‘Work hard but smart,’ Yahoo! India Senior Director Mani Abrol

Mani Abrol has 18 years of experience working on cutting-edge technologies across many innovative companies. Today she is the Senior Director Engineering at Yahoo! India. She advises young women not to shy away from technology and shares the secrets of her success.

Edited excerpts from the conversation:

Working hard and smart makes you successful

I grew up in Chandigarh, in a typical middle class. My parents are teachers, and I grew up in a very academic environment, and my parents pushed me to have a very strong professional education. At that time, we did not have many options in India. One had to do either engineering or medicine. I chose to pursue engineering.

‘Working hard makes you successful’. This was the mantra my parents instilled in me very early on. I carry this lesson with me to this day. However, in this day and age, I don’t think just working hard is enough. You have to work smart as well. You also have to stay up-to-date with the changing trends. Everything is changing so fast.

I had led a really sheltered life in Chandigarh. To challenge myself, I wanted to get away from that life and move to the US. Though I loved living in Chandigarh, I wanted to expand my horizons beyond my home city.

Moving to the US

At Punjab Engineering College, I enrolled in electrical engineering. But soon, I realized that was not my interest area.  Even during my bachelors, I enjoyed my programming courses most. In my second year of Masters, I transitioned to computer science.

Going to the US was a big challenge for me, because I had to work a lot harder there. Huge work-load and being away from family were initially hard, but after six months I started enjoying it.

Starting career in “Search”

Right after I graduated, I joined the Digital Equipment Corporation in Maryland, and worked there for a year in 1996. I had met my husband in the US and both of us wanted to move to California, since most of our batch-mates were in California. I joined a company called Verity there in 1997. I was very interested in working in Search, and Verity was working on Enterprise Search Products. Back then Search was just starting, and I stayed with Verity till 2005. I left because we had decided to move back to India.

I really enjoyed my years at Verity, and I got to work with extremely smart people. During that time, I had offers from larger companies but I decided to stay with Verity because I was learning a lot. I don’t regret that decision. We were working on enterprise search technologies and I realized I would not get such exposure anywhere else. I am thankful for those days and experiences.

Moving back to India & leading a startup to acquisition by Yahoo!

When I moved to Bangalore, I joined Yahoo!. I was with Yahoo! Labs and Research and I was doing a lot of data mining related work. After five years at Yahoo!, I left to join a startup, Lexity. I had actually worked with the founder at Verity and I knew him pretty well. He wanted me to set up the entire India team. Initially, I was very hands on and was working on the product. Within two years, by the time of Lexity acquisition by Yahoo!, we were about 20 people in India. We got acquired by Yahoo! and post which I joined the India team as Senior Director.

It has been a very interesting journey so far in India for me professionally.

Yahoo! has a bright future under Marissa Mayer

Yahoo! has a lot of positive energy, with the new leader. The good thing is that Yahoo! continues to invest in the small business space that we were working on at Lexity, and we are still focused on that business. That is very exciting for me personally.

We are working on helping small to medium businesses become successful, and it is extremely challenging. Making a small business successful is hard, especially in the advertising space. If you look at advertising today, the marketplace is designed for advertisers with large budget. So the problem statement is challenging. I also believe that if you make small businesses successful, the whole economy thrives. I think Yahoo’s best days are just around the curve. Marissa is a tremendous leader and under her leadership, we are seeing a lot of energy and momentum.

Personal drive

Through my career, I have not thought so much about going up the corporate ladder. However, what I continually ask myself is am I enjoying what I am doing and am I adding value? Titles do not matter as long as you are learning and adding value. I keep myself going by doing work I love. Titles are secondary.

Advice to young: Embrace technology

Stay in touch with technology as long as you can, even though you want to move to managerial role, being a tech expert gives you an advantage that others don’t have. Keep challenging yourself and keep growing.

How to stay productive

In terms of managing my time, my family is very important. In the evenings, I set aside certain time which is for my family and don’t check my email etc. When I start my day, I have a list of two-three things that I prioritize to get done that day. And that is how I mentally prepare myself and make sure I am on top of things. There are certain things I know I won’t be able to do and I don’t stress myself about them and instead focus on what I can and need to get done.

Reading is relaxing

I am a very voracious reader. I read a lot of fiction and once in a while pick up an autobiography. I read a lot of blogs and online publications too. Recently I read ‘The Book Thief’ which I totally loved.