Arpita Dube: Women in Technology at Ohio State

Arpita Dube has always been interested in technology. From her first experiences with programming computers at home, to her current work as a Data Warehouse Analyst she has maintained a love for technology and innovative uses of the mass amounts of data in modern life.

We had a chance to speak with Arpita about how she began her career, her advice on getting involved with technology, and why she is passionate about data in technology.

Can you describe your day-to-day job? 

I have nearly 6 years of experience utilizing technology as a Data Warehouse Analyst in the Ohio State community. As a Data Warehouse Analyst I work in the data warehouse environment which includes data design, database architecture, security best practices, and metadata and repository creation. I also support the enterprise data warehouse system and corresponding data marts.

Apart from my daily job, I also interact with wonderful people from various departments within the OSU in various forms such as the culture team, Innovation hours and others. All these interactions help me better understand the difference my job is bringing in everyone’s life and how I can improve the application to address pain areas of the end users of the applications.

When (and how) did you decide to work in the technology field? 

Being a millennial, I grew up along with the advancement in the computer technology. I still remember my first interaction with the computer when I was in 6th grade and my father brought first computer to our home. I made the best use of the computer during my early childhood by playing games but later got fascinated by output generated by programs written by my elder brother. I believed it to be magic initially but later got curious to learn more about it. After completing my school, I decided to do my undergrad in the technology field and later I left my job to pursue higher education to further enhance my knowledge. My curiosity lead me to learn more about how computer technology works and made me pursue career in technology field.

What advice can you give young women who would like to take on a position in the technology field? 

Take a first step and then you will be able to find the path. Technology is a vast field but you don’t need to know everything. First identify couple of things that interest you or you do as a hobby. Second, identify couple of pain areas that you are experiencing in that area of interest. Third, talk to people, search on internet, or look around to find use of technology that aligns with your area of interest and solve the problem you are facing. This way it would be lot of easier to get in to the world of technology along with being expert in what you are doing. I believe that if my 60 year old mom can do it then anyone in this world can do it. She loves to read stories for the blind kids and feels sorry on days when she was not able to teach them. Now she uses her iPad to record the books remotely and send it to the school to play it. She also use the iPad to read newspaper, and connect with family.

How do you stay up-to-date with new trends in the technology world? 

Registering to the Internet forums is my first choice. I register to the websites of technology that I am interested in and I start getting emails containing details of advancement in that area. Second, I also go to the news websites and learn about the leading technology companies and what they are doing. This gives me opportunities to stay in touch with technology advancements. In addition, nature of my job also gives me opportunities to learn about new technology in the area of data warehouse and where overall data warehouse industry is going.

Is there any technology that you are particularly excited about right now? Why? 

I am fascinated about large amount of data captured by technology today and how information contained in that data can be used to make useful decisions. For example, consider Waze application. It not allow drivers to report poor road conditions but also provide large amount of data to the government organization to improve road conditions to make driving safe.

What has been your favorite moment/experience from working in the technology field? 

My favorite experiences are when I am able to make effective use of technology to improve people’s life. The work that I did have been used by various department within the OSU. The technologies that I developed till now are used by students, faculties, and employee from other departments. Many times I enjoy hearing from the people what they like about the application and what improvements that they expect to see. I am happy to make people’s life easy so that they can focus on more important things.

What has been the hardest part of working in the technology? 

Nothing. I believe once you start enjoying technology work, you see every challenge as an opportunity to improve yourself and to do something new.  

This feature blog post is part of our #OSUWomenInTech campaign. Hear more stories from female leaders involved in technology at Ohio State by following us on Twitter @TechHubOSU and stopping in store to see our digital signage features. Are you interested in getting involved with technology? Don’t forget to check out our Student Developer Kit and student project development grant opportunities.