant I always want to be upskilling.

What are your top 5 predictions in tech for the next 5 years?

  1. Continued advancements in artificial intelligence and machine learning, with more widespread adoption across industries.

  2. Further development and adoption of augmented and virtual reality technologies in various sectors.

These 2 are highest on my list.

Thank you to all our wonderful speakers for taking part in our Speaker Spotlight!

Want to become a DSF Speaker? Apply here!