"I want every single day to be fun, challenging, and full of exploration. That is probably going to be my aspiration for a long time to come. Well, unless I decide to travel to Mars or something."
Swetha Chakravarthy's principles and love for solving problems shine through with this quote. She applies this ideology in daily life as well as in her vibrant career at Intel. In the course of her exciting journey, she has been a mentor, problem-solver, master strategist, and technological innovator who is responsible for driving large-scale transformations in 5G and edge computing.
Hailing from a family of lawyers and writers, Swetha grew up in an environment filled with reading, learning, and studying. The prevalent profession in the family being that of lawyers; Swetha was also expected to join the vocation. But, breaking all expectations, she followed her mother's advice and chose technology, considering the scale of impact she would have on people's lives around the world. "It was a very intuitive decision, and I don't think I will ever regret making that call," she adds.
Currently, she is the senior director, head of System and Software Methodology, and chief of staff for the Internet of Things (IoT) Engineering Group at Intel. In her role, she has to be aware of every problem in the organization and work with her team to develop solutions. This ties in perfectly with her love of problem-solving. "When strategizing for initiatives or resolving issues in the organization, it's almost like putting together pieces of a puzzle and watching how they play out and inform the bigger picture," says Swetha. With a smile on her face, she continues, "When I look back at the outcome of our strategies, it feels great to see how well they worked out, especially when it reflects in the business aspect of things."
The ideology behind her successful stratagem came from a time before she joined Intel when she learned an important lesson–every complex problem can be broken down into simple pieces, and the key is to pick pieces that hold the life to the strategy. After they are solved individually, the pieces are weaved together to form the complete story. Swetha continues to apply the method in solving problems even today, which has played an important part in facilitating some of the most revolutionary transformations at Intel. She also attributes her growth to the diverse opportunities she has played across multiple groups. Apart from driving strategy and transformation on a global scale, Swetha was an application developer, a program manager and an Engineering Manager leading global teams to enable 5G where she also played a major role in setting up leading market solutions across software integration, release and deployment.
Talking about the ongoing edge transformation and her role in it, Swetha feels it is a revolutionary wave in the ecosystem, much bigger than that of the cloud. Comprising of everything between sensors to the cloud, the scope of edge is huge, impacting every industry, market segment, and aspect of human life. Right from smart cities to smart healthcare to smart industries to smart education, edge played an essential role in reinventing the way of life, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, and will continue to do so. "What we are driving now is actually very close to my heart because it touches human lives everywhere. This is a global transformation of humankind," Swetha comments.
Apart from digital transformations, Swetha also helps in transforming the lives of the upcoming generation. Starting with her daughter, Swetha believes in passing on one's experiences and values over to the next generation, in the way of taking them along while progressing in life. Not limiting this thought to her daughter, she mentors young girls from financially challenged backgrounds who are good at studies and hold high aspirations for joining the Indian Administrative Services. By helping them plan their preparation and practice strong communication techniques, Swetha hopes to see them grow in society. She wishes to see more women in powerful positions across industries, leading to a fresh school of thought. When asked about her inspiration, she says, "It's my daughter. I have an intelligent, super spunky, curious leader in my daughter. In the last eight years, she has completely taken over my life. I'm in awe and super inspired by her!"
As of today, Swetha wants to discover her capabilities and realize her maximum potential at work and in her interests of philosophy, spirituality, and music. As she explores life with a childlike curiosity, she is eagerly looking forward to solving the next big puzzle that comes her way!
Learn how you can redefine your career at Intel. Click here to find out.
You must be a registered user to add a comment. If you've already registered, sign in. Otherwise, register and sign in.