from moving on rugged terrains with warready missile systems for the indian air force to coding from comfy wfh settings for wells fargo squadron leader aditi sisodia retd has covered a vast spectrum in her professional life during her early days in rajasthan aditi had heard accounts of her paternal grandfather who was in the indian army and had played hockey with the legendary major dhyan chand and her maternal grandfather who was a deputy superintendent of police both had served british indiaaditi too was an outdoorsy kind she took up swimming and joined the scouts and guides at the age of eight she went on to do computer science engineering but in her fourth year she took the air force exam and got through even before earning the degree at 21 she became a neeli vardi wali a badge of pride worn by women serving the iaf her job as a technical officer in the missiles division of the iaf entailed maintaining missile systems for taking down enemy aircraft infiltrating indian territory missile technology systems are extremely processdriven secure systems with no access to external technical support you must always be mission ready i used to move with the systems camp in very basic conditions and work in combat zones says aditi a high point was when she got to steer an indigenisation project for missile systems under the make in india banner which later got selected at the iaf level to be presented to the prime minister on air force dayofficers released from service can take a certificate course in business management from iim indore after donning the iaf blues for 10 years aditi chose that option the veterans hiring programme at wells fargo opened the doors for her return to technology it was somewhat daunting as i hadnt coded for a decade and technology had changed immensely but the iaf trains you to be nimble and agile moreover wells fargo was offering training and reskilling for veterans with onthejob experience and learning opportunities says aditi she is assistant vp and senior software engineer at wells fargo india philippines the 33yearold designs and develops technology solutions for capital markets she is currently handling the cloud migration of a product used for resource management cost and accounting aditi says the secret to success lies in balancing pragmatism with passion while iaf was her dream securing a marketable skill such as engineering cushioned her career in the longterm and today a combination of both stands her in great stead