The importance of taking a non-urgent approach to career transitions and building relationships with companies and individuals.
Guest: Meredith Harper, SVP & Chief Information Security Officer at Synchrony Financial [@synchrony]
On LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrhciso
Host: Dr. Rebecca Wynn
On ITSPmagazine 👉 https://www.itspmagazine.com/itspmagazine-podcast-radio-hosts/rebecca-wynn
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Episode Description
In this episode, we explore the importance of staying open to new opportunities and embracing career changes. Meredith shares her personal journey of transitioning from healthcare to technology and how she found success by intersecting her legal background with the emerging field of healthcare technology. We also discuss the value of mentorship and networking in the tech industry, and how these relationships can help propel your career forward. Whether you're considering a career switch or looking to advance in your current field, this episode offers valuable insights and advice. Don't miss out on this inspiring conversation!
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Resources
Executive Women's Forum (EWF): https://www.ewf-usa.com/
Information Technology Senior Management Forum (ITSMF): https://itsmfleaders.org/
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Soulful CXO with Meredith Harper
Dr. Rebecca Wynn: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Soulful CXO. I'm your host, Dr. Rebecca Wynn. We are pleased to have with us today, Meredith Harper. Meredith is the award winning Senior VP, Chief Information Security Officer for Synchrony Financial. She is a strategic leader over 30 years of experience who's not just interested in processes, goals, and objectives.
Most of all, she's passionate about her greatest assets, her team members. Her success has been attributed to her ability to manage large scale complex programs in cross functional areas while advancing her team members skillsets, and their careers. Her prior roles include serving as the Vice President and CISO at Eli Lilly Company, and Vice President, Chief Information Privacy, and Security Officer at Henry Ford Health System.
She is a member of the Board of Trustees for the University of Detroit Mercy, and a graduate of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's CISO Academy. Her [00:01:00] awards include 2023 Tops 100 CISOs by CISO Connect, 2022 Top 50 Most Important African Americans in Technology by Black Money Worldwide, and 2021 CISO Hall of Fame Inductee.
Additionally, she's highly sought after speaker and has written numerous works. Meredith, my friend, it is great to see you again. Welcome to the show.
Meredith Harper: Oh my gosh. Thank you for having me. This is going to be fun.
Dr. Rebecca Wynn: Your career is really fascinating. Can you walk us through that? Because one of the things I find really fascinating you besides being the stellar CISO you are is you have a JD in health law.
I didn't even know there was a such thing. So can you walk us through that journey and how you got to be the CISO you are today?
Meredith Harper: Absolutely. Again, people have asked that question of me, like when you were in school, did you aspire to be a CISO? And I'm like first of all, it didn't exist, so I couldn't really aspire to be that.
[00:02:00] But I actually started my college career wanting to be an architect. I wasn't even in this field at all. So I wanted to be an architect. I probably have wanted to be one since I was eight. And so I went to college, went through three years of architecture. So I was in our junior senior sophomore junior year, we were starting to do a lot of computer aided design.
So I had this introduction of leveraging computers to solve problems, whether they were design problems, structural problems, engineering problems, computers were coming into play. And so I was like, okay as I talked to my mom about, and I'm like I think I want to change my major. And she was like, what are you talking about?
You've been wanting to do this ever since you was a kid. And now you want to switch in your junior year. This is insane. And I'm like, just trust me on this now had no, no data to back it up, but it was what my gut was telling me. So I switched in my junior year to the computer information systems degree program at University of Detroit Mercy.
[00:03:00] And I continued and graduated on time and all of that got my 1st job out of college being a programmer. Data processor programmer, and I work for a health care company that produce products for the health care industry, mostly around regulatory reporting and things of that nature. So I was the second African American that this company had ever hired.
I was the fourth woman in the IT department that they had ever hired. So I walked into an industry and an environment that didn't really reflect me at all, but it was something that I was really passionate about. And so luckily, throughout that experience, I had some really great leaders, mostly males who would support me in my journey moving forward.
