FLOW4YOU - Pavitra Badiger – Service Product Manager
“It takes courage to rise to a challenge”
Pavitra Badiger – Service Product Manager
A GEA employee since: 2014
Her three most pronounced character traits: confidence, courageous, and targeted
Her advice for going with the flow: “Don’t get in a fluster over difficulties – stay focused.”
Pavitra, what do you enjoy the most about your job?
“The challenge! No two problems and no two customers are the same. I find this refreshing. There’s a degree of routine to the job, of course. But in day-to-day work, it’s important you have something you can be passionate about so that you don’t fall into a rut. It’s important that I have new challenges to face again and again, challenges that give me joy. This is always the case in my line of work. Which is why I look forward every day to doing what I do for a profession.”
You haven’t been with GEA Flow Components for very long. How did you come across the company?
“Actually, it’s more that GEA came across me (laughs). Before I joined GEA, I worked for a major enterprise in the oil and petroleum industry in the US. The pumps and valves used there are very different to GEA’s products. My current employer then brought it to my attention that the company was planning to establish a branch in India and that they wanted to include me as a team member. I was initially skeptical because it’s such a different industry. But upon taking a closer look at the offer, I realized the two industries had a lot in common and there were a lot of new and varied challenges for me to rise to. Obviously, this piqued my interest, so I started work at the company’s branch in India in 2014, then switched to GEA Flow Components in Büchen, Germany, in 2021.”
You’re a trained mechanical engineer and established yourself in a traditionally male-dominated sector in India. That’s quite something. How did you achieve this?
“In my experience, courage is something that a lot of women are unfortunately unable to embrace. They tend not to believe in themselves enough and ask themselves ‘Can I have a go at that? Can I do it? Can I be as good at it as a man?’. In my field in particular, male dominance is absolutely a thing. But it takes courage to rise to a challenge, courage to dare to take that step and make a change. In my opinion, this is something that’s absolutely necessary. And I think ‘courageous’ is a word that describes me well. I hope many more women will follow my example so that women working in my field will no longer be something unusual in the future.”
