We were lucky to catch up with Manali Dhoot recently and have shared our conversation below.
Manali, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
I work at Meta as a Data Analyst, I draw my resilience from my passion for data and the knowledge that my work has direct impact on the broader community. As a part of Meta, I feel constantly motivated by the facts that the products I support reach billions of users worldwide, and it’s my responsibility to ensure trust and safety users who use Meta products to post their content on social media. This sense of purpose goes beyond just doing my day to day job, but it rather drives me to continuously learn and improve, knowing that my efforts contribute towards making a positive impact on billions of users via safeguarding the social media they post on. I find joy in helping community by using my skillset to dive into complex information available, uncovering insights and developing solutions that address real world problems. The opportunity to collaborate with talent individuals from diverse backgrounds and have a lasting impact on public fuels the enthusiasm at work for me everyday. I feel motivated in every project of mine to deliver a lasting impact on the world not just Meta.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
As I reflect on my journey, I am reminded of my pivotel moments that have shaped me as a professional I am today. Growing up in India, I was always fascinated by the world of data and its potential to drive meaningful change. This passion led me to pursue Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering where I was fortunate to be selected by the first company which came for job placements. I worked as a Intern at Computer Science Corporations and bagged a full time Data Developer offer from Deloitte Financial Advisory Services India. My time at Deloitte in Hyderabad was incredibly rewarding, as I worked on projects involving financial clients to ensure their KYC compliance and identify risky customers, and develop solutions and improve their systems to mitigate risks.
My desire for further education and growth led me to pursue Master’s degree in Management Information Systems from the University of Texas at Dallas. I was honored to receive multiple scholarships and serve as a Teaching Assistant for several professors, which not only deepened my understanding of subject matter but allowed me ro give back to the academic community. Following my graduation, I spent 4+ years at Deloitte Business Analytics and Transactions in United States working on client facing roles with world’s top financial institutions to improve and analyze the risk and compliance. My experience in risk advisory gave me a unique perspective om importance of data driven decision making and impact it can have on broader organizations.
Since I started my career, I always dreamt on joining one FAANG tech giant, which came to reality with join in Meta which has given me an incredible opportunity to apply my skills and expertise in Analytics and Machine learning to make a tangible difference in the lives of millions of users worldwide. As a part of Global operations, I have worked on several challenging projects and data programs focusing on response for high risk world events, elections, PR escalated issues, teen and child safety issues, etc. I am currently supporting Content Integrity at Meta with operational and transparency reports, predictions, forecasting, and innovative use of GenAI and new products like Threads and Reels ensuring they stay harm free and ensure trust of their users. My work is dedicated to ensuring trust and safety of social media content shared by millions of users by helping cross functional and specialized enforcement teams to act properly when a harm is spread digitally. It is truly fulfilling and satisfactory to know every morning that my work has direct impact on creating a safer online environment for entire world and community.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Throughout my journey, I have found 3 most useful qualities, skills or areas which were useful for my success:
1. Adaptability: As I transitioned from one role to another, I had to quickly adapt to new environments, technologies, and global team in multiple timezones, plus a diverse background of clients and audiences for my work. The ability to be flexible, navigating through ambiguity, and being open to contant change allowed me to thrive in various roles and helped me take new challenges with confidence, which kept me moving fast towards my goals.
2. Passion to Learn: My passion for data has been a driving force throughout my career. Developing strong data analytics skills, learning new technologies and techniques to apply artificial intelligence techniques, building models, etc. Has enable me to increase impact by extracting invaluable insights, intelligent solutions and proactively mitigating risks for organizations helping them make informed data driven decisions. This skillet has been instrumental in helping drive community wide impact at both Deloitte and Meta.
3. Effective Communication and Vision to serve a broader purpose: My ability to communicate complex ideas and data driven insights effectively to both technical and non-technical audiences has been crucial in my success. The skill has allowed me to build relationships with clients, colleagues, peers, and leadership, ultimately leading to my mission to help broader community with the work I do. I always wanted my work to positively influence day to day of community using my services, which I feel satisfaction at my work day to day.
My advice to folks early in their career is:
Embrace new experiences, take diverse projects, and open to learning from failures. This will hrlp you develop a growth mindset and being more agile to change.
Continuously invest in learning and research by taking projects outside work to learn something new, seek opportunities to use AI based techniques to do smart work over just working hard. Stay up to date with new industry trends and remain competitive.
Try articulating your ideas to your audience like you would explain to a 5 year old, with simple solutions, seek feedback and take it constructively, tailor your message for different audiences and try serving for a bigger cause which not only help a individual or an organization but could scale to help community as a whole.
What has been your biggest area of growth or improvement in the past 12 months?
Over last half, my biggest area of growth and improvement has been in keeping up with the rapid pace of technological advancements, particularly in the realm of GenAI. As the industry continues to evolve at incredible rate, it’s very essential to stay ahead of the curve and adapt to new tools and methodologies.
One of the significant challenge these days is balancing need to work smart over hard, while also ensuring incorporation of AI and chat bots is done safely and responsibly. With Meta’s commitment to user safety and innovation, it’s critical to strike right balance when leveraging new technologies to decrease manual efforts and ensuring usage of AI without exploiting or misusing.
To address this, I have been focusing on developing and honing my skills to use Gen AI and ML techniques, attending industry conferences and workshops, engaging with experts in the field. I am also working with teams leveraging the AI products and who built this to understand features and their safety and privacy, proactively monitoring and developing metrics to measure potential risks and calling out vulnerabilities.
Through this process, I have learned importance of being agile and adaptable in rapidly changing world which is moving towards AI. I have been improving my own efficiency, productivity, effectiveness by staying ahead, learning something new every day, using GenAI and other AI based tools to work smart while also contributing to innovative and responsible products being developed for benefit of wider community and users of these services around the world.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/manali.dhoot/profilecard/?igsh=MjZsdm5nMmtwODBj
- Facebook: https://www.alpha.facebook.com/manali.dhoot?mibextid=ZbWKwL
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/manali-dhoot?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=android_app
- Other: Threads
https://www.threads.net/@manali.dhoot?invite=0
Image Credits
group photo is from University of Texas at Dallas
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.