Rana holds a Masters in Business Administration, specializing in relationship marketing. She is currently based in Kathmandu, and has been with Open Nepal since March this year but says, “A few years down the lane, I see myself as the advocate of open data and still thriving to take open data movement even further in Nepal.”
Open Nepal collaborates with organizations working for open data and development in Nepal.[break]
What got you interested in the field of open data and development?
The field of open data and open development is diverse and dynamic, emerging and ever evolving, globally. There are abundant opportunities to explore and learn, and contribute to shape the concept of open data through your learning and research. Learning about new things is what keeps me going in life, so I think that’s why I landed up here.
What are the challenges that you’ve faced working in your current field?
Since we work on the development issue that’s just emerging and very new to Nepal as well as to the world, it’s a daunting task to make local organizations and individuals understand the concept and construct the work plans. Its takes a lot of time, effort and patience. It’s also a challenge to keep the partners motivated to work on the agenda.
Striking up alliances between organizations is another challenge, as bringing organizations with various backgrounds to one common consensus needs diplomacy, understanding of organizational culture, ideas to incentivize each of them to ultimately link up to the main objective of the initiative. Internal and external politics, more often than not, put me in the labyrinthine position where decision-making involve lots of risks.
Plus, it’s not always easy, as it looks to coordinate offshore and onsite teams because they are not in the same geographical regions. Internet connection problem makes virtual communication more complicated and less reliable.
What is it that you love about your current profession?
It’s a relief that I don’t have to be an armchair officer. It’s so much exciting and always a new learning experience to move some miles to make people aware on the development agenda our initiative works on, keep them encouraged and learn about their thoughts and get feedback to customize our work accordingly.
Another best thing is, there is liberty of experimenting with new methods of working and applying what works for you best. It’s all about learning by doing, which is quite exciting.
Share with us your work ethics.
It always bugs me when I’m unable to put in effort that I intend to in any work that I do. Sometimes, external factors that are not under my control come into play and somehow the work takes a different path. To put the best effort in and do it to the best of my ability is the rule I live by.
I keep positive outlook towards work. I don’t want to stay inside a mental block where it is always about ‘your pay should equal your effort or the work you do.’ I’m ready to learn new things even if it puts me in a compromising position sometimes. When you challenge yourself, you get to know more about your capabilities, thus learning life skills and work skills at the same time.
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