Blanca: Today we have a special guest RAD Women coach mentor Krithika Dharmarajan who is a Salesforce Consultant at Slalom in Seattle. She is a nine times certified developer and she is a nerd at heart which I really admire because I always considered myself as an undercover nerd because I thought I was kinda cool but still a nerd. The other thing I would like to highlight about Krithika she is also the Seattle Salesforce Saturday leader. For those of you that are not aware of what Salesforce Saturday is check around on Twitter or in the Trailblazer Community because you may find that there are groups in your area that hold gatherings on Saturdays to learn about Salesforce and have discussions. Krithika has over five years software development experience and loves logic, chocolate, and dogs. Recently she spoke at the Slalom Quarterly Meeting to over 500 people as a RAD Women advocate. Krithika thank you for joining us today.
Krithika: Hey Blanca, thank you so much for having me. I’m very excited to talk about RAD and to everyone who is listening to this podcast I’m very happy.
Blanca: It was so cool to finally meet you in person at Dreamforce. It was like big hugs were mandatory.
Krithika: Yes. Yes. I think for me Dreamforce was like meeting like a family gathering. It was almost thought of because I got to meet everyone who I only knew through Twitter or through other channels and it was an experience.
Blanca: Yes it definitely was Ohana for me as well. Can you tell me a little bit about why did you become a RAD Women coach mentor?
Krithika: I think RAD Women of Salesforce to me was a happy accident, I think. This was in 2017, so this was my first Forcelandia and I completely loved and enjoyed the conference. For anyone who does not know about Forcelandia it is a great conference that happens in Portland every year during Summer and do take part in it. I was at Forcelandia enjoying the conference and gaining a lot of knowledge that’s where I happened to bump into Angela and they were talking about RAD looking for mentors and she saw potential in me. She was like, you should be a coach and it for me almost felt like a match made in heaven. I have always love to teach. Starting from school and when I was in college where I would give free math tutorials to kids in my neighborhood. To anyone essentially who could not afford to pay a tutor. Teaching has been something I’ve always been very passionate about. I always though the only avenue to teach was to go back to school and do it but I realized that this opportunity with RAD was special because I could give back to the community I’m working in that I live and breathe. That match was very special, and it was a great way I could channelize that energy of mine.
Blanca: I love that and I could agree with you. I could say and you probably see in some of my Twitter posts I refer to having found my “women in tech tribe”. I think it is a term that Jean Velonis who works at Salesforce coined or at least I saw here use it first. I was like I was genius because that is exactly what it feels like.
Krithika: It is.
Blanca: It’s other women like me who are tech savvy and are passionate about IT and they are family and they are my tribe.
Krithika: For me there are two sentiments with RAD that echo very deeply is the whole concept of education and knowledge sharing which in Sanskrit is actually is vidya which means and sharing knowledge is I think one of the biggest roles you can play in life, being a Guru and that for me echoed a lot. Also the fact that it focused on women and the mission of RAD which is to work on the gender gap and to get more women in technology. Both these sentiments are like this is my calling and I want to be part of this.
Blanca: Yeah and thanks for brining up a big point here. I want to take this opportunity to emphasize that the reason why RAD Women focuses on closing the gender gap is because the equality gap in technology, the ratios are so drastic. Look at how many women in tech and how many people from underrepresented communities there just is not enough of us in tech. That’s primarily why our big focus is on women now but it’s not that we don’t care about everyone else, we do. It is just such a drastic ratio there that we need to make change.
Krithika: Absolutely. I cannot agree with you more on that because there was this time in 2016 where I was waiting for my visa and I was exploring part-time jobs and at that time I was a substitute teacher at a high-school here in Seattle. I was essentially subbing in for a Computer Science teacher, she had a concussion and she could not make it. I was taking over her lesson plan and teaching in that school and it was very shocking for me that the Advanced Java class which was for I think 11th and 12th graders was primarily, only boys. There was not a single girl in that class and I think the fact that women are not encouraged in technology is a real issue that starts from school, to college, to the work environment we are in right now. It is a very real issue.
Blanca: Yeah and I don’t remember if we touched on this in a previous episode but I did read somewhere that they encourage society to work on introducing girls to any STEM program before fourth grade and that’s very young.
Krithika: Yeah.