But after about a year or two, I think my leaders realized that I was a little bit different than most technical folks. I like to talk to people. I like to solve some problems differently. I wanted to engage with. folks. And so I progressed pretty quickly into the areas of program management, project management [00:04:00] and really just helping implementation at these large scale hospitals and things like that were implementing our product.
And I didn't know a lot about healthcare. So I was like maybe I need to go back and get a degree. Let me go get a degree in health services administration. So I went back to the University of Detroit Mercy and I got this HSA degree that I was able to pair with my technology degree. So now I understand the industry that I am now producing products and trying to service for. And so that's how I married those two pieces together. Time went on in my career. I moved to a couple of different employers that gave me experience on the consulting side of the house. Johnson and Johnson was one of those early on employers.
And then after we got through Y2K, so that's when my career changed. We got through Y2K, the world didn't blow up like we thought it was. I don't know what we were thinking, but we just thought it was going to be a catastrophe and it wasn't. And so beyond that, my, [00:05:00] I remember my leader coming in and he said we're trying to figure out like, what's the next big thing for healthcare?
What is the next big push the next big regulation? Because a lot of my work within the regulatory space and how technology supported that. And so he dropped the 1100 pages of the HIPAA regulations on my desk and was like, here's the comments. Here's the reg. Can you read this and tell us if we have any opportunities here?
You seem to like that regulatory stuff. And so that's how privacy and security got introduced into my world. So that was circa 2000, somewhere around there. And I started to understand more about what these privacy regulations were going to require us to do as a health care organization to address those.
But then 2 years later, these security regulations are going to come out. And that's how security got introduced to me. Again, still cyber wasn't really a thing yet either. So I was still just doing what I would consider to be the, organizational security versus the cyber [00:06:00] component of it. And so I got this amazing opportunity to work for Henry Ford Health System, where they allow me to marry these 2 pieces together.
So I was responsible for their privacy program, building that from the ground up. I built their security program. I was responsible for compliance, audit, risk management in the space and for all of those things and was able to have really a great career there for 16 years. But as time went on, Thank you.
The area of law started to intersect. So cyber became a thing cyber regulations and laws started to become a thing. And so I decided that I wanted to get the experience of understanding how laws around the world impact the way that we roll out cyber programs, information security program, and our privacy programs at the time.
And so I decided to go to Loyola Chicago School of Law. And they were offering a degree. It wasn't a JD, but it's a Masters of Jurisprudence and Health Law. And so that's the degree that they were offering. And in [00:07:00] essence, what it is, we take similar and almost the same classes as the JD students take.
We just don't sit for the bar. So I don't have to sit for anybody's bar. I don't have to do that portion of it, but I get the legal knowledge to be able to understand how this impacts the way that I construct security programs around the world. I'm moving and working for a company like Eli Lilly, which I was there before I got to Synchrony, I had a global responsibility.
And so the way that I rolled out security programs in the U S is not the way that I rolled them out in Germany or Japan or China or India and other places that have regulations that drove things in that space. And so really, like I said, I couldn't walk into this 30 years ago and say, I think I want to do this.
It didn't exist, but I kept myself open to what are the new things that are coming about. And that's the encouragement I typically give everyone is that you can't always plot out 20 years of your career because you don't know what's gonna emerge. You don't know what's gonna come about. And so you [00:08:00] have to keep yourself open to the new things that are happening and emerging in your industry and leaning into that.
You never really know where it's going to take you. So it's taken me here because I was open to intersecting technology with healthcare with with my legal background and be able to do this on that scale. So now I left healthcare last year. I made a decision after 29 years last year. I wanted to do this work in a different industry.
And there was a reason why I wanted to do it in a different industry. And as I was connected with my peers, not only in healthcare, but in other sectors, I realized that the area of diversity and the work that we did in healthcare to really diversify that industry, there are other industries that could probably benefit from representation.
And so that was one of the catalysts behind, let me move myself into this financial services space. Let me try to attract talent that is diverse in this space so we can become a better industry overall. [00:09:00] That's all I got to Synchrony.
