Read about Meena Shah

What brought you to a career in technology at the United Nations?

As a software engineer, I was always interested to work at United Nations and support developing countries through technology. This motivated me to work as a National Information Technology officer in Nepal working as a consultant in Department of Customs. Later, I started working as an International Information Technology Officer supporting for Asia region.

What has been your favorite IT project at the United Nations and what was your technical contribution?

I am a hard worker and I always like doing challenging work that motivates me to improve my skills. My favorite IT project is related to Bangladesh Customs, where I had to fix the issues with server performance caused by poor coding practices. I managed to successfully resolve the issues by re-engineering the source code and by handling the proper exceptions.

What advice would you give women interested in pursuing a field in technology?

I would like to give the following advice to women interested in pursuing a field in technology: 1) Always stay curious to learn new technologies as tech industry is changing rapidly. 2) Ask for feedback and take criticism positively. 3) Don't panic! Keep a good work/life balance. 4) Always try to work in group and communicate with your colleagues. 5) Create more female role models working in technology so that it will help other women get motivated.