>> Male 1: From San Francisco, it's theCUBE.
Covering, Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference.
Brought to you by, Girls in Tech.
>> Hey welcome back everybody, Jeff Frick here with theCUBE.
We're in downtown San Francisico
at the Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference 2018.
About 700 people, two day conference,
single track, really a lot of stories
about people's journey.
Senior executive women, how they got to where they were,
and advice for kind of younger getting started execs,
mid tier execs.
Mainly women, a bus load of kids they just brought in,
and a couple of men.
So, we're excited to have one of them men,
he just got off of the stage.
It's Charlie Bell, Senior Vice President from AWS.
Charlie welcome.
>> Thanks for having me here.
>> So, you just participated in a really interesting event.
You were interviewed by your recently graduated daughter.
>> Yes.
>> She's entering the tech field.
>> Yes.
>> So, what did she ask you?
It's just interesting to get her perspective.
Just graduated from Carnegie Mellon, Nikki said.
>> Yeah.
>> And is getting ready to start her first job at LinkedIn.
What is she thinking now?
>> Actually, into it. >> Excuse me, into it.
As she's looking forward at the beginning of this journey.
>> Yeah, I mean she was asking me the kind of questions
that you know that anyone who's getting started,
or early in their career might ask.
It was questions like, how did you decide
when you were going to change jobs.
What advice would you give to somebody
who wants to be a leader?
How do you recognize leaders?
It was pretty interesting.
Caroline is really smart,
curious, very similar probably
to most of the kids graduating.
And many of the folks early in their career.
So, I thought a lot of her questions
probably relevant to almost anybody.
>> Well, I guess she's already, she going to start her first job
in a couple of weeks and she's already asking
the leadership questions.
>> Yeah, yeah.
>> So, clearly you've got to be a proud dad for that.
She's ready to start movin' up the line.
>> Yeah, yeah.
>> And I'm curious was she interested
in STEM subjects before college?
Or, well she went to Carnegie Mellon
so you wouldn't go there if you didn't have an interest.
>> Yeah, she no, was always interested in math.
So, she studied math, ya know that was her best subject
in high school.
And she did a few science fair projects.
When she went to Carnegie Mellon as a math major.
But, she actually has so many, ya know?
Much of the subject here is about the crooked path we take.
And we've all had those.
As she got to college she realized
well math actually wasn't the thing she wanted to do.
And then she thought well, what I really,
really love the statistics part of it.
And then she realized well, wait a minute,
there's this whole new thing, machine learning,
where you can take this knowledge of statistics
and apply it to programming and computers,
and everything else.
She got very excited about it.
And I've got to tell ya, there's no happier moment
in a parent's life
than when your child says
their going to study machine learning.
You know they will eat the rest of their life.
>> That's very true.
But, it's also even more important,
what I thought you were going to say,
is when your child finds something
that they're really passionate about.
>> Of course.
>> Whether it's machine learning or whatever,
that's, ya know, I've got three at home myself.
So fun, when they find the thing that draws them in.
So, I'm curious have you been to any of these events before?
>> No, I haven't been to any of these.
Actually, Sandy Carter, one of our Vice Presidents
suggested a talk here would be interesting.
And with Caroline interviewing me it was super interesting.
I actually don't get out that much.
You haven't talked me ever.
But, I'm on the engineering side.
I live inside the halls and we build stuff,
and don't usually get out to talk to people.
>> Yeah, so I'd love to get your impression
on the event in general, but also some of the sessions.
In terms of what was goin' on this morning.
>> Oh I thought it was awesome.
Amy's talk, ya know, I resinated with a lot of that.
I thought her advice on some of the tips
for the folks in the room was spot on.
Many of them are, we have this thing at Amazon
we call leadership principles.
Many of them are just totally aligned
with the Amazon leadership principles, the way we think.
So, yeah these talks have been
both interesting and inspiring.
>> Yeah, so much talk about culture
and it's funny you talked about the leadership principles
and ya know we're a huge Andy Jassy fan.
We've had him on a lot.
But, I think one of my favorite times
is he sat down on a fireside chat.
Saw his in San Francisco a couple of years ago
and really exposed to the audience
some of the philosophies that operate behind Amazon.
And how people make decisions
and I think you brought it up here
that it's okay to change your mind,
if you're leader when you get new data.
His whole thing about the power point
and the six page narrative, and the way you guys execute
in clearly such a well oiled machine,
in terms of the way especially at AWS,
you guys just keep rolling, and rolling, and rolling out
new features, features, features.
A lot of great lessons I think, in that Amazon culture.
But, here all we keep hearing about
is culture, culture, culture, culture, culture.
So, you livin' it everyday.
>> Yeah, well it's a gift that keeps on giving.
I mean if the company has a good culture
it's how everybody that comes in,
how everybody pulls at the same oars,
and it's really the fabric of a long term business.
Andy said it many times, we all want a business
that outlasts us.
And the way you create that is through culture.
>> Right, right, and just in the manacle focus on customer
which I think is such a unique arduous trait,
and Amazon trait.
And I think that's like my favorite part about
the new grocery store in Seattle.
The fact that it was optimizing a process
that nobody in the grocery store business
probably ever really thought about very much.
Which is i don't like to stand in line.
So, to come at it, really from a customer perspective
as apposed to a product perspective
or competitive perspective,
really I think is a big piece of the engine
that just keep AWS just rollin' along.
>> Yep, working from the customer backwards,
it's the only way to live.
>> With the press release before you make a new product,
and it just goes on, and on, and on.
>> Alright, so Charlie give me the last word
before we let you go.
What are you workin' on, what's exciting,
what ya people will be keepin' an eye out for
as you're whisked away in the halls, not coming out?
What can we, what are some berries for the balance of 2018?
>> Well, we still, as much as we've done so far,
we still got a lot coming in machine learning.
And across the board, I mean for me the exciting thing
at AWS is our customers,
we have such a broad set of customers right now
with so many different needs.
That we hear so many new things and it just inspires us
to do brand new businesses and brand new services.
So, it's just a lot of areas.
Analytics, compute, storage, everything else like,
there's a lot comin'.
So, reinventing should be every bit as exciting
as it was last year.
>> Just got to find more space for ya,
Vegas got to get a little bit bigger.
And we'll be in DC next week for Summit Public Sector
with Teresa Carlson and the crew also puts on a great event.
>> Oh Teresa's so much fun.
>> Alright, well thanks for takin' a few minutes
of your day, we really appreciate it.
And congrats to your daughter.
>> Aw thank you, yes.
>> Alright, thanks for watching.
I'm Jeff Frick, we're at Girls in Tech Catalyst.
Thanks for watching.
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