Amelia Poet

What drives me to do what I do every day and keep trying my best comes from two different things. Part of me is driven because I want to provide for my family - I don't have kids or anything, it's just me, my fiance, and our animals, but they're always on my mind. I never want us to have to struggle or worry, so at the forefront of my mind, they're always there in some capacity. When I'm at work, I'm always thinking about them, and I'm wanting to do this for them, for us, so we can be happy. The other thing that drives me is providing the best possible candidate experience. There are so many little details that can easily slip through the cracks when you're scheduling and managing interviews, and all those little things can add up to make not a good candidate experience for someone who's thinking about working at this company. I don't want to misrepresent how amazing it is to work here, so I'm really always striving for proper representation and providing the best candidate experience for someone. That kind of ties into accountability - making sure nothing slips through the cracks.

Trust your gut. I know that might sound cliche, but genuinely, that was a piece of advice given to me by one of the colleagues that I had at Pivotal, one of the higher-ups. It seems so in passing, like what anyone could say, but it really is true - it doesn't matter what anyone else says, you have to trust your gut and listen to your instincts. That has led me to a lot of really good moments, like with that one hire where I was like, no, I know in my bones she is right for this job. Trusting your gut has been invaluable throughout my career.

There's so many things I want to say to young women entering this field. Read, always ask questions, always stay informed. Question leadership sometimes, most of the time. But really, I just want to say: know your worth. That is something that especially women can struggle with, especially when you're working in an office with mostly men - it can be really intimidating. You can feel the pressure to make yourself smaller, or not talk so loud, or talk too much, or you hold back from inserting yourself or advocating for yourself. So I would just say, for women entering the workforce, especially talent acquisition and working with people: be gentle, but know your worth and advocate for yourself. It's really important to insert yourself and advocate for yourself with male leadership, and to ask questions, because sometimes they can be running on autopilot, and you wake them up a little bit when you're like, actually, no, and they're like, oh yeah, you're right.

The values most important to me are transparency - full transparency - over-communicate, and loyalty. And accountability. I feel like I talk about that all the time because there's no accountability anymore. There has to be more accountability, so that's really important to me in both my work and personal life.