Introducing

LEMEEKA

SOLUTION ENGINEER/

PODCAST HOST

On Childhood

What did you want to be when you were a kid?

I was in Nepal till 11 years old and I think I actually wanted to be a teacher because at school, we used to have those blackboards and I used to pretend to be a teacher. I feel like we’ve all been through that phase where you try to be the teacher and you try to write at the back of your door and I just like the idea of teaching and as a child, you always want to feel more grown up.

However ambition changes over time, after the teacher thing I actually wanted to be a pharmacist. I used to collect old medicine boxes and I used to pretend to dispense them. Those were my two key professions. I actually wanted to be a pharmacist before I got into University. I studied all the science subjects but I didn't get the grade, so I couldn't be a pharmacist.

At University

You studied Computer Science at University, how did you decide on the course?

Yes, that's the kind of route I took but it wasn't meant to be computer science because like I mentioned before I wanted to study pharmacy and I applied for that course in different Universities during college. However I didn’t get the grades for the course, so I was like maybe this is a sign and not meant to be so, I looked into clearing and I realised that I always enjoyed Computer Science and applied for that course at University of West England.

Start of your career

How did you land your current role?

I actually did an IT placement year after my second year at University at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), a pharmaceutical company but then I did a graduate programme at Salesforce, which is the company I am still at.

How was the process like to get into the Graduate Programme?

I already had gone through a similar interview process when I did my placement year like getting your CV, doing those psychometric tests and stuff, so it wasn’t new to me. But then obviously, graduate schemes are much more competitive, and there are a lot of people going for the same role, especially in London. In Salesforce, there were 26 grads out of 6000 got the job. So the percentage of you getting into the graduate scheme there was apparently lower than getting into Harvard.

That shows the competitive nature of the Graduate programmes, because it wasn't just IT people that applied for the scheme. There were people from politics and chemistry and all these different subjects and that makes it that much harder.

But for me, the steps I had to apply for were initially CV and cover letter and then it was a phone interview with the recruiter followed by a video interview with a senior person in the business. After that, it was an assessment day where there were three interviews and a presentation. Finally, I had a follow up call and another assessment, so a total of 6 stages.

But the thing is, I had applied for other companies like Microsoft and Accenture as well, and the process was similar. For Microsoft one, it was a long process and I went to the assessment, but I didn't get the job at the end. But for Accenture, it was like a coding exercise and pre recorded interviews. So I had a fair share of going through this process. After a while, you kind of get used to it. It's not as scary as the first time and that's the kind of tip I give my brother and my cousin right now who are applying for placement:

it's always scary the first time (in an interview) but then after a while, you get used to it.

You talked about rejections from other companies, how did you keep yourself motivated through all those?

I got loads of rejections when I was applying for the graduate schemes, I applied to 12 -13 companies. Some of them, I didn’t get through the first stage because of the psychometric tests, which I used to hate. I got rejections but rather than trying to let it get me down, I kind of used it as a motivation to tell myself there's something better for me out there.

Having a goal is important.

In terms of keeping me motivated, firstly just having a goal is important because it keeps you going. I'd already worked on the placement year, I knew what working life was, and I enjoyed it, talking to people, presentations and all of these things. So I didn't mind working harder in the interview to get to the place I wanted to.

The one thing that really bugged me was when I applied for the Microsoft graduate programme, I got through all the stages, and then on the assessment day, I didn't get the job. I remember this because I thought I had the job and I was just waiting for the news and then when the recruiter lady called me up and said, sorry, we can't offer you the job. I remember feeling down for like, two minutes. But then I was like, you know what, there's something better for me out there. I came across Salesforce and there was a job opening which was only posted a couple of days ago. I found that the company was the best place to work in the UK and then I started researching about the company and it hit me that this is the company I want to work for so it kind of made sense. It made me realise that I had to get that rejection to get this new job or else I wouldn't have had this opportunity. So rather than trying to be down about it, use it as a motivation to know there is something better out there and I think that's something that's always been with me like having the faith that things do work out & that's what kept me motivated.

Typical work day

What does a typical work day look like for you at Salesforce?

I have done like two or three different roles at Salesforce and every day is different. My first role as an Associate Customer Experience Strategist was very hands-on as it was a technical role with talking to clients and solving problems, and it all depended on what clients needed and what needed to be deployed.

