Manisha Sahni on Why Your Biggest Growth Comes From Being Uncomfortable

<p>Manisha Sahni was convinced her career had been a straight line. Predictable. One sensible step after another.<br /><br />She grew up in India with two career options, doctor or engineer, and chose computer science without ever having watched anyone do it. Out of college she landed in a startup instead of a big company like everyone else in her cohort. She moved to the US in 2008, which she calls the worst possible time to arrive, and every year of experience she had built was erased.<br /><br />She volunteered to build a website for a neighborhood plumbing company whose owner wanted to post DIY videos before YouTube existed. That is the thing that got her into Google.<br /><br />Then LinkedIn. Then back to startups, because the large organizations were not where she enjoyed herself. Then management, which she stumbled into because other people saw it in her before she did. There is no college you go to for being a leader, she says. You just do it.<br /><br />And then last year, a company-wide reduction in force. Twenty years on the hamster wheel and suddenly no wheel. She started a podcast with friends. She set up a fractional practice and discovered she had entrepreneurship in her, which she had never suspected. Then she pivoted again into a domain she never imagined working in.<br /><br />Every single one of those jumps happened while she was uncomfortable. She knows that now, and she says the growth came from exactly those moments. Looking back, she told me, not having a plan has done wonders for her journey.<br /><br />Chapters<br />00:00 Meet Manisha Sahni: Twenty Years From Engineer to Engineering Leader<br />01:39 Growing Up in India With Two Career Options: Doctor or Engineer<br />03:41 Landing in a Startup Out of College and Getting Handed Python<br />08:18 Moving to the US in 2008 and Watching Your Experience Get Washed Out<br />09:17 The Volunteer Website for a Plumbing Company That Led to Google<br />11:34 What She Would Tell Her Younger Self: Pause and Enjoy It<br />14:32 Becoming an Engineering Manager Without Ever Wanting To<br />16:07 What Makes Engineering Leadership Different: Being the Translator<br />18:54 The Communication Gap Between Product and Engineering Teams<br />24:21 The Layoff That Took Her Off the Hamster Wheel After 20 Years<br />28:20 Why Your Biggest Growth Comes From Being Uncomfortable<br />36:09 AI as an Extension of You, Not a Replacement<br />39:36 I Thought My Career Was a Straight Line<br /><br />ABOUT MANISHA S