Blanca: I don’t know how to manage that because some people in certain countries and even certain communities even, some schools here don’t even offer STEM programs that young and if they did you were really lucky to get into the program. I am glad we are all creating awareness that we need to look out for this because it is very real but we can make change little by little.
Krithika: Absolutely. Little by little.
Blanca: Can you tell me a little bit about what do you benefit from your coaching experience with RAD Women?
Krithika: For me I think being a coach it has been a journey where I have learned and gained my skills and curiosity. I feel my skillset gets sharpened. The more I teach, the better I learn concepts and I’m able to teach better. It helps me be a better learner. It definitely teaches me how to be patient because I always try to put that hat on and think, “oh my god how was I when I first started this journey? How did I learn?” It was not always the easiest to get into programming, to start learning how to code. The struggle is very real. Every time we start a new cohort at RAD I tell them that you will feel very frustrated, you will feel like giving up, this is a natural feeling but you have to just fight through it. You have to try to find that hope that you can do this. Often times learning how to code is first getting over that mental blocker that I can’t do this. Being able to comprehend that is the first step towards learning. For me I drive a lot on emotions, to see that sparkle in my learner’s eyes. I always try to tell them to keep their videos on so I can see them. I show them my face even if I’m coaching a 6 am class. I like to see the sparkle in their eye when they figure out, “oh my god this actually worked. The trigger actually called that helper method.” When they see that end to end flow happening that is some kind of happiness and joy that you see which I think is priceless. The benefits are complete.
Blanca: Thank you for sharing that Krithika. I’m sitting here and reflecting back on some of my childhood days and the struggle is very real. I remember when I was first learning how to ride a bike I was like in Kindergarten and I actually had my friends pushing me because I was too afraid to try on my own. When they let go, I crashed the bike into the ground and I had a black eye. I was terrified because I didn’t want to get back on there, but my mother insisted that I needed to get back on the bike. That I had to just stay and figure it out. So I did. I fought through it and eventually I was so good at bike riding that when I got older I was racing the boys in 3 mile radius and I was beating them in bike ride races. That is so true, that we can do it. It may take some time but we can learn we will achieve the goal and we have a great community of support here with RAD Women and in the Trailblazer Community in this Salesforce ecosystem.
I do want to touch on because you brought up a good point in terms of some of your courses you taught with RAD Women starting as early as 6 am. Many people may not know this, RAD Women is actually a world-wide program. Anyone in the world who wants to learn to code and is a woman admin can take the opportunity to apply for one of our cohorts. That is what makes this program remarkable, is that we have volunteers from all around the world help people from all around the globe.
Krithika: I think always one thing that fascinates me is the dedication of all the learners. The commitment to learn. I’ve had learners in different time zones like New Zealand and parts of Europe who wake up at like 4:30 am or 5 am their time to get up and are ready to listen to you teach. For me that kind of commitment is great. I have to this date have never missed a class. Never. I try my best. I’ve always had amazing support from all my co-coaches but I try my best to not miss and be there. It is important for us to show up and be responsible as the coach, as the mentor and guide them along their learning journeys. All that we are, we are their guiding light on their software development journey or on their journey into Salesforce. The community for me has been there and helped me even at the worst periods of my life. I feel that Salesforce in general being so open, accepting, and giving an opportunity, right because like I’m from India and I know an opportunity, or being from any country or community, having the opportunity to do be in technology and to learn and benefit from that is not something easy. Salesforce provides that opportunity for people from underrepresented people. It doesn’t restrain, you should have a technical degree, you should have a very strong educational background. There is no limitation. As long as you are willing to learn, the community accepts you and supports you which to me is one of the most attractive things about being in this community.
Blanca: I’ll add that having access to these resources are key. For those who are not familiar, RAD Women courses are 100% virtual and FREE like you said.
Krithika: And Free. We are absolutely volunteer-driven and it is FREE. This is one of the key things is that most people do not realize, we do this for free and to make the world a better place in a true sense. It is one of the most amazing things about the program.
Blanca: I’ll add, yes it is free in monetary terms but in time, sweat, commitment in learning to code that will be there and in the end it is even more rewarding when you learn how to do it. As a coach, you are rewarded when you can hear your learners explain and when you see then progress and they are successful in learning to code.