My second role was Customer Experience Strategist which was a bit different because my manager was in Germany, and my team were across Europe. I didn’t have a core team around me, so depending on the client work, I had to do research, meetings and collaboration.

Currently I work as a Solution Engineer, it's a lot of learning as I am currently onboarding. I need to learn the platform, because I need to sell the platform, therefore I need to know about its capabilities and requirements. So at the moment, what my typical day looks like is, I normally have two or three catch ups during the day and that could be work related, or just general catch ups with my mentors and people as with lockdown, we are all working from home, and we're not having that interaction and communication and people and I like to keep my relationships with the people. The rest of the day is mainly learning and keeping myself busy. I also have meetings where I need to present stuff for my manager and my colleagues so it's quite diverse in terms of day to day.

What do you find enjoyable and challenging at work?

Maybe I could start with what I find challenging, is being a young Asian female, I feel like there’s a certain stigma or unconscious bias around how we’re meant to act and not be ambitious or vocal and that kind of thing doesn’t align with some people’s way of thinking. These thoughts maybe hold me back but also could make me want to do more and sometimes, it feels like I am trying to do too much more where I need to prove myself and show an impact.

Sometimes it also feels intimidating when you’re the youngest one in the team and everyone around you is experienced and might have been in the industry for over 10 years, and they might not see where you’re coming from and that's what I find challenging at the moment. Secondly, just trying to keep up with everything I need to know for the job whether it’s learning new technology or trying to know new people or customers.

In terms of what I love about my job is that every day is different and I am always learning something new. I have a passion for self development and I always try to learn new skills. At work we have exactly that kind of environment where they promote you to learn new skills and get the training. Even though it's really a job, it's also helped me in my personal life as well. I really like the personal development aspect of my job and secondly doing what I love. I get to work on marketing initiatives which I am passionate about outside of work. The fact that I can be myself, whether it's my manager or my manager’s manager, I can just have a chat with them like I am talking to a friend, I don't have to pretend to speak in a certain way just because they are in a more senior position than I am. I can be myself, no matter who I'm talking to but obviously, in the beginning, it takes some time to build that credibility and trust, and you need to actually deliver work. But beyond that I get to have banter and make jokes like friends.

Skills

What skills are needed for your role?

I feel like it depends on the role. When I'm saying this, I'm not just talking about my company, like most workplaces nowadays, it's all about your personal skills, interpersonal skills, your soft skills. In my first role at Salesforce, as it was a technical role, there were some technical requirements, but once you go through the first stage, they already know, your skills on paper, the fact that I've got a degree in all these things but during the four stages of the interview process, what they're trying to do is actually trying to get to know you as a person. Whether you fit in with the culture of the company, whether you've got the empathetic skills or not. It's not just about you being right, you're willing to listen to other people's point of view, you're willing to raise issues, you're willing to kind of be confident in terms of showcasing issues, and you're just being a likeable human person.

I feel with any job and at the end of the day, we’re all human beings. In terms of getting any job in any field, just being a good human being like, whether that would be opening and holding the door for someone or whether it is listening to people or whether it is, you know, being having a good work ethic, integrity and trust. I think those would be the main kind of skills you'd need in something like I do.

Other than that, like the cliche things like team working, collaboration, problem solving, and listening and presenting, those are the skills you need in the role I am in because you are customer facing, you are presenting solutions and you are trying to sell a product.

Motivation at work

What keeps you motivated at work?

You'll have on good days and bad days. Some days you wake up feeling like I'm not feeling it. When those days do come about rather than trying to fight it, I kind of just accept that feeling and be like, okay, today's not going to be the most productive day, let me put that energy tomorrow or elsewhere.

In terms of motivation, every person is motivated by different things and if I feel like I'm in a bit of a slump or I can't concentrate on a certain thing, I try to take a break by going for a walk, or sometimes I treat myself by shopping or browsing online even if I don’t end up buying anything. During the day, I call my friend or my boyfriend just to kind of break up the day. Definitely taking breaks helps because no one can concentrate and go 100 miles per hour all the time and you need to have this balance so that when you do come back later, you feel you feel like you can actually get work done. My biggest tip is take breaks and don't eat lunch at your desk, like you need that change of scenery as well especially for people who stare at their screen all day.

Future plans

What are your future plans in terms of your career?

