(upbeat music)
>> Hello and welcome to theCUBE's presentation
of Women in Tech's global event
celebrating International Women's Day.
I'm John Furrier, host of theCUBE,
we have a great friend of theCUBE here
Leah Bibbo, vice president of AWS product marketing.
Going to talk about taking charge of your career.
Leah, great to see you,
thanks for coming on this awesome program
for celebrating International Women's Day.
Thanks for coming on.
>> Thanks John, it's great to be here, thank you.
>> You've been at a AWS for a long time.
You've seen the growth years, you've had a great career
before we get into it,
and tell us about what you're doing now.
What is your role in as a vice president
of product marketing?
What do you do there?
>> We have more than 200 products and my team is really
the team that takes those products.
We make the messaging and positioning,
we launch them and bring them into the world.
And then we work really hard to educate customers
and make them aware of all of these products
help them understand how they can use them.
And really because our technology with the cloud
is something that businesses all around the world
are using to really transform how they operate
in this digital world.
We get this opportunity to help our customers
transform their businesses.
>> You guys are customer obsessed
and obviously the product's been successful
and you've had a lot of different roles within AWS.
I guess the question is,
what's the moment when you can identify when you know
there's a new challenge or opportunity and when to go for it
this is something that people talk about all the time.
Is it the right time?
Do I stretch myself?
Pain is growth.
All these kind of conversations.
When have you been able to identify that moment?
>> Well, I would like to say that there was an aha moment
at all of these different points in my career
but I would say it's never that easy.
I think a lot of things have to come together over time
but if I reflect on all the opportunities I've taken,
usually they haven't necessarily felt comfortable.
It's not common to look ahead and say,
okay, in three months, I'm going to be doing this thing.
All the opportunities have kind of arisen.
And every time it's an opportunity to do something different
to maybe do something bigger,
to work with really incredible people who I can learn from.
And every time it's been, I'm going to try something new
that's going to push me in a new direction.
And it's that uncomfortable feeling of,
oh this seems like it could be risky.
That's usually been telling me
that it's something I should take on.
>> When do you have that internal clock
or is it an internal feeling of I better start taking charge
I can control what I can control.
I'm going to go for it.
I'm not going to kind of sit here waiting
or sometimes it's better to wait and make a move.
I mean these are things that people go through
in their career.
Can you share your experience
and when to go for it, when to pull back
or when you have that kind of feeling
what are some examples?
>> Sure. Well, I think I've been pretty lucky
throughout my career to work for smaller companies.
And when you're working in a small company
there's just a lot of opportunity to do things
that maybe you didn't get hired to do
or aren't in your job description.
And if you look around and you spot those opportunities
and it's usually you've got something new
you see a problem that needs fixing,
or maybe you have a skill
or an idea that you want to put in place.
I think those are some of the times
where you really have the opportunity to take charge.
And nobody's going to tell you,
oh, look, we know you're really good at this.
Why don't you take on this problem?
A lot of times it's more identifying and seeing a need
and saying, Hey, I think that we could do this differently,
I think that this is something I'd be interested in doing.
And that's your moment.
That's your moment to take it on.
>> Tell me about your thoughts on confidence.
Okay. The having that confidence to take that next step,
when to go for it,
what's the role of confidence play in this is?
And has there been times where you maybe weren't confident
or had to get the confidence?
How did that happen?
Take us through that dynamic
because confidence is key in anything, right?
You got to have the confidence, but sometimes
there's a lot of pressures to push people's confidence down.
And I know I've personally felt that many
times in my career, but confidence is key.
Can you give us your take on when know you have
that confidence to take the next step
and what's the success path?
>> I think there's fluctuations
in confidence throughout my career.
How about that?
I would say that,
anytime you're taking on something new or you're
in territory that haven't been in before
or you're getting pushed, it can be tough.
It can be tough to rally the confidence.
I think what's always worked for me is to really dive deep
and to understand as much as I can
to learn as much as I can, to prep as much as I can.
And even doing that,
you can prep all you want, you can read everything possible
you can meet all the people.
There's always that moment where you're out there
and you don't necessarily feel like it's enough
but you just go for it.
>> I love that preparation meets opportunity kind of vibe.
And that was going to be my next question is,
how do you prepare?
And as people out there are learning
in their early in their careers
and or maybe growing into a career,
whether that's in academic college and then post-college.
What's the preparation like these days?
I mean, have things changed? Is there a playbook?
What's your secret to preparation meets opportunity?
>> So these days it's how you prep for things
is kind of crazy.
It's information coming at you all the time,
opportunities are everywhere,
there's social networks for career development
and career growth.
There's mentoring networks.
When I first started in my career
it was a little bit more analog back then.