Dr. Rebecca Wynn: That's amazing. One of the things that you mentioned very early is being able to have, I'm going to say the freedom of being able to say I'm doing security, but privacy, governance, risk, compliance, and legal, they all intersect.
And that's one thing I do too, but I find it a challenge to explain to people that, yeah, as a really well rounded CISO, you should be well rounded in all those areas. And it's not a conflict. Have you run into that where people keep thinking it's a conflict when it's not?
Meredith Harper: Yeah, I don't know if I've run into people thinking that it's a conflict, but I think people don't always understand the overlap and the impact that different areas have on the work that we do in our space.
We don't do what we do in a vacuum. There's always a reason why we're doing something and it's either going to be regulatory driven, good business and just best practice driven or something that's emerging. And we just want to be [00:10:00] at the forefront of it all. So there's something always driving that.
So I have struggled at times to try to get people to understand the intersection of them all. I can't function the same way in every jurisdiction. And I have to align to the laws, regulations, and policies within that space. Still doesn't mean that we don't have great strong programs. We just have to tailor it.
And so I've, explained that several different times with several different people about the intersection that happens there.
Dr. Rebecca Wynn: Yeah. They always seem to want to have silos and it's us against them. And I'm like, no, it's more like a Venn diagram. We're all trying to do the greater good and we all have unique niches, but there is a great overlap.
And I always think it's. Great to have a great leader who sees that way. So I'm glad that you're one of those leaders as well, too.
Meredith Harper: Thank you. You're absolutely right. And if I think back to, I want to say the mid, the late 90s, early 2000s, and I was starting to think about the privacy program that we were building and the impact that it had on some of the [00:11:00] security things that we were doing or requesting.
And I think that people didn't realize that we can create policy that will have a privacy impact in the, field or vice versa. And when Henry Ford made a decision to say, Meredith, we're okay, but you combining these 2 areas together, we were 1 of the 1st health systems in the country to do that.
And it was because we didn't want the conflict between the policy side of the world, which is mostly on the privacy side. And then you have the control side of the world, which is on the security side that helps enforce the policy. And to have that report up through one leader, it really eliminated the conflict because when there is a conflict of interest.
I'm the one person who's deciding on what our priorities really should be. We were able to really forge ahead in that as one of the forerunners of combining privacy and security together. And today, even though I don't have functional responsibility for privacy, we have an amazing Chief Privacy Officer who I work hand in hand with every day to [00:12:00] deliver value to our customers at Synchrony.
Dr. Rebecca Wynn: No, it's great. And I tell people that always rolls up to enterprise risk management. What are you trying to accomplish? And if you don't, if you don't know what your enterprise risk is and what your tolerance is, it makes it very hard for every one of those other sub functions to be able to function. How do you guys handle that?
Or how do you suggest people handle that more wisely is what I would say.
Meredith Harper: I think what you have to do is, one, have an enterprise risk framework that you're going to leverage and that we all buy into the areas of risk that we're managing. But there should be a framework that we're leveraging. But it's a really simple way to deal with this that sometimes people don't want to think about, which you mentioned it earlier, we are not silos.
And the more that we can pull our partners into the discussions, the decisions, the risks that we're identifying and how we're addressing those risks collectively as a company, the better we will be. But if I just did that in the silo of security, then I'm just going to look at the risks that I can identify with my own lens, that [00:13:00] if I pull in my privacy partners, if I pull in my supply chain partners, cause they're managing our third parties and we know.
What challenges we have there by pulling my finance partners, my HR partners, because there's a human component to what we do in our space, like we're all in this together. And so what I have always encouraged is cross functional connection between those groups that all have a stake in how we manage this risk.
It's just not, it's a team sport. So we have said that over the years, that security is a team sport. It's not one of those things that we should do in a vacuum. We put ourselves at a disadvantage when we do that.
Dr. Rebecca Wynn: I agree with you. It should be a team sport. We shouldn't have to feel like we have to put our football pads on every day to go to work, which sometimes it is.
