Sathya Chandrasekar is very much at the start of her journey with ABB, yet her route into the company has been rather more circuitous than most. Educated in Tamilnadu, Sathya found upon leaving university that opportunities in the Indian electronics industry were limited for a woman of her age and experience. Even so, she always harboured ambitions of one day working for a company like ABB, and putting her skills as a qualified electronic design engineer to good use.
After bouncing around various internships in India, Sathya later moved to Dundalk, whereupon she discovered by chance that ABB had recently opened a multi-million dollar R&D centre for the pulp & paper industry. This, she decided, was going to be her way in.
“In India you need at least 10 years’ experience to get anything” explains Sathya. “I managed to get the odd internship here and there, but nothing permanent. I couldn’t believe my luck when I moved to Ireland and found the perfect opportunity right on the doorstep.”
Sathya has been with ABB for almost a year as an R&D Electronic Design Engineer, and her primary duties revolve around designing and testing the PCB boards used in paper scanners.
“My background was in HVAC” continues Sathya, “So pulp & paper was new to me, but I’m learning as much as I possibly can every day. While I had a great deal of theoretical experience, I had very little practical, so I’m very grateful that ABB saw potential in me and decided to take me on.”
“Having an environment in which I can learn and grow has been so important. When I started I was in a new role in a new country, and I was very shy about expressing myself. My colleagues trust me and allow me to be myself, and they also encourage me to learn and take opportunities.”
With the help of her colleagues Sathya settled in quickly, and she soon found that the collaborative environment brought out the best in her: “Pulp & paper is fascinating” says Sathya, “Now I can’t look at a piece of paper without thinking about how it’s made, and how we can improve the technologies used. Everything’s interconnected. The software guys need to know what I’m up to with the hardware so they can build software around it. I’m learning so much from other teams and from speaking to different people, and just getting different perspectives on things.”
Sathya also appreciates the flexibility that the role offers. “During the summer I couldn’t get to the office every day as commuting hours increased, and I live beyond walking distance. I asked my manager if I could work from home often, and they changed my duties to accommodate me, which I’m incredibly grateful for.”
As for the future, Sathya considers the sky to be the limit: “When I started here they told me that they weren’t going to judge me on my first day, they would judge me on what I showed them in my first six months. I can’t think of anywhere else I’d rather be – there’s so much opportunity to grow, and I want to experience all of it.”
“I’m still at a junior level, but I’d be interested in managing one day. One of my most rewarding experiences in the past year was when we had some university students in to see what we do here. I was able to explain electronics to them, and some of them even said that what I told them made them want to go into a career in the industry.”
Sathya’s unusual journey into ABB shows that even if one door seems closed, there’s always a chance that another can open elsewhere. “Getting here has not been easy” concludes Sathya, “It’s required a huge amount of determination, and you need passion to be able to succeed. My advice to anyone else is to not be afraid to try new things, and also not to be afraid to say you don’t know something, because that’s how you learn.”
