Success Stories: Zareen Kazim

Berlin Buzzwords Success Stories is our brand new blog series where we ask people in the bbuzz network to share their own story.

Part of ensuring a wide range of opinions and ideas can be shared at Berlin Buzzwords is ensuring that people from underrepresented groups within the Berlin Buzzwords community can attend and engage with the discussions.

Historically Berlin Buzzwords, like the tech scene at large, has been a pretty white and male dominated space. One way we want to change this is to highlight some of the voices of people in our network from underrepresented groups. We want to share their stories and learn what drove them in their careers.

Today, we hear from Zareen Kazim who has been a volunteer at Berlin Buzzwords in 2016. We stayed in touch ever since and are happy to welcome her again today. Welcome, Zareen!

As a minority woman of color convincing my family to let me study outside the homeland was a nearly impossible dream for me. This very dream was the only drive that let me break stereotypes and dive into some fascinating industries: Technology, Nonprofits and Education. I was also lucky to experience working in three continents - Asia, Europe and America. 

I started my career at Dell while studying and then went on to spend nearly 6 glorious years at Google learning everything about the digital space from the ground up; while working across multiple Google products, and prominent geographies. Subsequently, I moved on to mid level management and specialized roles at IBM and startups in Europe.

I've a history in managing people, leading high impact programs and projects related to search quality, user privacy, trust and safety, digital marketing, customer success, community management  in multicultural set ups. I also have experience working in AI and machine learning especially Deep learning. Academically, I did my graduation in computer applications in Hyderabad, India and I have an MBA from Budapest, Hungary with a specialization in Entrepreneurship and Digital Marketing.

In my last role at Indeed I worked in their global search quality operations team. I managed almost all aspects of Content Management, Operational Excellence, Process Efficiency and product development for various abuse types to ensure good quality of jobs on the Indeed platform.

In a nutshell - I facilitate growth by equipping people, improving processes and providing unique user experience. I firmly believe in empowering people and making them happy through technology. 

In my spare time you will find me somewhere closer to nature, with a basket of fruits and smiling away to glory. I even enjoy backpacking and baking!

On public speaking: The memory of every failed presentation, botched opportunity, and the overwhelming feeling of dread associated with every mention of public speaking all came to me, seconds before the biggest speech I’d ever give in my life. I went through hell and back because of public speaking. But here I was, about to give a ten-minute presentation to 100-400 people. As the memories continued to pile up, I couldn’t help but smile on my long journey. That wasn’t me anymore—and for the first time in my life, I couldn’t wait to blow some minds. With that, I approached the microphone again, opened my mouth, and began to speak that ended up  in a thundering applause and appreciation.

When I was new in Berlin, I heard about BBuzz and after reading the agenda and speakers decided to attend it. As soon as I reached the venue and interacted with the BBuzz team, I decided to help by being their stage manager. Love the synergy of the BBuzz team. The entire team is so friendly, helpful, professional and on their toes always. I’ll cherish my each and every association with BBuzz team always. Thank you!

If you are looking for your next Mgr/PgM or PM who can champion at managing maze of responsibilities and help in building winning teams let’s connect @ 📧 zareenkazim@gmail.com 🔗 www.LinkedIn.com/in/zareenkazim

What about you? Do you want to share your story here too? Feel inspired by the stories you read? Don’t hesitate to contact us at info@berlinbuzzwords.de