From international student to tech innovator: Diana Sharma’s inspiring journey

Today, Diana is the co-founder and CEO of Mission Ready — New Zealand’s first and most successful tech career accelerator, and a top NZQA-rated Category 1 tech-training provider (the highest quality rating in New Zealand).

Diana was born in Kuwait and went to high school in India. When she left school, she thought a career in hospitality would be “cool” but after a three-year degree, a short stint as a management trainee, she realised hospitality was not her thing.

Seeking a career that aligned with her passions, she explored different paths and discovered her love for corporate talent development. Driven by her desire to help others succeed, Diana decided to invest in further education to achieve her goals.

After researching university programmes worldwide, she finally chose New Zealand - not only for its reputation as a great education provider, but also for its practical, hands-on programme that offered unique industry insights.

In 2009 Diana took up a Postgraduate Diploma in Business at Unitec in Auckland. The one-year programme was like nothing she’d ever experienced before. Her professor took an innovative approach, teaching his students how to work with companies to help them solve real business problems. Diana thrived in this environment and gained so much confidence she suggested to her professor that they try something different. His response? “Bring it on!”

Diana became Unitec’s coordinator where she was encouraged to try out new ideas. Over the next eight years, Diana took on various roles, including Project Manager and Business Planning Manager advancing to the position of General Manager of Partnerships and Alliances.

At Unitec, Diana’s various roles focused on exploring innovative approaches to education and fostering partnerships with industry and international education providers. Those partnerships exposed her to a gap in the tech market where companies were crying out for talent, yet graduates were not getting hired. This gave her the idea of setting up a company that would bridge this gap by accelerating talent development for high-demand tech careers.

The model combined intensive training with mentored work experience, producing highly skilled graduates ready for the tech sector in less than 8 months. In 2018, together with Alan Kan from IBM, Mission Ready was launched with a view to becoming New Zealand’s first ever tech career accelerator

The principles Diana and her co-founder embedded into Mission Ready programmes are built around ethical technology which prioritises fairness, transparency, privacy and the overall good of society. It’s something Diana is passionate about — she believes ethical technology needs to be at the forefront of innovations like Artificial Intelligence (AI).

She says that there are lots of conversations here in the New Zealand education system about how we use AI in a meaningful way. Even within schools and the tertiary education space, we are embedding more and more of the latest tech.

Although Mission Ready focuses on placing domestic students (for now) Diana says there are some really good programmes in New Zealand for international students looking to get into the tech sector.

The industry in New Zealand is growing rapidly and there are lots of opportunities within the New Zealand education system to get into software development, or any aligned careers such as business or data analysis.

Diana says that while tech may seem complex, it really comes down to problem solving and remaining agile and continuing to be a lifelong learner.

Whether you’re technical or not, there’s a place for you in the industry. There are many types of roles, creative roles like UX design, technical roles — and you can cross over any time.

Ready to start your journey? Explore courses and programmes in New Zealand that combine innovation, hands-on learning, and real-world experience. Find your pathway here.