• Smita Hashim is the CPO at Zoom who has also held leadership positions at Microsoft and Google.

• Hashim is a first-generation immigrant who struggled with cultural expectations of what a "good mother" looks like.

• She says everyone should be able to have a family and have a job — it's not an either/or situation.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Smita Hashim, chief product officer at Zoom, about her advice for working moms. It has been edited for length and clarity.

When it comes to my personal career journey, both what I did and how I did it came into play. If you establish a good reputation over the years, people will seek you out for senior jobs and C-suite positions because they'll know your reputation and what you're like to work with.

I finished my PhD and within two years of starting work, I had my daughter. It was pretty early in my career, but I knew I wanted a child, so I made the choice early on. I'm so glad I did — she gives me so much joy and I'm so glad I had her.

My daughter is grown up now and she's a working adult, so I feel like I'm on the other side of balancing motherhood and my career now.

Everyone should be able to have a family and have a job. It's not either/or. I imagined that I should be able to do both and I assumed I could have both — it's possible to have both if that's your choice.

Here are my top six strategies for working moms who also aspire to the C-suite:

1. Know it will be tough at times, but you have to stay in the game

My advice to women on their own career journey is to adjust your hours if you need to — find a more flexible schedule, and try to adjust your work and home responsibilities — but stay in the game. If you don't stay in the game, it's harder to keep up the momentum.

I never felt like quitting was an option for me. If you stay in the game, you'll continue to figure out other strategies for staying in the game. There've been times when I've brought in help, or some of our dinners were bought more often than they were homemade, but it was important to me to both care for my family and continue my career.