Yeah, you've mentioned about being cross functional, but you also mentioned about coming from healthcare. I know myself, I end up going between government services, healthcare, technology and financial services and I think I can flow very easily between those. But it's interesting how some people say, I'm only going to hire somebody [00:14:00] who's been in the sector for 15, 20, 25 years.
I'm like, you're really missing a diversity component there. Now that you have switched over to being more focused on financial services, obviously you had financial service components in your prior jobs. How did you find that transition? And how do you find yourself being able to be an influence on having eyes more wide open that you can pull from these other sectors and give yourself actually a better base and security and privacy and compliance because of the diversity of knowledge sets.
Meredith Harper: I think that I'm still in the transition, by the way. So because this is a learning journey for me as well, moving from one space to the next. One of the things that is common, though, it's common. Some of the challenges that we have on the healthcare side from a security perspective are the same challenges that we're dealing with on the financial services side.
Data is king, right? That's what we're protecting the majority of the time. [00:15:00] Data is also king on the financial services side. So, some of the similarities are there. I think a lot of times just learning the culture and also so learning some of the pain points that our customers may have because there's more of a consumer facing piece to the work that I do now versus what I've done in the past.
And so just learning about that, I think is always this hurdle that you have to overcome. And I think I'm still in that transition trying to get my arms around that. In terms of being flexible when I'm building teams, I've always been a little bit different than most people when I've built teams, and I've looked for non traditional skill sets to support what I need to do in this space.
For example, when I was building the privacy and security program at Henry Ford Health System, I employed engineering. I'm sorry. English majors because I wanted someone who could take the technical jargon that we talk about in our spaces and translate that into some level [00:16:00] of education and training and awareness.
And it needed to be in plain language. So I needed English majors to help us with that. When we started to think about behavioral analytics I went after psychology majors who understood about human behavior. So we can construct our in tune, our application. To human behavior norms that they know in their field.
And so we leverage their psychology backgrounds to help us do that. These were not cyber people. These were not technology people, but that's not what I needed. I needed people with a different set of skills who thought differently to help us construct the best product in the end. So when it comes to cross industry, I feel the same way.
I think that. Me and my peers struggle with the same things within financial services. When I was in healthcare, it was the same thing. We struggled with the same things and we had the same business model, but I always looked for people who were in other industries that may have figured out what we're struggling with already.
So you may come from DoD, you may come from energy, you may come from aviation, you may [00:17:00] come from some other. And you can now give us all of that knowledge that you have and bring it into our space to really help us up our game if that's the case. So I've always looked for diverse skill sets and diverse qualities in people beyond the things that people typically think about your skin color, your gender.
Those are part of it, but it's not all of it. It is your education. It is your experience. It is your training. It is all of those pieces that really created diverse culture. And so those are the things that I really look after look for when I'm trying to build these teams. I'm building in more skills based off of that.
Dr. Rebecca Wynn: Can you explain how you partner with HR, the recruiters, to be able to recruit that way? A lot of companies, they want you to go by some stale JD. And part of it is you're not getting people through your pipeline. I know for myself, I usually want to see all of the resumes you rejected because that's usually where I find the golden nuggets are the ones [00:18:00] that, that I want to fill those.
How, have you successively worked through that?
Meredith Harper: Yeah, so I'm also a firm believer that you have to go where the talent is to get what you're looking for. I think sometimes we think it's a one size fits all for all demographics.
If I want to Have some gender diversity. I'm going to go to a place where I won't find that gender. That's not the best way to look at this. You need to go to places that will have those things in abundance and you can filter through. For example, if I was looking for strong women in this space around the areas of privacy, security, risk management, compliance, or audit, I will go to the executive women's form and I would network and connect with people there.
