Fastly VP Talent Danielle Clark

Talk Talent To Me

Today's guest is Danielle Clark, VP Talent at Fastly. Danielle has experience as both a consultant and working in-house within the tech industry, and has a pragmatic and people-focused approach to solving problems within a business. In today’s show we find out what work Danielle is currently involved with, how businesses are beginning to recognize the value of people-based solutions, the differences between working as a consultant and in-house, how to best advocate for yourself as an employee, advice for getting that promotion, and much more!

Key Points From This Episode:

• Danielle explains what overhauling performance management entails.
• Motivation behind the decision to overhaul management.
• What the ultimate goal of overhauling management is.
• We find out what Fastly is and what Danielle’s current role there entails.
• Frequency of scaling and hyper-growth after the initial public offering.
• Responsibilities Danielle had when she was a consultant.
• Common threads that companies have regarding talent and leaders.
• Danielle’s decision to leave consulting and begin working in-house.
• How to become a real consultant and partner and not just take orders.
• Advice for juggling different jobs and responsibilities as a consultant.
• The importance of leaders acknowledging the role and potential of recruitment.
• A discussion about the contribution of individuals to an organization.
• Why clear expectations are so important during recruitment drives.
• Advocating for yourself to help you grow in the organization.

Tweetables:

“You also have to be prepared to embrace a lot of different backgrounds and different kinds of business principles and operational rigor that maybe you hadn’t had to do when you’re a private company.” — Danielle Clark [0:07:42]

“Consulting gives you so much exposure to so many things so quickly. There’s no way I would have got the experience I had if I’d worked those eight years in-house, it’s just impossible.” — Danielle Clark [0:13:51]

“Take stock of what the purpose is, really think about how that fits into the bigger business and the value that you are adding to that.” — Danielle Clark [0:19:23]

“Everyone listening to this should have a perspective on the role of talent in their organization, which is not just putting bodies into seats or in front of screens but really bringing in new ideas.” — Danielle Clark [0:21:35]

“It doesn’t mean you need to be extroverted, it doesn’t mean that you need to take up all the air in the room but it does mean that you need to advocate for yourself and know that that’s part of it.” — Danielle Clark [0:30:18]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Danielle Clark on LinkedIn

Fastly

Hired

Talk Talent to Me