It’s okay not to have a plan

2004-2007

Director, Business and Marketing Operations, Microsoft Australia

“When I went to Microsoft, I was hired to run one of the product groups, the server business. I was six months pregnant at the time. Steve Vamos, who was running Microsoft [Australia & New Zealand] then, is a special kind of mentor and leader for me. When I was on maternity leave, Steve promoted me to my boss’s job. I was hired when I was six months pregnant and promoted on maternity leave, which was good luck, not good management. I didn’t have a career plan... [I think women tend to] look so self-critically at what the things are that we can do and can’t do and then we look at the job and set the bar so high for ourselves. We hold ourselves back not because we don’t have the ambition but because we want to make sure we can do it well.”