Sancheeta is an engineering manager with the innovation team at grofers. She is an old timer who joined us way back in June 2015. Her work at grofers goes beyond her current team and you can find her organising events and forming communities in her free time.
Here are some of her thoughts on her journey so far, what tech means to her and how women are making a difference in this space.
Tell us about your background and your journey to your role at grofers.
I am Sancheeta, I hail from a beautiful town in Himachal Pradesh called Palampur. I am truly “dil se Pahadi” who loves exploring new things and venturing into the unknown.
Talking about the journey at grofers, it is a really interesting one. I have always been a talkative and curious person which is why the interviewer at grofers – Abhinav Desor – felt like I was the one interviewing him. Luckily, it all turned out well and I joined grofers on March 1st, 2015 as an intern. The same day I met Ankur who laid just the right foundation for my career. Over the next two months, we did all non-tech things to make tech happen. Very important and meaningful lesson for a fresher in the very early days of her career.
Then for almost 4 years, I was building tech systems for business problems on content management and inventory management. Finally, in 2020 Jan, I and a few others ventured into creating this team called ‘Innovation Hub’ which does cross-functional experiments and there has been no looking back since then.
Why did you choose to work in the tech industry?
I think tech chose me before I could choose anything else. I have always been a multipotentialite (realised only recently that there is a word to explain my behaviour), which means I am always exploring multiple things (yes, yes, even today).
In the last semester of college, I actively explored Event Management (TEDx Events), Computer Engineering and NanoMaterials Research. The computer science opportunity struck my door first and hence I went on to explore it full time.
Having said this, I consider myself as a problem solver who is very field agnostic, is driven by curiosity and focuses on understanding the core principles of the field required to solve the problem. Once these three things are sorted, skills are easy to acquire; one can go the extra mile and get things done.
What have you learned about balancing work and family life?
To be honest, I am still learning. The key is to keep experimenting and understanding how people around you, especially your family and friends, feel. Feedback from my brother and inner circle had a deep impact on how I view the balance over the last few years. I think my team enables me a lot in this aspect. Apart from this, for me balance is not about setting boundaries. It’s about figuring out the right interplay between time, energy and attention and being very fluid and agile while doing so. I feel I am more creative that way.
What is your experience of diversity in the tech industry?
I treat diversity as diversity and inclusion. So, diversity for me goes beyond the representation of minorities (race and gender) in the industry. And given I like to keep the benchmarks high, I feel we aren’t even close as an industry. But I am also an optimist, I dream of a day when we are way beyond the current definition and start thinking along the lines of leveraging the best out of everyone, giving each their own stage to shine and learning from each no matter who they are and what position they hold (mentorship and reverse mentorship).
How does grofers encourage women to join the sector?
I have always wondered what is the best way to empower women. And few key learnings have come from grofers –
- Being treated differently never helps. Be it discrimination or special attention, both can be harmful. I am super happy that I was looked at as a contributor at grofers with no attachment to gender whatsoever and that was very empowering for me.
- Having a great peer circle helps a lot to push women to join this sector. So, by hiring people like Visalakshi Kanan, Apoorva Aggarwal, Srishti Didwania, Mani Manjri, Shruti Jain, Shivangi K, Chaitra Lata, Akanksha Priyadarshini, Tanaya Lal, Shruthikeerthi R, Deeksha Gupta, Sampada Vilas, Devika Razdan, and many others, grofers has opened doors for many other women to join this cool cult
- Most importantly, the focus on skill development takes the front seat at grofers. I belong to a school of thought that believes the best thing one can do to encourage women/minorities in any sector is to inspire them to do better by making them aware of the current gaps. Talking about issues of representation is important but unless the skill gap is closed, no one will hire you.
I couldn’t have built this understanding had Jacob Singh not made me realise my own potential and pushed me to seek what I was meant to be. Feels amazing that I had a leader like him cheering up for women who did his best to shape our careers.
What are your views on the future of technology?
I have always believed technology is nothing but a tool in the hand of a human and tools will always keep improving. What matters is who is using the tool, for what purpose and how? And answers to these questions lie a lot in the field of ethics, data, design, users etc. What I mean is, the future of technology is at the interface at which technology meets other fields to create the magic that hasn’t been created before.
What do you love about your role at grofers?
- That I am bound by my own inhibitions and mental blocks and that none exist otherwise
- Peer like relationship with mentors especially Soumen and KK
- There is always something that needs attention and can be improved
- People on all levels; those who have helped me transform my career to those I am helping with the same, there is a learning in both ways.
Share your favorite picture/s from work.
This is a picture of all humans at grofers present in the Bengaluru office on Dec 7th, 2019. Very poetic, but makes me feel like we are all imprinted forever this way in the history of grofers.