Aparna Sundararajan Manager - Technology Transformation Practice
A
parna Sundararajan recently left a role
were looking for economics students, so I got the
at Australian IT research and advisory
call and after a whole day of grilling interviews, I got
organisation ADAPT as an industry
selected. This job taught me to conduct research
analyst specialising in cybersecurity,
through primary and secondary sources to create a
data analytics and emerging
trend analysis of a particular market. So, I created
technologies and is about to take on a consulting role
market trends and influencers for the financial
focussing on cybersecurity and digital technologies.
services sector, manufacturing, automobile etc.”
Quite an achievement for someone who eschewed
This role was followed by a move into a global IT
family advice to study IT. After graduating in her
market research organisation, but not into an IT
native India in 2004 with a degree in economics,
analyst role. “The common notion across the team
Sundararajan vowed she would “never, ever work in
was that, since I did not have an engineering degree,
IT.” And she confessed just a few years ago to having
I could never be an IT analyst. However, as my
thought, “I will never track security, it’s boring.”
interest grew deeper I kept studying more in areas of cloud computing and enterprise software. Although
Sundararajan says, for her, “IT meant engineers and
I thought I understood technology enough to
codes. Codes meant algorithms and mathematics.
comprehend its business viability I was still working
I wasn’t interested in the subject, and I wanted to
in a backend support role.”
stay far, far away from it.” So, she joined a marketing agency as a brand manager, but not for long. “I
Her elevation to an analyst role came as the result
enjoyed my work, but it was repetitive, and the agency
of a confrontation with another team member,
culture was getting a bit too much. So, I quit my job
considered a top performer. “He was a published
and thought about my next career move.”
author. He had written technical reports that had been published on the portal for leading IT clientele.
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FROM MARKETING TO BUSINESS RESEARCH
He was the first from the team to accomplish this.
That move was into business research. “These were
On one of my projects, we got into a very stubborn
well paying jobs with great potential for growth and
argument, and it turned ugly. The management sided
international exposure. For one of these jobs, they
with him.”
W O M E N I N S E C U R I T Y M A G A Z I N E
S E P T E M B E R • O C T O B E R 2022
