‘I Love My Job’: Work-Life Balance, an Exciting Role, Respectful Culture, Supportive Leaders, & More

Welcome to I Love My Job, the series where we hear from women who really love their jobs. In this edition, we sat down with Aravinda Kilaru, the VP of IT Infrastructure & Global Operations at Donnelley Financial Solutions (DFIN).

When asked what she loved about DFIN, Kilaru said “At DFIN, they treat you as a human being. They care about you.” In Kilaru's experience with DFIN, she’s never had to worry about taking time off to focus on the things that matter to her outside of work — even when she needed to take time off outside of the country!

“I had to go out of the country to take care of my dad as he was going through multiple surgeries, and I was out for several weeks,” Kilaru shares. During this time, the leadership team was very supportive. “They told me to do whatever it takes to take care of my family,” says Kilaru.

Kilaru also values how the leadership team has been supportive since day one.  She says that the clear direction, great expectations and ability to discuss the ins and outs lend great confidence that she is going in the right direction.  

In the video below, Kilaru tells us more about why she loves working at DFIN. We also provide lightly edited highlights from the video discussion in the following article.

In case you have trouble watching the video, please click here to watch it on YouTube.

Could you tell us a little more about your time at DFIN?

I have been with Donnelley Financial Solutions for 15 months! It has been a wonderful journey — and I am still very happy. I'm still feeling the same excitement with this job as day one when I accepted the offer. 

My primary role is to manage all the platforms across the business units. Typically, I’m working on operating systems, database services, data centers, disaster recovery, IT project management, and all the global operations and monitoring tools and the center of excellence and process engineering.

What do you find most exciting about your work?

[Even before accepting this role,] the DFIN team was very open, very honest, and genuine about what I would be walking into, including the challenges I'd be taking up and what is expected out of this role.

Having those clear goals and expectations was really helpful for me to understand if this was a right jump for me or not. It turned out to be right for me, and since I have joined, my main goal is to transform [legacy infrastructure] platforms into brand-new platforms, without causing any disruptions to the business flow.

These migrations are not easy. They are complex and are significant since if one platform goes down, that can bring the entire product down, which will impact the business revenue and operational efficiencies.

However, the leadership team has been very supportive from day one. This role is the right thing to do for the business. We are going to build the future-state systems for the business. When you have that kind of support from the leadership team, you feel so confident. You feel that you are going in the right direction and can discuss the ins and outs every day.That is the best feeling.

How would you describe the culture at DFIN?

The company culture that I love the most about Donnelley is the flexibility and work-life balance. Working in this role with my peers, my leadership team, and within my own team — everyone understands that you have other things to take care of outside of your work. Having that kind of flexibility gives a lot of importance to outside-of-work situations and lets you do what is right for yourself and your family.

People tend to love jobs that are easy to balance with their personal life and where you can unplug from work and get a chance to recharge and unwind. DFIN strongly believes in those two aspects, flexibility and work-life balance, so you can feel valued as more than your work — you’re valued as a human being.

And, when it comes to the job, they have great expectations and a goal-oriented leadership team, so you never have to worry about what you need to work on. Employees also have a good amount of challenges, and DFIN is a very big believer in constantly offering learning platforms.

What advice do you have for other women looking to work at DFIN?

Bring your true self. You don't have to worry about bringing your authentic self to the job. We value that a lot at Donnelley Financial Solutions. Be genuine, be honest, and bring your passion and your ideas to the table and to the discussion. This is the best place to work and thrive in your career.

Fairygodboss is proud to work with Donnelley Financial Solutions. Find a job there today!

Check out other posts in the ‘I Love My Job’ series:

• 'I Love My Job’: Working on Innovative Technologies for ‘One of the Kindest Cultures I've Ever Seen'

• ‘I Love My Job’: How My Company Helps Me Thrive as a New Mom and Technical Solutions Manager

• ‘I Love My Job’: My Dedicated and Supportive Team Bring the Energy of the Sun Into Everything We Do

• ‘I Love My Job’: Why This Senior VP Loves Her Job: Great People, Ever-Evolving Tech, and Much More

• ‘I Love My Job’: Career Growth Support, Collaboration, and More — ‘This Is the Place You Want To Be