A Day in the Life of a Chief Human Resources Officer at Cloudera
A senior VP's day is "super variable," as illustrated by Britt's experience at a startup going public; this involved high-level strategic meetings with the CEO and board alongside urgent, administrative tasks like creating a death benefits policy after an employee's passing in Brazil.
Executive/Leadership, Problem-Solving, Strategy, Overcoming Challenges, Ethical Dilemmas
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Britt Sellin
Retired - Former SVP of HR /CHRO
Cloudera
UC Berkeley; UCLA extension for an HR certificate post graduation from Berkeley
N/A
Psychology
Technology
Human Resources (HR)
None Applicable
Video Highlights
1. A day in the life of a senior VP is highly variable, especially in a startup environment.
2. A senior VP needs to balance high-level strategic work (e.g., meeting with the CEO, working on company strategy) with more administrative tasks (e.g., developing company policies, handling legal issues).
3. The example of creating a new employee death policy illustrates how a senior VP deals with unexpected challenges and diverse responsibilities.
Transcript
What does a day in the life of a senior VP look like?
That is super variable. But that also was because I was with a startup and we went public. So you're building at the same time.
On the one hand, I'd be meeting either with the CEO or sometimes they'd be at board meetings. On the other hand, I'd be trying to figure out what our new policy is.
For instance, we had an employee die in Brazil and we didn't have a death policy at the time. So how do you figure that out?
This was very administrative and legally oriented. But for the most part, I'm really trying to figure out strategy and drive it within the company, either for the company itself or for my own team.