E. W. F. Is an amazing organization that I've supported for years. And that's where I've partnered with Joyce, who is the founder of that group to say, here's what I'm looking for. Can you help me? Joyce and throughout associates, which is one of her recruitment companies. She was able to help us find that talent because I was looking for a specific demographic.[00:19:00]
If you are looking for a black talent, especially if it is mid career talent in tech, I'm going to go to ITSMF, which is the IT Senior Management Forum. That's where I'm going to find it in abundance, but I can't go to a mainstream organization and think that those cuts of those different demographics are going to be represented in abundance enough for me to find the right talent.
With the right skills that meet all of my qualifications, right? I think you have to know that it's not a one size fits all. You have to connect with different groups to be able to do it. One 1 of the other things that I think has been really successful, because I've been doing this for a really long time, and I have a lot of connections.
I have a really extensive following on LinkedIn. When I think about the last couple of roles that I had to recruit for, I actually didn't use any recruitment firms for it. I worked with my in house recruiters and I leveraged my Linkedin network, and that's how I got the qualified candidates for the roles that I was looking for.
Again, not a one size [00:20:00] fits all. You can leverage all of those touch points to be able to get the demographic that you're looking for with the qualified skill set. Luckily, my HR recruiters over the over time have really matured in the way that they're thinking about things like JDs. We went through this experience at Eli Lilly where.
We did an analysis of all of our job descriptions across information security, and I was very clear with the team that we need to find opportunities and pathways to pull out these things like degree requirements. There are some roles that we have within our organization where we really don't need a degree for those things.
I would like the. I would like someone who's certified. I would like someone who has a passion around learning and things of that nature, but you don't have to have a degree in these. And so we were able to open up pathways by looking at those job descriptions and eliminating that requirement. And it was initially challenging for HR because they're so used to having those things there, but they really leaned into the [00:21:00] exercise with us and was able to help us construct something that really opened the pipeline up for us greatly.
Not one size fits all, find multiple avenues, go where the talent is, stop waiting for them to show up in places where they generally don't go.
Dr. Rebecca Wynn: No, I appreciate that. Cause I tell people, even myself, I'm highly educated like you are too, but there are certain sectors that there is an education requirement.
Certain other ones, the School of Hard Knocks works well. I like looking at people who are, coming for career change works really well. And the one thing I always keep in mind that. Women generally will not even apply for the job if they don't see that they have 100 percent of the qualifications.
I tell women out there apply. Don't waste time either. If you have none of the things that they're looking for, don't do the hope and pray. It's going to be okay in the spray method. That's one thing I do. Discourage people from doing, which I'm sure that you guys see quite a bit as well too.
Someone who's just [00:22:00] trying to do a career change or to break into the field from maybe coming to college, what do you suggest that they do when they're looking for that first position for two different people, the people who are just starting out a career from.
From not having a career for maybe having from college and then the other was people who want to do a career change because that's how I got into IT. I did career change.
Meredith Harper: So let's start with those that are in college and it's not even once they get out of college. I think the process has to start long before you're out of college.
Most companies offer amazing internship opportunities. And I think that a lot of that transition is facilitated. Through internships, when people leave their college environments, they graduate. They now have built this 1 or 2 year relationship with this company. They've interned for 9 times out of 10, 80 to 90 percent of those folks.
We're going to hire. We're going to offer you an opportunity to come and work for us. So I would also encourage people to do that. Make sure that you are taking opportunities for internships while you're [00:23:00] finishing your degree once you're done with your degree. A lot of it really is networking and connecting, which I think is something that we have to help our early career professionals and our graduates to learn more how to do that.
I think that technology, in a way has. played against us a little bit in terms of going to job fairs, going to conferences, going to places where employers will congregate and you having conversations with them. That conversation piece is critical and it's key. And so I think that people have to lean into that and they have to be able to connect in ways that will open up doors for them, right?
So I think that's one avenue for them. Mentors are, huge. And again, I don't know if we're always helping the new generation of tech talent coming in understand how important mentoring is and how those mentors can help move you and orchestrate activities for you in a way that you will be the right candidate when the time comes.
[00:24:00] So making sure you find someone who can mentor and advocate for you. Connect you with their networks. If you're someone that's a rock star and they really want to get you into the industry, do those internships and create the relationships and go to these places where we're employers congregate. You have to get yourself out there.