And prepping was a lot more about getting publications
and seeing if you could call people on the phone
and talk to them.
I was in public relations or in the early days.
And a lot of the preparation had to do with
could you find the contact information
for a journalist that you wanted to pitch a story to?
And then how well could you know the technology
and have the story because you're going to have to
call somebody and sell them on your idea.
I think today we just have a wealth of information
and ways to prepare at our fingertips.
I mean, the internet is great.
A lot of companies, especially here at Amazon
we have career development programs
and internal networks, infinity networks
where you can meet people who are like you
or who can mentor you or teach you things.
A big part of my role has been very visible in public.
When you're in public relations
or you're in executive communications,
you're getting up on stage and the amount of prep
that you can do and should do
in a situation like that can be pretty intense.
And even then it's always
you're going to get up on the stage and have that moment
and you may have prepared for everything,
but things can go wrong.
>> John: Yeah.
>> And at pushing in those times that are uncomfortable
for you is one way
to kind of keep your career going forward.
>> Yeah. That's where the confidence comes in.
You always had great confidence, always admire about you
very inspiring on that front and great.
And you know the content, you do great prep.
I got to ask you on your career progression, Leah
how deliberate have you been in that?
Some people just float down the river of life,
say yes to the universe and see where it takes them.
Some are much more structured,
different strokes for different folks, as they say.
How deliberate have you been in your career progression?
What extent is taking on something new, a leap of faith?
>> I would like to say that I had a master plan
and I've been really deliberate
but I would say I'm on the side of folks
who kind of just float through
and somehow have these lucky moments and end up in places.
But I think there has been some consistency
in that I'm always looking for more and what's next.
I've never been a person
that if once I've mastered something
or once I've done it for a certain amount of time
I'm ready for the next big thing.
So I'm kind of looking for it
that said I don't have the next big thing in mind.
It kind of presents itself to me.
And I've been really lucky
as being part of the technology industry,
so much has changed in the 20 some years
that I've had a career.
It's such a fast-paced industry,
the technologies are changing.
The companies are changing, the opportunities
and looking for what's next,
there's a lot out there.
So it's pretty easy to look for what's next.
>> Want to get into the theme
of this year's International Women's Day.
This is called breaking the bias.
It's a hugely important topic.
It's talked about a lot, but it's important.
It's highlighted this year.
First of all, it's always been on the table
but this year it's being called out, break the bias,
>> The bias?
>> Break the bias, that's the theme.
How does bias manifest itself in your experience
and how can we all help to break it?
>> Well, I think that bias is, it's something that
we all have, it's out there as humans that are different.
We all come to the table with our biases.
And if you think about it just in a general term,
it was a journalism major in college.
And one of the first things you learn
is about bias and about looking at the media
and trying to understand their lens on things
and how to kind of think critically about things.
So you kind of understand bias as a concept.
I think then when you're a woman and you enter the workforce
you learn a little bit more about bias as in practice.
But what I will say is that I was incredibly lucky
in my kind of some of the formative years of my career.
I worked in a women run company.
So all the way leaders were women
and most of us there were women.
And I think that I was pretty lucky
to have times where you go through uncomfortable things
and you try new things,
and you're learning about being a manager
and you're learning about taking risks.
And I did all of that
in an environment where there wasn't a lot
of bias because we were all women.
That doesn't mean that out in the world,
while we were doing our jobs,
while we were working with clients
and interacting with other people, bias wasn't a thing.
But I think it was a good chance
to develop myself
and to really, I don't want to say
it'd be inoculate against bias, but to understand
what it looks like when you're there in a place
where there's not a lot of bias in the environment.
>> How do you know when bias is gone?
Obviously you go up against
but first of all, Women in Tech,
it's male dominant the numbers getting better
but still a ton to go.
I'm sure you've gone up against a lot of bias.
How do you know when it's not there?
>> How do you know when it's not there
or when it is there?
>> When it's there and how do you navigate around it
and what does success look like?
What does the end game look like?
Take us through some of your experiences.
I know I see a lot of it here
in the industry as well, but it's changing, right?
and it's going to change it for the better.
>> It's absolutely changing.
I think it's so much different
even then it was a few years ago.
I think part of that, is that there's just been
a lot more attention paid
and there's more of an understanding about what bias is,
and that it's something that is preventing us
from having a really, truly diverse and inclusive world.
And especially in the workplace.
when I was earlier in my career, there were a lot
of ways that you could tell that there was bias.
I had a moment where one of my colleagues who was a woman
we were in a room
and we were both in a PR agency at the time
and we were meeting with a client and we did a presentation.
We had a really great idea.
And one of the men at the client gave us congratulations.
And then he patted her on the head.
And you have to step back.
