Riya Gupta is an application developer at Inhealthcare, a UK leader in digital health and remote patient monitoring services. Here she talks about her career journey, having the skills to adapt to every environment and her future ambition to become CEO of a company.
How did you get into tech?
As a kid, I always loved maths and puzzles that involved problem solving, At school I got to learn programming languages and really enjoyed it. It was interesting to know the logic behind everything and how it worked and that got me into technology. I was fascinated to see how tech has changed the world. I decided to do computer science as my degree and that’s led to where I am today. Everyone in my family is a doctor. I wanted to do something different. My parents knew tech was a male-dominated field but said if that’s your passion, then go for it.
What do you like most about your job?
Every day is different. One day I’m working with data, another I’m working as a developer and then I’m testing something. No day is boring. I enjoy learning loads of new things and what makes it really fun is my colleagues: we work together and we play together. It is a good environment. Health technology really benefited during the time of Covid when everything went remote. People don’t need to attend appointments in person. They can do much more online.
What’s advice for future generations entering tech?
I would say just do a lot of research because there are so many opportunities. See where your interests lie and what you like doing. For women generally, I would say take as many leadership roles as possible. I like the roles that others are afraid to take. You should definitely believe in yourself and build your confidence.
What opportunities has the industry opened for you?
There are so many different career paths I can choose, ranging from software developer to tester to data analysis. I can develop a wide range of different skills so I can go into any industry. In my previous job, I worked with government and now I’m working in healthcare. These are two completely different paths but I’m comfortable doing both because these skills are helping me to adapt to every environment. While I was in India, there were not many opportunities for women to be in tech. I decided the UK would be a good option for me to broaden my opportunities.
What is the biggest challenge you have faced?
I would say it is getting out of your comfort zone where you know you are going to be the only female in a group of males. I remember my friends and family asking ‘won’t you feel a bit awkward? How are you going to do this?’ The most challenging part was to convince everybody this is my passion and this is where I want my career to go. If you really believe in yourself, I think you can overcome that challenge.
What are your future ambitions?
My hope is to be with a company where I can grow and where I know I can continue to learn. I want to prepare myself for leadership roles because my dream is to become CEO of a company. So I aim to work towards that. And I also just want to take on more responsibilities and become a good team player.
Here you can read how Inhealthcare has created 20 new tech jobs in Yorkshire to meet growing NHS