Ep8 - Shaping A Career with Gretchen Stephenson - You Better Be Having Fun

Finance Guys In Tech

English - November 16, 2019 19:00 - 52 minutes - 36.2 MB - ★★★★★ - 7 ratings
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Previous Episode: Ep007 Data Center Real Estate w.Jim Footh - Understanding People And Communicating

Next Episode: Ep9 - The Importance Of Lifelong Learning with Andrew Wilson, Senior Finance Manager, AWS

“If you’re not having fun then you probably need to find something else.”

Today Sid and I interview our very own Finance Director here in AWS Infrastructure, Gretchen Stephenson.

Today Gretchen drops some sage advice about shaping a career in tech finance. We also chat about Texas, baseball, and why the ideal dinner party involves Barbra Bush, Lenny Kravitz, and The Rock….can you smell what The Rock is cooking?

This was a really fun show, we hope you enjoy!

3:18 Growing up around education & enrolling at Texas A&M
6:25 Early days at PricewaterhouseCoopers
8:50 Startup culture at Compaq into more structure at HP
11:00 Gretchen's Amazon origin story...a reminder of Compaq early days
14:00 On moving to Seattle from Texas
18:55 Gretchen's leadership style - showing the team trust, understanding, support
19:50 Leadership influences from Compaq & HP, both the good & the less good
21:55 Cool under fire
23:40 Guidance for new analysts - feel comfortable asking questions
26:15 Advice for career progression - look for the balance of what you know and what you can learn
30:40 Have comfort with failure
36:40 A trait of successful people - willingness to ask for help
40:05 For fun outside of work - getting into nature, Texas sports
43:00 THE ULTIMATE DINNER PARTY :) Barbara Bush, Lenny Kravitz...and The Rock
48:15 Career advice - being open to different experiences
49:55 When Gretchen grows up...living in different cities
51:00 Parting philosophy - we're here to have fun.

Gretchen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gretchen-stephenson-02393813/

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Theme music by Good Baby: ‘Rose Colored’ (instrumental). Full music video here: https://www.goodbaby.band/musicvideos