Anisha Patel: Career Journey in Program Management at Raytheon

Early Career and Education

• 💡 Anisha Patel's career journey was shaped by her upbringing in a first-generation Asian American household, where STEM-related topics were highly emphasized.
• 🧠 She developed a strong interest in mathematics, which led her to pursue electrical engineering, a field with a significant math focus.
• 🎓 Patel attended Georgia Tech for her master's degree in electrical engineering, where she was recruited by Raytheon (formerly E-Systems).

Transition to Program Management

• 🚀 Patel began her career at E-Systems as a hardware engineer, working on ground stations for the Global Hawk UAV.
• 📌 Informal mentors played a crucial role, suggesting different areas and programs based on her skill set.
• 🎯 A rotational assignment in program management in 2007 marked a significant career shift, which she describes as "going to the dark side" but ultimately finding her place.

Role and Responsibilities in Program Management

• ⚠️ Program managers are responsible for a wide range of tasks, from recruiting and ethics training to customer meetings and navigating current issues like COVID mandates.
• 📈 Anisha Patel emphasizes looking into both the future and the present on any given day in her role.

Diversity and Inclusion in STEM

• 🧩 STEM fields have broadened their scope to include areas like cybersecurity and cloud architectures, creating more avenues for entry.
• 🌟 Patel observes a greater diversity in candidate skill sets, including certifications and non-traditional career paths, which allows more females to enter STEM.
• ✅ She advocates for reviewing only the experience portion of resumes, removing candidate names to focus on capabilities and promote diversity of thought.
• 👏 Patel highlights her leadership style of driving teams to top performance while holding herself to the same high standard, working alongside them to achieve success.