Krithika: Yes. For me week ten. In the 10-week program, week ten is when they present their solutions and they go over their code. I’m always looking forward to that week the most because I get to see the way they think, their creativity. So I’m a nerd at heart, as you introduced. For me software development is a very creative process. Writing code for me is like composing music or painting a picture. It is a lot of creativity. Everyone has their own style of coding and their own way of writing code. Week ten is when I really see the learners go through that journey and they get the hang of how they like to represent it. It is very beautiful to see them do that and you know we cheer, we clap and it is a fun hour and a half. All the learning comes together so that is always amazing to see.
Blanca: Yeah. As a former RAD grad I will shine some light on what it was like for me. When I did the final project I was paired up with three other learners from my group and we worked independently, virtually via email sharing code and meeting virtually via Zoom working together. I think that added some challenge because for some of us it was new to work with others that closely virtually. It was also very inspiring because you get to see everyone’s perspective and how they interpret the content and how their logic went into the code and it may not have been how you originally plan. You guys work on it together.
Krithika: It’s almost like admiring someone’s piece of art. Each person has their own style of doing it. You did bring about a great point, collaborating together which is what we will do in real development teams. It is most often that you are working with people and you are talking to other devs in all the projects I’ve been part of. The developer community is also actually not as non-communicative as it is usually described. I think a good developer community is where you are collaborating with your fellow developers, having peer reviews, working with them you are brainstorming new ideas. Any innovation can only happen when people come together from different backgrounds, have different ideas, different perspectives and at RAD we also help provide that environment. The learner group setting is such a safe space because we always talk about we can always ask any question. No question is considered a bad or invalid question. You can ask any question. We tell them that this is a safe space. No one is going to judge you in any manner. This is so great. I think it is an amazing platform for any learner to get started.
Blanca: I think that feeling vulnerable and having to be in a place where you may at first feel insecure, that is really scary. It’s actually pretty terrifying and can very easily turn someone off to say, “oh no, I’m not even going to try that. I can’t do it.” Even before they actually started to try it and that is what I do really appreciate about RAD Women coach mentors. They take a lot of time to work with the group and put a lot of focus in cultivating that safe space. Krithika, can you tell me a little bit about how has being a part of RAD Women changed you?
Krithika: Oh, (laughs) it’s changed me so much. When I initially started with RAD, I didn’t realize the impact this program has on people. The impact it has on me, for me personally I feel grateful to have had the opportunity to be a part of it. To be able to teach and reach out to so many learners all across the world and share my perspective, share my knowledge with them which would not have been possible without RAD being there. It has improved my confidence, it has improved my communication skills and the people I get to meet I think I feel very grateful to have the opportunity to talk to similar like-minded coaches who have different ideas. With each co-coach I learn a new thing and their way of delivering, their way of teaching. The people I get to meet are so warm, so welcoming and always ready to help. Any time I’ve written and email to Angela, Melissa, Kieren, they always respond back. There’s never been a time they have not responded. Being a part of this community makes me feel happier.
Blanca: I will say, I saw your Twitter post from Dreamforce, and you shared a photo of you and Dan Appleman, Apex Guru. I was like, “oh my god he’s awesome”. I have his book and like what wealth of knowledge he has and you mentioned earlier that one of your co-coaches was David Liu this last session. I think that’s one of the marvelous parts of this ecosystem, that everyone even if they are not teaching in the RAD Women program, they care about who is learning to develop for the Salesforce platform. They care about making sure that we are following best practices and that we know what we are doing moving forward.
Krithika: Absolutely. As teachers, as mentors, we have a lot of responsibilities in terms of what we are teaching our learners. How are we teaching them to write code. In this era, in this generation especially, it’s almost like being a software developer is like being an architect of a building. Right, so if the building is going to fall down, you are going to be responsible for it, if you helped engineer the building. Writing code is very similar to that because doing it responsibly and with the best practices and knowing all the best practices as important. Technology is not something you should be taking lightly. I’ve always looked up to all my mentors throughout my career who have introduced me to Salesforce. From my teachers in Singapore and at Accenture, and now at Slalom I value everyone’s input. I always believe that you learn better when you are in an atmosphere where there are people mentoring you constantly and you are mentoring people constantly.
Blanca
: Yes. I think in this community if you are brave enough to put yourself out there whether it’s on Twitter, the Trailblazer Community, or your local group meetings, there are an abundance of coaches and mentors and sometimes people will become your mentor in a very organic way. For instance, myself I was a RAD grad in 2018 and I didn’t know anybody in this ecosystem before RAD Women. Now I have many mentors and many friends and many ohana members that I can lean on and that we support each other. We are there like cheerleaders motivating each other to keep going forward.