Everything cannot be done electronically. Everything cannot be done through LinkedIn. LinkedIn is awesome, but everything cannot be done through that. Sometimes it has to be a conversation, so we have to encourage that for those who want to switch careers. And I've seen this phenomenon, which I think is amazing when people decide they want to leave one career and move into a different industry and pursue something totally different.
I had an opportunity to partner with a group out of Detroit, Michigan called Sisters Code and Sisters Code was one that they targeted women. And they targeted a black women specifically for this group, and they were giving them training in order for them to be able to shift careers if they wanted to. And I think one of the [00:25:00] classes we had one young lady.
She was 85 years old. So she's in the class and she wants to learn about tech because she wanted to learn how to code websites. God bless her. That's what she wanted to do. So I think that there are many opportunities for you to get some of that additional training that will give you a foot, a foothold into a new career.
So if you have groups like Sisters Code that offers that training, go take it. If you have classes at your local community college, that will give you insight. Go take it, because that will give you a skillset that you can leverage when you're trying to shift. But I think the principles that I just talked about when it comes to our early career professionals, that still applies for those who are trying to shift careers, build those relationships.
I have a gentleman right now who reached out to me and I, actually connect with anyone you read out, reach out to me on LinkedIn. I might not even know you, but I will set up a meeting if you ask for one, but he and I connect regularly and he doesn't work in cyber right now, but he wants to work in cyber.
He went back and got a degree in [00:26:00] cyber and we check in with each other. I've been able to give him shadow opportunities with some of my team members to work with them and to see what they do every day. That type of thing. thing. So I think that there are always these opportunities to you for you to use your relationships to give you exposure into this space that we call cyber security, information security and the like.
So I just think that networking still applies on both ends. But being able to get some basic skills whether again through some community college courses, certification courses, I think will be critical for you to make that pivot because I've heard people say it's tough. It's tough breaking into cyber.
Why can't I ever get a role within cyber? I think also some of the folks that I've talked to. It's been a little unrealistic. That they've thought about what role should they come into. So I might be in management in my current industry and career. I want to move off into cyber and I want to be a director of something.
The reality is that's probably not going to be the case. So I think we have to also [00:27:00] set the right expectations for you coming into this industry, even coming from somewhere else. But coming into the industry, you might be seen as a as, a green bean, as I call them. So we need to grow that green bean up and make sure that you have the experiences you need so you can be successful.
And that doesn't always mean that you're going to come in as a director or a VP of something. So set the right expectations for that too.
Dr. Rebecca Wynn: Part of the challenge is to sometimes you might come from a startup or a midsize company or different sector and other companies, those levels are different.
Yeah. Yeah. I'd have been a VP at one company and maybe coming in as a manager is the, equivalent. So sometimes those don't, I I tell people, don't get hung up on titles look about, does it. Is it actually going ahead? And it's challenging to you and you can do the work and things along those lines.
And sometimes what is, a sidestep is, a step [00:28:00] forward. So you gotta be willing to do that. And we don't train people enough on that. There's too much about that career progression ladder what's my title going to be in 6 months and in 6 months and 6 months. I understand. I it's trying to keep people and the churn rates lower in the company, but I think.
Personally, I told people, I go, that's done such a disservice in a lot of ways.
Meredith Harper: I've never thought about it in my career. I'm going to be really honest. I've never thought about, Oh my God, I'm in this role. I'm going to do this for two years and not need to be a director. And okay, I'm going to do this for three years.
And I'm going to be a vice president. Like I never thought about that. I was more interested in the experiences that I was having and the skill sets that I was collecting along the way. And I'm gonna be honest, people created roles for me that were vice president roles. Without the role ever being there before.
But Meredith has the skill set. We now have a need for it. We're going to go ahead and put her in this role. That's how I got my first vice presidency. I think that even in my career, it's been people have looked at it from time to time and said that I've even taken some sidesteps. I was a vice president, chief privacy officer and CISO for Henry [00:29:00] Ford Health System.