And one, that's just a weird thing to do
in the workplace at all.
But you had to kind of step back and wonder,
would that have happened if I wasn't a woman?
And so that was many, many years ago,
today that would never happen.
And I think what's really encouraging
is not only are we seeing more and more women leaders
and women being moved into positions of leadership
so that they to create a more inclusive environment.
I think we're all talking about bias and we're examining it.
And we realize that it's there.
Here at Amazon, we really do talk about that
and try to question ourselves and step back
from situations and say,
is there some bias here?
Or am I bringing some of my own biases
into this conversation
and we are a very data driven company
and we really like facts,
we really like to dive deep into analytical situations.
And I think doing that,
we all feel like that's something we really value.
And so to begin to have the self-awareness,
to know that even when we think we're very clinical
and going by the facts and the data
that actually we're still humans
and we're still bringing bias into the room
>> That's a really great point.
It's a human thing, right?
This data data.
>> Yes, it is.
>> I mean, you can crunch the data all you want
but people can make data
look like whatever they want it to be.
So I think this human element is super important.
And I got to say, what's exciting for me
is with one of the upsides
of COVID has been getting more stories out there,
and I think this day celebration International Women's Day
it's just the beginning to get more stories out there
and I think your story's a great one,
because again no matter who you are,
your career or your life
you're in control of it
and you can control what you can control
and you can't control what you can't control.
That's like old expression.
So I guess in summary, what would be your way
to encapsulate kind of like your experience
to share someone watching who might say,
Hey, you know I want to take control of my career.
What advice, if you can look back
and accumulate all the best practices
and trials and tribulations,
what would you say to your younger self
or someone out there
who's just starting to break into the career path?
>> Well, I would say first and foremost
and this isn't something that I'd mentioned before
is having people on your side,
having people that have been there before you.
When I first graduated I had no idea
what to do with this diploma that I had
and what it would be like to get into the workforce.
But I had a friend who had graduated a year earlier
and she was the one that got me my first internship.
And I think throughout my career mentors
and other people in my industry have helped me along.
So I think that's the first thing is find people
who are there for you and on your side
and can give you opportunities.
I think, keep an open mind.
I had big ambitions when I came out of school
that this was going to be in the workplace
and I was going to be doing big things.
I was going to be making PR campaigns
and the reality of it in the beginning
was that it was really not that,
I had my days making copies, but I was okay with that.
And at some point, the time you spend making copies
or the time you spend making lists
you learn, and you think about what the next thing is
and you spot opportunities.
And you just have to keep an open mind
that wherever you are in that moment,
things are going to present themselves
that you can use to take yourself to the next step.
>> You still got to grind.
You got to do the grinding
when you come out of the workforce.
Work your way through and hard work is a big part of it
don't you think?
I mean, you still got to have hard work.
>> I really do think, I mean, when you think about confidence
or you think about taking charge of your career
or opportunities presenting the so else to you,
that I can't underscore enough.
You do really have to be willing to work
and hopefully whatever you're working in
and what you find is something that you're passionate about
because then it doesn't necessarily feel like work,
but the value of hard work,
of preparation, of persistence
and not letting yourself get defeated
is all something that you need, not just as a woman
but as anybody who's wanting to enter
this world that is business and having a career
especially in the technology industry
>> Leah, it's been great inspiration to follow your career
and others will be as well inspired.
I have to ask what's next for you in your career
>> For me?
Well, it's been a of couple long years of COVID
and kind of navigating this hybrid work world.
And COVID happened to happen
just as I was taking this new role.
So two years ago, stepping into a new role
and at the same time, the global pandemic hit.
And so I've had to learn how to do this job
at the same time,
I've had to learn how to be a colleague and a leader
and a mentor on a screen, I guess.
And so for me, what's next is as things hopefully continue
to open up and things go in the right direction with COVID.
And we start thinking about what does
the workplace look like?
I have a whole team of people that I have not met yet
that I'm looking forward to meeting,
and we get to figure out what does that look like?
What does it look like to come back to work
in a world that has changed so much
in such a short amount of time?
And so that's, what's next for me, figuring that out.
I have a lot to learn.
>> That's awesome. Well, it's great to chat with you remotely
soon to be in person
as the pandemic starts to lift.
Hopefully fingers crossed great to have you
on a participating in this awesome showcase
product that we're going to put together
around International Women's Day and continue it.
And it's a global event, we're celebrating Women in Tech
on International Women's Day.
We want to do more
and thanks for the stories and appreciate your time Leah.
It's been great.
>> Thanks, John.
Thank you, John.
It was great to be here.
>> CUBE presentation Women in Tech global event
celebrating International Women's Day.
I'm John Furrier host of the cube.
Thanks for watching.
(gentle music)