For this week’s podcast post, I’m switching things up from my usual recap and show notes.
I was so thrilled to talk to two amazing newcomer women who are building tech careers and new lives here in New Brunswick, that I wanted to share THEIR stories, and celebrate the winding, at times difficult, paths they took to arrive here.
Get ready to be INSPIRED.
Finding opportunity and peace in N.B. with Deepika Thapar
When Deepika Thapar left her home country of India to move to the U.S., it was for her education. Her more recent relocation was for love, to be with her now-husband who had come to New Brunswick for UNB’s MBA program.
“From there on, I got to know more about Atlantic Canada,” Deepika tells me during this week’s TechTalks Podcast, which was on the theme of newcomer women in tech.
Deepika arrived in Saint John in March. While landing in a new country during a global pandemic wasn’t ideal timing, it didn’t take her long to get oriented. In July, she landed a role at Second Spring Digital as a certified business analyst and she is a certified scrum master and product owner.
She loves how her work bridges what are often very separate sides of an operation. She recounts her first job experience, back in India, when she was fresh out of a bachelor’s program in engineering and IT.
“I realized something was missing,” she says. “I really needed to pursue my higher studies because I always wanted a blend of technology and management together.” In 2015, she enrolled in the University of Florida’s master’s in management program. After graduation, she went to work in San Francisco.
Deepika says it was challenging, when she decided to make the move to Canada, to get a feel for the New Brunswick job market from the west coast.
“But when you are here, you connect to people, you understand how the community works,” she says.
“It was really friendly; it was easy to get a job.”
Upon arrival, Opportunities New Brunswick connected her with an advisor to help her navigate. And she found virtual job fairs very helpful in connecting to companies and recruiters.
“I think there needs to be a platform for newcomers, maybe a webpage or even a LinkedIn campaign,” she says, as a way to consolidate scattered job information.
“I feel like it's there, but in bits and pieces,” she says.
Deepika sees great potential to recruit from outside the province or country to work in the local tech sector.
“Because I think people will be surprised when they start applying for a job in New Brunswick, that there is tons of opportunity out there,” she says. “There are so many startups opening up. There are so many big companies which people are not aware of.”
And part of that expanded potential is letting girls and young women know there’s a place in tech for them.
“I didn’t know I was going to do engineering and information technology or computer science until the age of 18,” she says. “So maybe [we need to build] an awareness at an early age that there's this thing called engineering that you can go into.”
While she’s found a great job and life here, being so far from home is hard in ways.
“You’re career-oriented, and you also want to be family-oriented, so it's a balance that you always try to achieve.”
Despite the challenges of separation, she’s feeling settled and “very peaceful” here, she says. And she’s got a clear vision for 2021.
“For me, it's going to be more streamlining my current job role and also enhancing my skill set in different domains,” Deepika says. “It's all going to be about learning because I'm just starting my career in Canada.”
Hashtags: #innovation #techimpact #techtalks #newcomers #womenintech
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