Women in Tech: Parul Goyal, Technical Lead – India

When you first joined Peak, what were your immediate thoughts?

I recall that time with a smile on my face. Around two years ago, Peak was a growing startup. Essentially I was onboarded by the whole team simultaneously. Honestly, looking back, I don’t feel it has been an inferior experience – exactly the opposite. I received a warm welcome, and my managers and fellow team members have supported and guided me. I wouldn’t want it to happen in any other way. 

From a tech perspective, there were many things to think about; AWS services and programming languages I’d never encountered before. It has been a challenge I’ve accepted and, one year later, I became a scrum master. Six months later, I was promoted to Senior Software Engineer – so now I’m a scrum master and have my own team! 

Since joining Peak, what coding languages have you learned?

I’ve primarily worked on the back-end. I’ve mastered Nodejs, Kubernetes and AWS services, which are my particular favorites.

What are your thoughts on the Peak culture? And how have you found remote working in recent months?

For me, Peak is a safe place to express my views, offer new ideas and try different technology stacks. There is no crippling fear of failure or suffocating outdated approach to the tech stack. We all live through the values of being open-minded, non-judgmental and helpful. In other words, you’re free to go and do what you think will benefit everyone! 

Compared to other companies, do you feel Peak gave you more opportunities for professional growth? 

I feel Peak provides a secure environment in which anyone can be their authentic self, learning and developing their desired talents. The team is certainly more supportive, upbeat and vibrant compared to my previous company.

I believe Peak’s Personal Development Programme (PDP) programme has had a significant impact on our team. Everyone can choose a growth area and then devote 10% of their working time to master their desired skills. For instance, a large number of Software Engineers go for obtaining AWS certification. For me, I’m not a natural public speaker, but I’m continuously working toward turning my apprehension into an advantage. 

Parul, could you share the story of your success? How did you get your recent promotion? 

My journey at Peak started off with a basic knowledge of the product and underlying tech stack. Slowly but surely, I developed the expertise and confidence required for working on our Decision Intelligence plaftorm workflow project, with the help of great mentors like Azhar Khan, another Technical Lead at Peak. Gradually, I took ownership of the feature and became in charge of all deployments. The management here is always appreciative of your efforts and commitment to the company’s values. So that’s the backstory of my promotion. 

Awesome! What resources did you use to learn how to become a scrum master? Did you enroll in a class? 

It was a mash-up of all kinds of things. Initially, the entire team was undergoing agile training, and we only gained fundamental knowledge. Then my managers and team leaders like Ronak stepped in to assist me in assuming my new role. It’s lovely to have such a solid shoulder to lean on during a complex decision-making process.

Could you explain to us what it’s like working with your managers?

Chandra Verma is my line manager and a fantastic mentor. He often gives me a hand with multistage tasks. Even though working with a CTO might sound a little frightening, that’s not the case at Peak – Atul Sharma is a genuinely open-minded person who is so easy to get along with. He never rejects ideas. On the contrary, he always encourages me to step outside of my comfort zone to do my best.

Sounds like a great environment to learn in. What are your long-term goals?

There was a lot of learning along the way to success for me, but the best part is that it never stops. There is always something mesmerising, something new to create. If there is an idea, go ahead and do it. Next I’ll be looking forward to working with an AI engineering or data science team.

Could you tell me about the AI engineering team. What makes you think it’s something you’re looking for?

I believe this team exemplifies both of my favourite fields; engineering and data science. Many people are working on the intersection of these two streams. It’s exhilarating to see so many brilliant minds, such as Koushik Kulkarni, Head of AI Engineering, and Mark Douthwaite, Data Scientist, making Decision Intelligence a dream come true.

Thanks for chatting to us today Parul, and see you again soon!