Who is Ketaki Vaidya? Oracle product manager from Hyderabad opens up about her ‘very smooth transition’ to US
Ketaki Vaidya's journey at Oracle spanned seven years, culminating in a US transfer and two promotions.
After five years of serving as an employee in Oracle’s office, in Hyderabad, India, Ketaki Vaidya felt a need for change. Being a software engineer, working in Silicon Valley had been her for a long time. Thus, in 2022 she planned to move to California and since has been transferred to Seattle. She recently revealed how the seven years at Oracle unfolded into two job promotions, a change of career and an international transfer.
Vaidya’s kickstart to it all
Her first step after her college at Oracle’s Hyderabad, India was to understand what her team required from her than just focusing on the supervisor’s needs. Vaidya said, “Managers always take 360-degree feedback, and they go around the entire team and talk to the entire team to get a sense of what your work is like. When you keep your team happy, you automatically keep your supervisor happy," as reported by Business Insider.
She had also planned regular check-ins with her manager to get feedback on her work and expressed her aspirations about working with specific software. This ensured that her manager looped her in when tasks of her interest emerged in the workspace. Vaidya earned 9,00,000 INR or $10,700 annually.
Two Promotions
A couple of years later, Vaidya was promoted to the position of software engineer from associate software engineer. She revealed that she followed female idols who served as a reminder to credit herself for the work as well and not just the team. She also ensured that she was vocal about her growth as well as her next promotions with her manager. Moreover, she documented all her achievements.
Vaidya said, “They knew that I was very invested in my career, and then my managers would really help me all around the year to get better projects." She was paid 1.2 million rupees, or $14,200 annually under this role.
The next promotion opportunity presented itself after four years where the software engineer was promoted to the position of senior software engineer and team lead. Her team included seven people. At the end of her projects, Vaidya took steps to showcase her work to leadership, such as sharing her insights with the team via the group chat. Additionally, she meticulously worked on her annual appraisal documents, revising them multiple times to ensure they accurately reflected her contributions.
She divulged, “I've seen that a lot of people don't take that very seriously, but it's something that goes into the system. That's going to be taken into account every time you move up the ladder.” This role earned her 2 million Indian rupees, or about $24,000 annually.
The international transfer
As she moved up the ladder, Vaidya felt a pull towards product management. Thus, she utilised her free time during the pandemic to research what jobs with more business strategy would look like. She revealed, “I set up 15-minute sessions with about 200 people on LinkedIn to understand what this field was. The more I talked to people, the more I realized it was something that I wanted to do."
When she felt that she was lacking the required skill set, she applied for a master’s course in the US to gain a better understanding of the global work culture. However, when she tried to resign, Oracle “didn't want to let me go,” she said. Since her role was crucial to releasing a product, the company offered a product management role in the US, instead.
She negotiated a higher salary, considering the significantly increased cost of living in the US, despite Oracle shouldering substantial expenses, including her visa fees. Vaidya shared, “You can't let the excitement show in the conversations that you're having with your hiring managers.”
To negotiate salary, she visited Glassdoor to gather data about salaries and had conversations with people who had made similar shifts in their careers prior to her.
She said, “I was being given this offer for the credibility that I had built in the organization. I felt like I had an upper hand in negotiating. I was much more confident in asking for the things that I deserve — so it ended up being a very smooth transition."
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