My SWE Experience
“The kind of group you meet and the friends for life you make through SWE is immense. It’s an excellent platform to grow professionally and personally.”
What makes SWE valuable for you?
I’ve been associated with SWE for 10+ years, and there are a couple of things I really love about it. The first is networking—the kind of group you meet and the friends for life you make through SWE is immense. You meet people from different organizations and backgrounds, which gives you diverse learning opportunities and helps you understand practices outside your own company.
SWE is an excellent platform to grow both professionally and personally. It helps you develop interpersonal skills, step out of your comfort zone, and explore spaces you may not naturally go into, especially if you’re an introvert. And above all, SWE is a very safe space for all of us to be in.
Garima Yadav
Job Title & Company: Product Program Manager, John Deere
Location: Pune, India
Academic Background: B.E. Mechanical Engineering, EPGDBM, SIBM Pune
Years in SWE: since 2014
How do you use SWE resources and connections in your day-to-day work?
SWE provides excellent opportunities through its member offerings. After becoming a professional member, I started contributing in different ways—becoming a global ambassador, being an active member, and attending events and conferences.
One resource I use a lot is the Advance Learning Center, which has amazing webinars and recordings from speakers around the world. The mentoring platform is another thing I truly appreciate; I’ve benefited from it in the past.
Within the Pune Affiliate, we’ve also used the Leadership Competency Development Modules extensively. They helped us identify topics, design sessions, and support professional development for colleagues across different organizations. These are some of the things I’ve really enjoyed using as a SWE member.
What activities does your local SWE Pune Affiliate offer?
We’re proud that SWE Pune was the first affiliate in India. Over the last 10 years, our group has really matured, and we’ve structured our work into three verticals: outreach for school students, outreach for college students, and professional development.
For schools, we focus on girls in grades 8–10 and help them understand career options. We also partner with organizations to make these programs sustainable within their own ecosystems.
For colleges, we organize webinars, industry talks, mentorship programs, résumé writing sessions, interview preparation, and guidance on what the industry expects. We focus not only on sharing information but also on understanding students’ pain points to better support them.
In professional development, our flagship event is SWE Milan, which we’ve been hosting since 2015. It’s like a mini-conference with speakers, mentoring, and networking. We also host two smaller half-day PD events each year in partnership with organizations. Post-COVID, in-person events have gained so much traction—we often attract 100+ participants.
Our communications team is very active on LinkedIn and other platforms, helping us promote SWE Pune activities and also global SWE events like WE Local, webinars, and Coffee Circles.
How would you encourage an experienced STEM professional to explore SWE?
The energy at any SWE event, local or global, is just amazing. The only thing I tell people is: you have to attend it. Once you attend, you can’t go back. We promise that!
My biggest suggestion is to get started and step out of your comfort zone. Explore the power of networking. SWE helps you upskill professionally and personally. It’s not only about career development; SWE supports you in every corner and every phase of your life.
Many people in our affiliate pay their membership fees out of their own pocket because they enjoy the community, the learning, and the energy so much. And in SWE, you never feel someone is “senior” or “junior.” Everyone is warm, welcoming, and willing to share their knowledge.
So I would say grab the opportunity and unleash your skills and personality here.
Can you share a personal highlight from your SWE journey?
I was introduced to SWE in 2012 at my organization, John Deere, but I wasn’t very clear about what SWE was at that time. In late 2014 I became a member, and slowly I started volunteering with SWE Pune—initially just helping with tasks at events.
Before formally becoming a Pune Affiliate member in 2019, I volunteered for big events like the first SWEet Milan and a major confluence program that brought professional organizations together. Later, I served as Professional Development Lead, then Vice President, President, and now a Sponsor.
I started the Leadership Competency Development Module series in SWE Pune, volunteered at engineering events, and worked on college mentoring. When I became a global ambassador, I gave back to my own college by conducting sessions on industry expectations.
There have been many highlights—onboarding organizations into SWE during my presidency, winning a WE Local (now Global) Award, and seeing the joy on girls’ faces during Wow! That’s Engineering events. Honestly, I have more highlights in my SWE journey over the last six years than I have in any other part of my life.