Krithika: Absolutely. I think the part about being brave and not hesitant is so important because what I’ve realized that often that initial apprehension to just go reach out to someone is big. You are very apprehensive. But if you can overcome that and you know just ask someone for coffee, tell them I want to talk more. Help me talk to you about my career, talk to you about what I should be learning. Learning is something that is so constant in our life right now. We have to keep learning in order to catch up. Reaching out for help is something I think more of us should be doing more and more.
Blanca: That’s true and everything changes so fast in IT and especially with Salesforce having the multiple releases a year. Asking for help is not a negative thing. It is actually a very positive thing because, one you know better to ask instead of trying to spend three times, or five times, or ten times trying to figure it out on your own and maybe you can’t figure it out. Or maybe you figure it out but it’s not the best practice. Knowing how to reach out and knowing the different levels of reaching out. You explained that the apprehension can be there, but I think that even if you are not comfortable with someone of asking a question in person, there is also the option of online vehicles for you to interact and ask questions. That is through Twitter, LinkedIn, the Trailblazer groups that are specialized and maybe more in your areas of technical interests but then also in geographical area.
Krithika: I feel in fact, lucky that I am lucky to be in this era. In this time and age. I wonder how my great-grandfather or grandfather would feel about not being a part of so much technology. Not being able to access resources easily, it is our responsibility to reach out and overcome that apprehension.
Blanca: Krithika, let’s shift gears. We are going to get a little up close and personal here. What inspires you?
Krithika: For me I think the biggest inspiration in life has been looking up to the very strong women in my household. Growing up my mom, my grandmother has been with a lot of women in the house. I have a sister. Seeing them being strong women who multi-task who help so much. My mom is a doctor and helps so many people. Giving back and seeing her give so much makes me feel like these women are so awesome in their way. They have essentially been my strongest motivation and inspiration to give back what I have learned and what I have gained. The emphasis has always been on getting an education growing up. Learning, willingness to learn, staying humble has been grounded well inside me. I would say she is my biggest inspiration.
Blanca: I think that is yet another thing we have in common. My mother is a single mom of two, me and my sister she raised. My mom has five sisters.
Krithika: Yeah, my mom has three sisters. All my aunts are like partially my moms. It’s amazing that they with having very limited resources growing up fought their way through and have made it so big in life. That motivates me. They always say that you should have inner strength. You should have the positivity and be humble at the same time. I am very thankful for them for instilling those values in me.
Blanca: I would say that sometimes, well there has been various times in my life where I didn’t always feel very supported. I will say this specifically to being in tech cause although I had a lot of women in my family, I didn’t have any women in my family that were in tech. No one was really that engaged with computers at the level that I was and sometimes life can be challenging. Sometimes it is hard to find motivation. It is hard to find a way to look at the brighter side. I do think that being a part of this ecosystem and having ohana members around you, that is one thing we do very well. If you are having a bad week maybe personal, maybe professional whatever it may be, we are always there to help out in whatever way you feel comfortable with us helping out. With RAD Women, it’s hard work but we are flexible because we want people to be successful. We want women to pass the cohort. Pass the final project. Whatever we can do to accommodate to you getting to the end goal, we try our best.
Krithika: It gives me immense joy to see even if one of the learners in the cohort decide to make a career change, or if they decide to take software development, or not take software development, I’m just happy that they tried. They went through the ten weeks. They learned something because time is such a valuable asset. As grown adults, if these women have decided to dedicate that amount of time towards learning, towards themselves, then I respect that a lot. I encourage that a lot. For me success is that they go through the ten weeks with us and they come of out of it knowing, learning something new and benefiting from it.
Blanca: Yes, time is a valuable asset. For everyone involved, whether it’s RAD Women or another program like this one, or any community group leaders, people who put on trainings and BAM (Be a Multiplier) sessions, thank you because that is hard work. Time is valuable and we appreciate you.
Krithika: Yes. I love the community. I love the ohana for this reason that everyone is out there helping each other spending time and investing time in people which is what our industry is.
Blanca: We have to remember that investing in other people also means investing in our future. Our impact has a ripple effect. Our youth are our future. So if we can help maybe someone who is a mom to get a better position to better provide for her family, then our youth are going to have more opportunities to succeed are for them not to have the same struggles that we had growing up.
