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The Smart Techie was renamed Siliconindia India Edition starting Feb 2012 to continue the nearly two decade track record of excellence of our US edition.

May - 2011 - issue > Woman Achiever

In a Long Road, Little Bumps are Insignificant

Vimali Swamy
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Vimali Swamy
Women in technology have always stood apart, carving a niche for themselves in what is believed to be predominantly a male domain. They have faced the challenges thrown at them to emerge as leaders in whatever they set their mind to. One such leader is Jaya Singh, Senior Manager, Texas Instruments, who started her career in the VLSI space, when it was still a nascent industry in India, and women in the field very few and far between. In a candid conversation with SmartTechie, she shares her successful career journey, achievements, learnings and her views on the role of women in IT.

The early days
Since the early days, mathematics and science picked my interest and continued to be the core area of my education when I went on to do engineering. Back then, engineering was not a popular option amongst girls. Since I happened to be the first working woman in my family, it was a very difficult decision to make. But I decided to follow my heart and graduated from University of Roorkee (now IIT Roorkee) in Electronics and Communication.

After graduation I joined Duet Technologies, which focused in EDA and VLSI design services. I got into ASIC library domain and started my career. Though the work was challenging, I enjoyed every minute of it.

A few years down the lane, I moved to Hyderabad after marriage. There were not many good options available at Hyderabad at that time in my domain of interest. I joined Mentor Graphics and started leading a team in the area of DFT, even if that meant moving away from my core strength area.

Although I was enjoying my work in this area, after a couple of years, I decided to once again pursue a career of my choice. We decided to move to Bangalore as it was the hub for most VLSI design companies.

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