To apply, or not to apply

[priyankaporwal]

Dear friends and colleagues,

"To be, or not to be" is the opening phrase of William Shakespeare's play Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 1. In the speech, Hamlet compares the pain and unfairness of life against the alternative. As you can see, I have borrowed the title of this blog from Hamlet and the dilemma I had was whether to apply for WomenTech Global Awards 2022 or stay with the alternative of life as it is.

I would like to share with you the personal contemplation before I applied for WomenTech Global Awards 2022 and the reasons I finally applied.

1. What will I gain: I thought about whether I should apply for this award? What would I gain in the process, why should I break this pattern of thinking that someone else should notice and nominate a person? What difference it would make to my career in SAP? Some of my friends after applying told me, "Priyanka, what will you gain, this award is not going to further prove your capabilities".


2. What will I lose: I thought about whether it would lead to losing the self-confidence and create a self doubt in case my nomination doesn't get selected? What would everyone else say if my nomination doesn't get selected? There is always a fear of failure and anxiety when you compete against others and in this case women worldwide were applying for the global awards. But then am I anxious or excited? (Just for the stats, there were 1247 nominees from 142 countries and 59 winners in 16 categories.) 

I kept thinking more on this and then I stopped thinking in terms of profit and loss, after all life is not a balance sheet. We all have certain passions and one of my passion is to encourage more women in Technology. I sincerely believe women can stay connected to Architecture and Technology and build a successful career in this field. I started thinking wouldn't it be a great opportunity to create an awareness about Women in Tech? It would be also a great opportunity to reach to much wider audience and influence them, as a matter of fact I did reach out to people from different walks of life - my school mates. my college friends, my friends and colleagues from different jobs before SAP, my friends and colleagues within SAP from various LOBs and roles I have been associated with, my community, my neighbourhood and so on.

I feel honoured to have won the 🥇”Community Award” and 🥈”Special Recognition - Women in ICT” Women Tech Global Award 2022.

 

 

Sure, there is a recognition and appreciation aspect with awards and it always feels good. But even more important than that is the influencing aspect for a big women in tech community. Even if it inspires 1% of the people reached out and women to consider the architect career path, I would consider it already a big win.

Thanks all for your support. Thanks WomenTech Network for giving me this opportunity. This award is for all #WomenInTech. May our tribe grow.

Best Regards,

Priyanka