I left that company, went to Eli Lilly Global Company, regional company, global company. And I came in as a deputy. Chief information security officer and people were like what are you doing? You are already a CISO and a CPO and a vice president, and you're going to be a senior director and a deputy.
But there was always a strategy behind that. There were, there was always a plan behind that. I knew that I was going to ascend to the CISO role and the VP role. I wasn't concerned about what people thought about my titles. It was now. Putting me in a position where I got a chance to do this wonderful work for a global company versus a regional company and that breath and the global nature of the people weren't getting it right.
So they thought I was even taking side steps and back steps throughout my career, but I was more interested in the experience than I was the title. The title wasn't important to me at the time.
Dr. Rebecca Wynn: And, and I've talked separately that really goes about thinking about your authentic self, thinking [00:30:00] about really what internally you want and taking a moment of that peace and that quiet and reflection to really think through if that's a good step.
Can, you walk the audience through that a little bit? Cause I think sometimes, especially today, you're like, I have a job offer. Just take it. But I know for me, every time I've had those red flags, that inner gut, it's no. And I've said, yes. Yes. It's never turned out right for me personally.
Meredith Harper: So what I tell people is I've always taken opportunities to, to move on to another opportunity when we were at a high point in our program.
So it's never a great thing to look for a role when you're not feeling so warm and fuzzy about the company that you're working for, because when that happens, you tend to jump to anything that's presented to you. Your goal is to get out of this company. So you're just going to jump at anything. That people present to you.
Whereas in my situations, I've always made thoughtful moves about me moving from role to role. So I wasn't [00:31:00] in this urgency state. I wasn't anxious about it. I wasn't I had time where I could actually look for the right opportunity, not only for what I could do technical technically, but also the culture of the company means.
That's like paramount for me. I don't care what the company is offering in terms of the technical capabilities and all the cool things that we can do if the culture is not the right culture. I can't sit in that space because back to your, comment about authenticity. I have to be authentically who I am and culture is huge for me.
So I can't sit in a culture that doesn't reflect who I am as a person. So I always have looked for those opportunities when I was at a high point. We've done some really great work. We were able to deliver great value to the company. And then based off of that, I think I can go off and do something else.
So it's no urgency for me. Every time I've done it that way. It's no urgency for me. So I've been able to create and select really good companies create good relationships with both companies and be able to have a good [00:32:00] selections because I wasn't in this anxious urgent state desperate state to get out of what I was in.
I would encourage everybody to do it that way. One of the other things is, I think that continuously having conversations with folks about roles, even when you're sitting in the most ideal role for yourself continuously talking to people about new roles is something that I've always done as well. It doesn't mean that I'm trying to leave the company, but I always want to hear what others are.
Asking for and looking for in someone like me in a role that I hold or a role that I might be interested in. It gives me perspective. And so I think that a lot of times people get into their roles, and they might spend 5, 6, 10 years in that role and never talk to anyone outside about other opportunities.
And when it's time for them to start doing that, they feel like they're. Like it's a different world, like it's a whole different world now because 10 years have passed. And in the world of technology, 10 years is like a century. So, I just, I always tell people to continue to have those conversations because what it does, it also [00:33:00] builds relationships for future opportunities, possibly for you.
And if you have nothing else, a conversation can't hurt. And you build a relationship and then you might leverage it now with an opportunity that comes about, or you might leverage it five years down the road, but at least you're working on building a relationship over time.
Dr. Rebecca Wynn: Well, Meredith, unfortunately our time has totally flown by.
What's the best way for people to reach out to you for speaking opportunities and learn more about your company.
Meredith Harper: LinkedIn is, it? So I have a huge profile on LinkedIn. I've been on LinkedIn for a really long time. Come find me there.
Dr. Rebecca Wynn: Meredith, you are a Soulful CXO.
Meredith Harper: Oh, thank you so much.
This has been amazing today. Thank you for your time.