Please provide a summary of your job or research. What is an average day like? What are some duties performed?
I’m currently a Business Operations lead at Facebook Inc., where I have the opportunity to support a team of Business Operations Managers who solve complex organizational and operational challenges for the Infrastructure Data Center organization. The team is spread out all over the world so it’s important to communicate clearly and understand different cultures and working styles. In this role, I help to support the career development of the members of the team and also help to connect the organizational dots so that our stakeholders and partner teams are able to focus on running their business. The important skills that you can learn to be successful in a leadership role are solving problems with a team, listening, empathy, and being curious. As you grow up, always ask questions and know that there are no stupid ones. Focus on building friendships and relationships with your peers and figuring out ways to solve different types of problems.
What is your educational background and what prompted you to go this direction (why are you where you are instead of a completely different career somewhere else?).
M.B.A. University of Maryland
BS in Finance, Virginia Tech
My interest has always been about solving problems to enable organizations to focus on running their businesses. I have also always enjoyed business and its impact on new technologies. I majored in Finance to learn more about economies work and the lifecycle of organizations. I furthered my education with the master’s degree so that I can also help support and lead teams who solve business operations challenges. It just so happens that I am at the intersection of business and technology at Facebook.
What have you struggled with or overcome in your educational or life path to your current job?
a) life – losing some of my closest friends in high school to drug overdoses. It caused a lot of pain and stress in my late teens/early 20s. But I learned that life is precious and to try to not sweat the small stuff
b) profession – I know that I’ll never be the smartest person on a team or in a classroom. However, I’ll go out of my way to do what others don’t want to do. That’s boded well for me throughout my career as I’ve been able to quickly build trust and relationships by getting things done.
What is the best part of your job/research?
I love to enable the team to solve complex issues. I’m energized when I see team members succeed and enabling professional growth.
What is the worst part?
The worst part about working is the opportunity cost of spending time commuting or working late vs spending time with family and friends.
What’s the most exciting part of your job?
I really enjoy the problems that Facebook are trying to solve and working with really smart people.
What’s the most exciting work/research related thing that has happened to you?
The most exciting thing that has happened was meeting some technology leaders who are truly passionate about making the world a better place. It is really energizing to hear.
What has changed about your profession in the past ten years?
The past decade has led to a lot of ways in which companies do business and the challenges scale causes. When a company grows quickly, it often risks taking the time to set up structure to enable sustained growth over the long run. Also, people now are able to work further apart so working with people outside of the office has also changed.
What do you think will change in the next ten?
I think we will continue to see more companies adopt flexibility in its expectations on job location. I think more people will work remotely and decentralized. I also think automation will change a lot of industries and lead to some really cool innovation. Who knows, most of you can be working in space!
