Today we are releasing our last spotlight for our "March Women of ThingWorx Navigate Spotlight" series. We are pleased to meet Minal Bidave, Section Manager of Software Development! PTC also wrapped up their own Women's History Month celebration today with participation in a 5K to benefit Girls on the Run Boston!
It is a great day for physical fitness and recognizing women making strives in technology like our friend Minal Bidave.
Jaime Lee: Hi, Minal, it is so nice to meet you! Can you tell me about yourself and your role here at PTC?
Minal: I am born and raised in India. I graduated from Information Technology & Systems from the College of Engineering, Pune. I joined the PTC Pune office in 2015 as a junior software development engineer in Servigistics InService (SLM) team and later moved to the ThingWorx Navigate product team in 2017. Today, I work as a Software Development Manager and lead a DevOps team that works not only on the ThingWorx Navigate product but also on the IIOT solutions like DPM, ThingWorx Apps, etc. My role as DevOps Manager is to implement DevOps methodologies throughout the SDLC, collaborate with cross-functional R&D Dev leads, PMs, TPMs, and cloud engineering teams, and oversee the development, cloud deployment, and integration of solutions, taking responsibility for their successful delivery. The most exciting part about my role is that it demands constant change which makes every day a new challenge and keeps things interesting for me.
Jaime Lee: What is your experience being a woman in the product at PTC? Have you found PTC to be a supportive environment?
Minal: I refer to myself as an accidental “DevOps Engineer” because I knew very little about it before joining PTC. The more I learned the more passionate I became and paved the way for a career in it.
Personally, it’s very important for me to constantly grow and push myself out of my comfort zone and PTC has always given me those opportunities and platforms to go explore new things, and career paths and go beyond my comfort zone. Hence, my experience and journey being a woman in the product at PTC has been exciting so far.
I’ve hit so many career goals at PTC with help of continuous support from my colleagues and the leaders. PTC always treated me the same way any other aspiring leader would be treated, with support and enthusiasm. This not only makes me feel empowered but also gives me a deep-rooted sense of trust, belief in my capabilities, and ownership of my role. I hope to pay it forward to other women in the product by providing a safe environment in which one can take risks, foster a growth mindset, and challenge the status quo to reach ambitious goals.
Jaime Lee: What is your favorite thing about ThingWorx Navigate?
Minal: I will have to start off with the oh-so-predictable but oh-so-true answer
I’ve learned something different from each one of them and they’ve certainly contributed to my growth as a professional.Apart from great people, my favorite thing is our product. Being able to see the impact of your contribution in real-time after hearing about customer success stories and 100 M ARR is a gratifying and quite fulfilling experience.
Jaime Lee: What advice would you give to any young woman today?
MInal: Become very good at what you do; continue learning to develop your knowledge and skill set; find a good mentor who can truly guide you professionally. Don’t settle for less than you deserve; speak up; celebrate yourself with every big or small win; take risks; define how you are treated and explore many career opportunities available to you and believe in yourself.
Jaime Lee: What does Women's History Month mean to you? Is it important that we celebrate one?
Minal: Celebrating Women’s History Month is a tribute to all the wonderful women in our lives and celebrate their worth and achievements.The women of the current generation are standing on the ideas and efforts of many women at every level who paved our path for going beyond gender limitations in all fields.This gives me an opportunity to pass the torch to future generations to be able to see a world where gender is not even questioned for what they do.
Jaime Lee: What do you like to do outside work?
Minal: Anything outside!
