Hear it from Uma, the all-rounder at home and at work! She has some helpful tips on how to juggle home and work responsibilities while pursuing your dreams.
Uma
Uma hails from Bangalore, India. She studied Computer Phone Number Database Science and Engineering from Vemana Institute of Technology, Bangalore. She started her career at Vtiger in 2011 as a developer and has been working here ever since. That’s 11 good years… wow! She lives with her husband Shrinatha and their two-year-old son Sudharshan.
Uma currently leads the Vtiger open source team and manages all open source version responsibilities.
She interacts with the global community of Vtiger open source developers, analyzes their ideas and works on implementing them into the open source CRM to improve it.
It plays a crucial role in the open source market. It reviews external integrations for data security, product security, coding standards and performance, approves them and adds them to the open source CRM for improvement.
She also manages the biennial and quarterly release of Vtiger open source.
Finally, she develops and maintains the open source Vtiger wiki documentation to help CRM users.
Going forward, Uma plans to moderate and update documentation coming from global open source contributors.
Phew... that's a big responsibility, Uma!
What’s more interesting is that Uma’s passion is her work. “I love coding and developing new things! I love that developers have their own vision of the client’s requirements and strive to implement them. I am happy with my role at Vtiger. Last semester, I took web development as an elective. My subject teacher Syed Akram’s love for coding inspired me to become a developer ,” she said.
Uma also makes a significant effort to improve herself in technology. Here's what she does:
She follows Reddit to stay up to date with the latest technology.
She is currently taking the Javascript course on Udemy, which she finds very helpful.
She also credits her team for sharing their knowledge and helping her improve her skills. When it comes to personal growth and learning, Uma follows Mindvalley programs. She is currently enrolled in a course on how to learn fast.
As for Uma's personal life, we talked to her about fitness, hobbies and family. Uma loves to take care of her physical and mental health.
"Are you a fitness fanatic?"
“Yes, I have been practicing yoga for two years and have learnt almost all the asanas. It helps in maintaining mental and physical health. I have also taught some of my colleagues yoga. Now my husband and I jog every morning. I would say he is my fitness trainer. Starting your day with exercise will keep you energized for the whole day. I also participate in marathons whenever I have the opportunity.”
Fitness Minds
Uma follows Sudha Murthy for her simplicity and attitude towards life. She also reads her books and recommends Granny's Bag of Stories to moms. She loves cooking and playing Ho Ho. She also loves learning new things and taking online courses in her free time. She sure knows how to use her time wisely, doesn't she?
But when the pandemic hit us, our daily routine was disrupted. Working from home became the new norm and a really challenging task for working parents. “Life as a working mom is tough. Earlier, my son used to stay with my parents during the week and I would bring him to my place on weekends. But after the quarantine, we brought him to our place, my husband and me. Every day, I come up with a new plan to manage things. My son doesn’t like it when I work on my laptop. He doesn’t demand me to play with him, he just wants me to be near him. So, I give him some time while I cook and finish the work when he sleeps. Sometimes, it’s hard to get eight hours of uninterrupted work, so I rely a lot on time management. And after my husband comes home, he takes care of our son and I dedicate a few hours to work.”
Uma's husband, Srinatha, is very supportive and encouraging. He can't cook but helps her with other household chores. Especially during the lockdown, Srinatha has been more supportive than ever. As they say, an understanding partner is indeed a blessing and Uma believes that marriage is an equal partnership.