Krithika: I strongly advocate the concept; each one teaches one. Each one is able to teach one other person, the world would be a much better place. I in fact, the day before yesterday was in an Uber and my Uber driver was talking to me about how she was going to try nursing school and give it a shot. She was contemplating getting into nursing or getting into technology. I spoke to her about Salesforce for like 45 minutes and I was like okay I’m encouraging her to come to the ohana. She was like, “oh my god this is so awesome. I didn’t know all these resources are available. In school I did not get this opportunity.” I responded, “yeah, it’s out there and you should just check it out. It’s all free and you can be part of the community.” It’s that we need to encourage and support each other.
Blanca: You brought up a number of times on this interview today, the importance of education. I wanted to say that education doesn’t always come easy for everyone right. Depending on where you are in the world and what resources you have and not everyone can even afford to go to college. I’ll be honest, when I was looking to transition out of my last role. This was before I got into the RAD Women program, I had considered taking a 24-week part-time bootcamp program with a very prestigious university to learn Python and a few other languages for web development. But it was ten thousand dollars plus and I would have had to take out another student loan. I said, “hmmm yeah I don’t think that is going to work out very well.” That is a reality that we need more options and yes Salesforce has programs like Trailhead where you can learn online and go to your local meetings, find programs like RAD Women that are free or low-cost ways to get access to resources to educate yourself in areas that you might be of interest technically.
Krithika: That is a very true saying where it’s difficult to have access to education and the fact that Salesforce provides a learning platform like Trailhead and absolutely free and anyone can access to is a huge advantage. The more people that are aware of it, the more people can change their livelihoods because this lady was talking to me was bartending and driving Uber and trying to make ends meet. It will be a game-changer for her to get into technology to have a better life. She told me, “I’m interested in it.” She like doing it. If that meets what is available then I think it’s a good match.
Blanca: Yeah and there are other programs if you are not interested in learning how to code. There are other programs like PepUpTech, Amplify, Ladies Be Architects that have programs, workshops and classes that you can do in other areas outside of learning to code.
Krithika: Absolutely. I love the VetForce program also. I love the way Salesforce supports veterans. I don’t think there a program like this in India. I was thinking the other day, oh my god we should have something like this back home because Veterans have to also be celebrated. According to me they do so much for our country and for any country the veterans should be respected and the fact that Salesforce ties up with Veterans and gives them access to resources and the admin cert, I think is awesome.
Blanca: Yes and for anyone out there is a Veteran or is currently in the service, know that we really appreciate you. We know that is a very tough job and a way of living and there is a lot of sacrifices that goes along with that and we thank you.
Krithika: Yes, thank you.
Blanca: SO I think we may have to figure out how to have another podcast episode where we talk a little bit more fun about yoga and dogs.
Krithika: Oh, yes. Thank you so much for having me. This has been an absolute blast to talk to you and I just love the energy, the passion and enthusiasm, you are such a nice person. I could feel it when I spoke to you the first time. I could feel the positivity you are radiating. The most infectious positivity so thank you for everything you do for RAD. You are the RADest.
Blanca: I will be honest, it’s actually the RAD Women program that ignited this very contagious energy that I have. And everyone in this ecosystem and in the ohana that has helped fuel this and keep it burning.
Krithika: Absolutely, the leadership team is amazing. I know all three of them and they are such good people. They have really been the “avalanche of change” that has been brought about in our community. Big kudos to them.
Blanca: So let me ask you this, if there is someone out there who is interested in becoming part of this “avalanche of change”, what would you say to them?
Krithika: I would say, sign up! Reach out to us, you can be a coach mentor if you have a year or two development experience. You can always help us out in shaping someone’s future. You are literally going to change someone’s life through the learning you are going to provide to them. Always reach out to us and don’t be hesitant that I may not good at delivering, I may not know how to teach because I think the RAD program is designed in such a nice way that you always have someone helping you even how to be a coach. That is the beauty of the program, we have learners coming back to be coaches, or you have new learners being taught by returning coaches who have been doing this for some time. Don’t be hesitant and reach out is the one piece of advice I would give.
Blanca: Thank you Krithika and I hope that one day in the future, maybe at another Dreamforce, we can squeeze in a yoga session together.
Krithika: For sure. Thank you.
Blanca: For anyone on Twitter you can find Krithika at @krithikaiyer.
Krithika: Thank you for having me.