Last year, we spoke to Seema, a Project Contributor at Student CodeIn. She has been mentoring people for almost 3 years.
1. Introduce yourself, who are you, and what do you do?
I am Seema Saharan, currently a Project Contributor at Student CodeIn. I am in my final year of BTech in Computer Science and Engineering. Apart from this, I am working on some side projects, exploring new technology every day. I was recently a speaker at Cloud Community Days on the topic of “The World of Containers with Podman, Buildah, Skopeo”.
I have been mentoring people, my college mates for almost 3 years now, and I do it selflessly, I love to do that, even if I get nothing in return.
In short, Seema is a girl who is passionate about her work and also thinks about her mates.
2. How did you arrive at this career (or point in your life/work)? Was it always something you knew you wanted to do?
They say, “Little girls with dreams, become women with vision”, and I can totally relate to this quote. When I was about 9 years, I decided to be an engineer one day, and literally I didn’t know it’s meaning at that time, but there was something in my mind, the “curiousness” to know the working of everything, like how the internet works, how can we call someone like that, this curiousness led me to do Engineering. And, now I am quite mature to understand things and I am very lucky to be in this field.
3. What about your job makes you jump out of bed in the morning, especially on those cold, dark mornings?
I am quite a lazy person but this pandemic changed everything in my life. I get up late but do my work at night when almost everybody is sleeping in my home. I love to do my work, especially when it’s for a good thing, and I believe it’s not just for me, I want to share my knowledge as much as possible and as many people as I can, I don’t keep my knowledge to just myself.
4. What is your personal cure for stress or how do you raise your spirits in times of doubt? Can you share a story?
I have faced this a lot of times in my life but now I understand one thing that everything happens for a reason, if you don’t get that job/ internship, then it’s fine, you have a big opportunity coming up. Don’t be stressed, instead start improving yourself, I keep myself motivated through music. Yes! music, it gives me the energy to do something good every day.
And, even after that, you are still demotivated, “Talk to someone”, who can understand your problem, it helps. That person must be your well-wisher. Why? Because others will demotivate you more.
5. Who is your role model? If no one, any thoughts on this?
I don’t have a particular role model in my life, but I am inspired by many people out there. Like, My mother, father, and my siblings. They will not show love but they do care for you the most. Also, I am really inspired by “Steve Jobs” and his quote, “People who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world are the ones who do”. I think that’s an important thing you should have, the “craziness” inside you, to keep you going every day.
6. What advice would you give to yourself if you could go back in time?
My advice for my past self will be, “You are amazing, you don’t know that now, but you will do something good definitely, never lose hope, NEVER”. Because I couldn’t crack IIT-JEE, I was so frustrated. Every individual has its own journey and hurdles, don’t compare it to someone else’s.
7. Top 3 tips for girls starting out in STEM?
You are very strong, never let anyone discourage you.
“Do help”. It is a life lesson for me because when I help someone, I get to see the happiness on their face. And, also I grow myself too.
“Face the fears, you’ll be unstoppable”. I literally was afraid to participate in a hackathon for 3 years, but I thought this time, that whatever will happen, let it be. The main thing is you should not have any regrets in your life.
8. How do you measure your success?
To me, success is, “doing good to the community”. I don’t know this thing is so much into me, and I’m proud of this.
9. Where can we find out more about your work?
You can find my work here:
Github: https://github.com/seema1711
Dev: dev.to/seema1711
And my tech blogs here: https://medium.com/@SeemaSaharan
10. Are you social? Will you share your Twitter handle, or LinkedIn profile, or Facebook so that young women can connect with you?
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/seemasaharan
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SeemaSaharan5
