Pragati Siddhanti – a woman of many hats

About Pragati
Pragati is an Indian expat living in Basel, Switzerland, for the last 4 years with her husband and 9-year-old daughter. Pragati is a business and integration Manager with Accenture, Switzerland, along with which she is the co-founder of two popular websites – Be for Beauty and My Swiss Story.

She wears different hats through the day, of a wife, a mother, a professional and a content creator. Her friends and family often ask her, “how do you do it?”. She smiles right back at them; she has decided to spill the beans for Vivamost today.

Her Story
Pragati was born in a middle-class family in India. She prides “the lack of resources” that her family had during her formative years – “My upbringing made me the person I am. I always had creative abilities, but I was always hard working.” She struggled with her looks and overall self-confidence; when she was in her teens, she was often taunted for being darker than her younger sister and later when motherhood hit her, she was bullied for her weight gain. “It is quite normal for your Indian relatives to pass snarky comments about your personal appearance, it was never considered inappropriate.” Now in her late 30s, and after accomplishing all that she has, Pragati now says, “As women we will always be too this and too that, life is too short to continuously care about what people might or might not think!” 

Pragati has worked in the IT enterprise application area for over 14 years specializing in development, design, architecture and execution of mid-size/large business-technology engagements. She has worked in various large multinational corporations such as SAP Labs, JNJ, Unilever, IBM and now Accenture. In addition to being a leading IT manager for years, she also co-founded two lifestyle blogs and a digital design agency with her sister. Be for Beauty focuses on lifestyle content and My Swiss Story focuses on travel, expat living and women empowerment. Their digital agency has given many niche brands an online identity and was born out of the blog and its many successes.

Pragati is a computer science engineer by education and has a master’s degree in Business and Information Systems. She loves technology and its role in enabling businesses. She thrives on her creative and entrepreneurial spirit and believes very strongly in uplifting, elevating, and encouraging women!

Super woman or not?
Pragati is often asked, “How do you manage to do all that you do?” “It’s definitely not easy”, she says. Pragati considers herself quite an obsessive mother who would love if her house was always in a perfect state. She also just has the same 24 hours that other people do, and just like everyone else she is quite human. “I do all the things that I do, not because I have to but because I really want to.”

Pragati’s top 5 tips to manage your time:
1. Prioritize – Pragati always prioritizes tasks and family always tops her list. Priorities are completely dependent on your goals and are personal to each one of us.
2. To do lists and trackers – Pragati will never be found without her diary on weekdays, even when she needs to declutter her mind, she starts to write things down.
3. Ask for help – Pragati knows that a full-time corporate career, a side hustle and a young family are all very demanding elements, she often relies on her spouse, sometimes her close friends and employs external help whenever she needs to. It is very important to have a support system in place, she says.
4. Don’t be too harsh on yourself – Pragati told us that she has learnt this the hard way, in her quest to do everything under the sun – she developed serious health problems mid of last year. Now, every time she feels overwhelmed, she just lets it go. “It is very important to take sufficient breaks and detach from time to time”, she says.
5. Well-being – She is very clear now and has learnt this lesson the hard way, she now realizes that health always comes first – everything else will then fall in place.

Her Vision and Her Dreams
Not so long ago, she has realized that her passion lies in giving back. Last year she featured over 60 women on her blog and her social media channels. She plans to continue the trend and keep giving women a platform to talk about their businesses and participate in creative projects. She regularly speaks at support forums and is a tech guest speaker at her university.

At this point in time, she would like to climb the corporate ladder keeping her values and feminine side intact. She hopes to grow her new website My Swiss Story, she understands the struggles and challenges an expat goes through and if her journey can help other fellow expats, then her mission would be successful.
In the long run, she would like to work in the field of education and share her experiences and learning.
If you’d like to connect with Pragati, follow her on Instagram where she documents her daily adventures or connect with her on LinkedIn which is her work avatar.

• Be for Beauty
• blogs
• Business
• career
• digital agency
• education
• India
• managing time
• My Swiss Story
• woman entrepreneur
• women empowerment
• women entrepreneur