Satyavathi Divadari, Chief Security Architect- Micro Focus is a noted speaker and panelist in national and international cybersecurity forums. She works to develop enterprise-wide security architectures, who formulated and led many strategic enterprise architectural transformations.

As an information security leader having more than 21 years of experience in the Banking, Telecom and IT/ITES industries, she has enhanced the security posture of the enterprises with a higher return of investment.

Read the gist of the interview with her on her professional front.

 Stepping Stone to a Career in Tech

Satyavathi Divadari has started her career 22 years back with a public company, Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd., which is currently known as Tata Communications Ltd. Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd., was the only internet service provider in India during those times.

After having a few years of experience as an Infrastructure engineer in Internet and Data Centre divisions, she pursued a career in information security. She decided to take the profession of information security seriously because an information security professional should continuously update the knowledge and skills with the latest technologies and the greatest attack trends.

She believes that a career as an information security professional rightly matched her dream of continuous learning. She is grateful that her dream and career path go hand-in-hand as work is a game that she would like to play every day.

Workplace Challenges

In the majority of the cases, the choices of women were made by someone in her life. Whether it is a choice of a dress or a choice of a career to build, most women require someone to confirm their choices.

According to Satyavathi Divadari, “The biggest challenge a women faces is dealing with the internal battle within herself, and gaining confidence to make a choice on her own”.

Satyavathi opined that women should first accept themselves and then their choices whether those are good or bad. The choices made by the women themselves will make life more peaceful and help to lead a successful career.

She also came across several challenges in her career and decision making was a tough challenge for her too. Based on her experience and observation, deciding or taking a stand is tough for all people, both women and men alike. We should be aware that doing the right thing and making the right choice is the greatest strength anyone can have.

Satyavathi Divadari considers that it is okay to be worried while making a choice as everyone goes through such a situation.  Women should know to accept that it is not the weakness, but it solves the problem to a large extent.

Fewer Women in Tech Leadership Roles

Firstly, the number of girls who complete engineering or technological studies is less. This number further reduces when they move to jobs. We continue to hear women taking career breaks whenever there is a major life change such as marriage, childbirth, or the study of a child. Most of them will not return to work, which reduces the women strength in organizations. While this trend is changing slowly, but not sufficient enough to keep the count of women in leadership high.

Advice to Younger Generation

People believe advancement in a career comes with advanced technical skills, certifications, and further studies. While these are some of the essential factors, the most important skills that are needed for a leader are soft skills. Women are born with soft skills such as compassion, interpersonal skills, and people management. Women need to appreciate their own inherent strengths and use them to their advantage and grow in their career.

To keep it simple, “Be yourself.”

Women Initiatives

Satyavathi is a part of several women leadership communities and supports women empowerment initiatives. She likes to mentor others to guide them in their career as she had the support of a few mentors in her career as well. She is always available for anyone who would like to be mentored in their career.

She applauds all men and women who are champions of women empowerment and requested such support and encouragement to increase the number of women in the boardrooms and technical leadership roles.

She ended the interview with an inspiring quote from “Bhagavad Gita”, “You are what you believe in. You become that which you believe you can become.”

Rewards

As a distinguished information security professional with expertise in Cloud Security, Cyber Security, Application Security, Enterprise Security Architecture, Third-Party Security, Network Security, Risk Management and Data Privacy, she has been recognized as one of the Top 20 Indian Women Security Influencers.

Satyavathi Divadari has been selected for ‘Top 10 Women Tech Leaders India Awards 2021’ by RACE, REVA University in association with Terralogic Inc., as she not only continues her profession as a successful information security leader but also mentoring the next-gen tech leaders.