Priyanka Porwal - One Needs to Choose the Path That Resonates With You the Most (Chief Architect - SAP SuccessFactors)

It should not be confused that only a person with a degree has the knowledge and that guarantees his/her success. A formally educated person in some cases perhaps has a better starting point, but there is no guarantee, in the long run, he/she will have more success than a non-formally educated person.

Tell us about your background, journey, and upbringing.

I am the 3rd child of my parents. I belong to a community where generally people used to go for business and not for higher studies. And I am talking 27 years back, things have changed quite a lot now. 

In those days, the females usually after 18 were married off. I was the first female in our family to go for engineering, go to another state staying in a hostel, and graduate with 7 gold medals from different institutions. 

I was lucky that I had great support from my parents who always encouraged me and my siblings to go for our dreams and pursue our ambitions without any fear. My parents really believed that “Knowledge is Power” and education is very important for all of us, it doesn’t matter whether it’s a boy or a girl child. We were all encouraged to study, gain knowledge, learn, and imbibe multiple skills.

What made you interested in this field and how did you narrow it down?

Well, it all started due to my father. My father actually comes from a finance and cost accounting background. I remember I was just in school and one fine day he walked in with very thick programming books. 

He in fact used this information, automated the cost accounting work, and trained his entire department too. I used to play games on his computer and also wrote my first industrial training report using his computer. In addition, my elder brother also did his engineering and graduated with top honors from BITS Pilani.

Somewhere in my consciousness, it fed the belief that by using technology, the whole running of enterprise business is much smoother. And that’s when I decided to join the technology bandwagon.

In the current field of enterprise software architecture, it’s the career path that resonates with me the most. For me, it's always been architecting and designing a solution that is going to be used by end-users for a long period of time. I enjoy the process of creating timeless software. 

I was very clear from the beginning once I joined SAP that this is the career path I want to choose and shared the same with my leadership who provided me opportunities subsequently based on my indicated career path.

What does your typical workday look like?

A typical day would involve providing oversight on different architecture topics to teams, connecting dots together, reviewing architecture concept documents, analyzing the impact on products, advising management on strategic topics, mentoring budding architects, etc. 

This year I am also driving architecture charter for Labs India, so some days also involve driving the architecture community initiatives forward.

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Several global companies have come out and thrown their support behind not needing a formal education. What is your opinion about this for your field?

I would say that formal education definitely adds value and helps a person in gaining skills. Having said that knowledge can be gained from different areas – observing customer pain points, learning from others in the industry, personal interests, and experimentation, reflection on how to solve the particular problem, deliberate learning with books, etc. 

It should not be confused that only a person with a degree has the knowledge and that guarantees his/her success. A formally educated person in some cases perhaps has a better starting point, but there is no guarantee, in the long run, he/she will have more success than a non-formally educated person. 

We have many examples of college drop-outs like Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, Michael Dell, etc who went on to become very successful entrepreneurs. At the same time, we also have Sundar Pichai who holds M.S. and an MBA, or Shantanu Narayen who again holds a master's and an MBA degree. 

We should also note that the common aspect on either side is that successful people still indulge in the practice of deliberate learning and continuously gaining knowledge every day. Bill Gates is said to read 50 books a year, Elon Musk grew up reading 2 books a day, Warren Buffet reads 5 to 6 hours a day. 

So even though formal education may get stopped due to whatever reason, the pursuit of knowledge should never stop.

Google, Adobe, and most MNCs have a strict policy around sharing ex-employee data. How can one approach background checks in this situation?

With the growing gig economy, a shift towards hiring contingent workforce, and increasing need for an agile workforce, employees would prefer to own their career information and work records themselves in the future. 

If we continue relying on exchanging data on previous employments and verifying this information through manual practices, it’s costly, inefficient, and delays the hiring process. Industries need to look into solutions like “Velocity Network Foundation” which is powered by Blockchain and simply put, it is an “Internet of Careers”. Many of the big players in the HXM space have already signed up on this.

How has your field evolved over the years and what future changes do you predict?

Norman Foster, a renowned British architect, known for Green Architecture and energy-efficient construction techniques said in one of the 2007 Ted conferences that “As an architect, you design for the present, with an awareness of the past, for a future which is essentially unknown.” 

I still find it very relevant even today and even for enterprise software architecture. While the technologies have changed and will continue to evolve, the basic architecture principles stay the same for the creation of timeless software.

On the business domain side, it’s all about human experiences whether it is attracting, engaging, and retaining High-performance talents. It used to be called Human Capital Management and Human Resources earlier, but humans have feelings, humans experience stress, humans' creativity is encouraged with a rewarding work experience. 

So the field of HR/HCM will continue evolving with creating better human experiences and aptly renamed as Human Experience Management.

                             

What advice do you have for those eyeing this career?

I would suggest to choose a career path that makes you most happy and that should guide you towards your chosen career path. It could be software testing, sales and marketing, delivery and execution, technical writing, user assistance, Cybersecurity, Enterprise Architecture, and so on. 

One needs to choose the path that resonates with you the most. Many companies offer rotating internships which can be a good way to experience different areas and decide afterward to make an informed choice.

Which is your favorite book and why?

I read a lot of books, so it’s difficult to name one book. There are 3 books that are my all-time favorites though – 

1) In Quest of the Last Victory by Mr. Navin Gulia. It’s a story about a man’s grit and determination, an ex-army officer who despite complete body paralysis went on to become the first Indian to drive non-stop to the highest motorable mountain pass in the world, Marsimik La in Ladakh. 

2) Tuesdays With Morrie by Mr. Mitch Albom. It’s about life lessons from an aging mentor. The author like many of us lost touch with his mentor and later re-established their relationship. This book is about learning life lessons from his mentor, now on death bed, on every Tuesday visit. 

 3) Wings of Fire by Dr. Abdul Kalam. The book is an autobiography of our beloved former president Dr. Abdul Kalam. It’s a story of how a common man went on to become a Missile Man.

Bio - 

Priyanka is Chief Architect in SAP SuccessFactors Office of CTO. She has overall 24 years of industrial experience, 19 years in SAP, and in her current role, she is responsible for consistent architect strategy, oversight, review, and governance across SAP SuccessFactors HXM Suite of Products. 

She has worked on multiple products in different business domains both on-premise and on-demand and on multiple country solutions localizing the legal requirements and country-specific business best practices. She is also a design thinking coach. She is passionate about Women in technology and has been mentoring budding architects and women colleagues every year.