I am quite early on in my career and I’ve only worked in the industry for 3 years but in this role, I definitely want to develop my skills further in terms of learning the technology, sales skills and trying to see where I can develop to maybe look for more projects, whether that’s working in a different country or trying to develop more side projects alongside my main role

My longer term goal is to have my own kind of company, not sure whether it’ll be a company or a platform, where I can just coach and help people around self development. At the moment, there are these two different streams, one which is my corporate life where it’s about gaining skills, marketing, psychology, that kind of world and this other stream, which is all around helping others, whether it's through coaching or mentoring and all of that kind of thing. I think at the moment, I don't know what the next five years hold, but I am just really excited to see what I can make and how I can develop in both of those streams.

Advice

Any advice to someone who wants to start in a career in a similar role?

I think for me, it was never like I want to be in technology or I want to make a lot of money because Tech has a lot of money but more like it all comes down to your intent and your genuine motivation

When you look for a career, really ask yourself - is this something I want to do just to get paid for? or is this a job where I see myself thriving and growing everyday.

If you genuinely want to go into this field, I think you need to want to help the customers. What I do on my day job is genuinely getting to know my customers, understanding what their pain points are, and seeing if our solutions can help them. I think there's that underlying, wanting and desire to help others.

Secondly, it's actually thriving in a collaborative environment as well. If you are someone that is very much like I am right and you're wrong, and you know, I need to get all the spotlight or I need to be the only one being successful, you're not going to thrive in this environment because in a corporate world, especially in the sales world, you need to work as a team. You need to have that openness to collaborate, you need to respect and listen to others.

Thirdly, you want to do the job because you enjoy it. Think about your day job, you spend nearly 40 hours a week, and that that's a huge part of your life. When you die, do you want to say I wasted 20 years of my life doing what I didn't like Or do you want to say that actually, you know, I took that risk, and I went and I actually loved what I did. That kind of passion shines through especially in meetings where people can feel your energy and enthusiasm for the job you’re doing.

Going back to the beginning, having the right intent to start a career in tech or consulting is important as you need to go deeper and ask yourself, whether I actually see myself working in a space like this and secondly, would be having that collaborative, open minded mindset so that you're not only thinking about yourself, there's no room for selfishness, and you need to work as a team to reach that end solution. Then finally, actually enjoying what you do as well because if you don't enjoy what you do, you won’t be able to keep up to date and as a result, you're going to be irrelevant, right? So I think you need to actually be up to date and keep your knowledge current and updated at all times.

How do you keep yourself up to date?

I read a lot of books, mainly non-fiction especially in the psychology field as I like to know how people work. I also follow people I look up to to as role models on Instagram, or LinkedIn. Reading blogs also helps if I'm interested in a topic related to work, I just look around and see what other people are seeing in that field. There are a lot of experts in your industry, so why not look up to them and follow what they're doing. I think that's the best way to learn.

Another advice is reading stuff that isn't directly related to industry because there's so much you can learn.

Sometimes you learn more from industries that aren't directly related to you. I see if I work in tech, I can get inspiration from the music industry or the food industry. That's when you have fresh ideas and do things differently. So in terms of keeping up to date, follow stuff in your industry, but also follow stuff that isn't directly related to industry, because that's when you have the best ideas.

Passion

You currently have a podcast but is there anything you would like to share ?

The page basically started because I wanted to share my learnings from the books I read. I actually used to do a lot of videos on my personal instagram account where I used to jump on my stories and talk about my learnings and I used to speak on the camera and that's how Selfdevsundayss was formed because people gave me good feedback and they learned so much from it but I didn’t do anything for a year because I was still figuring things out. My friends actually encouraged me to do a podcast and that’s how it started. The reason I started my podcast was to create awareness and build up my brand on who I am and what I am about. In the future, I would like to do coaching sessions, online courses and digital content because I do spend a lot of time working on my podcasts and that could be packaged into a service like a coaching community. My long term role is to head down that route once I feel like I have the skills set to charge people. I definitely want to start creating that community and getting people involved. I had loads of feedback on that. I also want it to be accessible globally so that's what I am looking into, being a digital coach, that's my main focus on the moment.

On the side, I also had a catchup with someone recently to start creating courses around diversity and inclusion because in the corporate world, there needs to more talk around it, and doing an online courses on that and am working on this with a close friend from work and this is a great opportunity as this is a stepping stone to creating my own content online. Other than that, I am just connecting and collaborating with different people who want to start their own side hustles or projects.

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