Swati Prabhu

Associate Director of Technology

Technical Services

Since joining Stanford’s staff 12 years ago, Swati Prabhu has observed and experienced a central theme: the university promotes and fosters employees’ career growth and development.

“Both in terms of giving me opportunities to learn on the job and encouraging my participation in training sessions or conferences, Stanford has played a huge role in supporting my curiosity for daily learning,” she says.

Swati started her career at Stanford as a database analyst and later moved into an application developer position. In 2008, she transitioned to a supervisory role as an application systems manager overseeing two team members. Since then, the team has grown to eight members and Swati was promoted to her current role of associate director of technology in early 2012.

“My career growth is just one example of the endless possibilities here,” she says. “If one shows the zeal for learning more and challenging oneself while demonstrating true passion for the job, it is recognized, supported and rewarded.”

Swati says the greatest motivators of her job are interacting with and supporting various professionals with their technology needs and “being part of a staff community that makes a lasting difference to the institution.”

On a personal level, Swati says Stanford offers a unique work culture. “The expectations are very fair at Stanford,” she says. “Unlike some companies in the corporate world that require 10 hour workdays and stressful, hard deadlines on a regular basis, one can truly strike the work-life balance at Stanford.”