Chime Director of Engineering, Highlights Career Path
Emily Anderson, Director of Engineering at Chime, is a software engineer with an addiction to the code. Industrious by nature, she is driven to learn with, grow, and transform engineering teams coast to coast. In early 2020, Emily joined the Chime Team as Director of Engineering launching the Chicago Office and supporting Risk and Internal Tooling Teams.
Pathway to Leadership
Can you share an overview of what you do at Chime? Projects you and your team are working on?
My role at Chime is to support the risk and internal tooling engineering teams. From a risk perspective, we are fraud fighters. We handle everything from authentication to deciding on legit vs illegitimate actions on the platform.
On the tooling side, we build ops agents investigation tooling as well as automated customer features such as our chatbot and IVR.
How would you describe your journey to leadership?
My journey to leadership has been guided by trusting other leaders that I had a lot of respect for. I didn't apply or seek out a role where I was managing people, but my boss
at the time recommended me for a leadership position. I didn't have the confidence or knowledge to take the next step, but I trusted those around me and took the leap. From there, you have to have the guts to walk through doors and trust that the people around you are there to support you.
What are three skills you have that are important to your leadership role?
Vision: I make sure I have a clear vision when communicating with my team. If you don't, it's hard to have people follow and support you.
People: I hire and surround myself with good humans - Folks who are curious about the product, who are empathetic, motivated, and genuine.
Voice: I understand where I have personal strengths and weaknesses. It is important to use the way you communicate to shield your weaknesses and highlight your strengths - this concept ties into the importance of having a strong executive presence.
“You always have the ability to have an influence, regardless of your title.”
What is something you wished you knew at the beginning of your career that you know now?
Nobody knows what they're doing. As long as you are operating with good intentions and with proper guide rails, you're one of the pack.
You always have the ability to have an influence, regardless of your title.
How has your leadership style changed in response to remote working?
I don’t know if my style has really changed. I have managed at least partly remote teams for years so this isn’t too foreign for me. I think what has changed interestingly enough is the fact that everyone else is now managing remote teams - some for the first time. It’s forced a self-reflection: What works well with remote teams vs. what could use some tweaking? Some of that includes the number of meetings devs are in - Is having your camera on all the time the right thing to do? We have been focused on looking at our process for documenting and the value of standardization across teams, etc.
Building your network
How has focusing on growing your network helped you in your career? Can you share a real-life example?
A focus on growing my network has helped with getting jobs and hiring people. I didn't know the role at Chime existed until someone in my network said that I would be a perfect fit for their open role. Another benefit of building upon your network is knowledge sharing. The ability to compare and contrast stories/experiences is extremely helpful. From a leadership side, having someone who is dealing with the same issues and with whom you can bounce ideas off is key.
“Never say no to a coffee chat. Let people know you’re open to a chat and say yes when one lands on your plate. On the flip side, set them up for others to connect”
What are some groups and strategies to build connections with other industry leaders?
Never say no to a coffee chat. Let people know you're open to a chat and say yes when one lands on your plate. On the flip side, set them up for others to connect. Facilitating those connections for others leads to interesting conversations and creates a chain reaction. If you are attending a networking event or meetup, don't just go and listen. Go and be an active participant. I guarantee you will find it is similar people that attend and you will start to recognize folks and build connections.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
What advice do you have for engineers that want to build an inclusive engineering culture? What does that mean to you?
I remind myself that I am not the target user. It is important to hire folks with different backgrounds and experiences who are thinking of the product from every angle. It is important to consider race, gender, and ethnicity in your recruiting pipeline, but also socioeconomic groups and different levels of education. Another piece of advice is to not pretend that people aren't different. Embrace people for their uniqueness. Start from day 1 with these principles as it's hard to go back and change the idea that you want your team to be a diverse pool.
“Communication skills are HUGE. In an interview - use them. Interviews are 50% about code and 50% about culture and adding to the team. Be personable. Smile. Find ways to connect with people that are beyond the task at hand and you become a much more memorable candidate. ”
When it comes to recruiting engineers from different backgrounds, what do companies get right? What do they get wrong?
The first thing to align on is why you want to hire folks from different backgrounds and is your interview process set up to make it successful. Too often, companies lose sight of the why and instead aim for impressive diversity numbers when really they need to value the benefit of ideas and inspirations people bring from unique backgrounds and experiences. After alignment there, then teams need to take a good look at their process. Simply saying, “we had a diverse pool and it just so happened that the best candidates in that pool all have similar backgrounds” just isn’t good enough. As a leader, we are responsible for partnering closely with our recruiting partners to create high expectations so you end up with a well-rounded team
Is there anything else you’d like to share with ModelExpand readers?
Communication skills are HUGE. In an interview - use them. Interviews are 50% about code and 50% about culture and adding to the team. Be personable. Smile. Find ways to connect with people that aren’t just the task at hand and you become a much more memorable candidate.
Always ask for more money.
Emily will be sharing more about her experience at ModelExpand’s upcoming Women In Leadership Breakfast: Growing your Network in 2021. The ModelExpand Women In Leadership Breakfast Series provides a space for women to connect, inspire and uplift one another. Check out our upcoming events here or learn more about our sponsorship opportunities. Events are open to all.
ModelExpand: ModelExpand is an inclusive recruiting strategy firm that helps companies build diverse and inclusive workplaces through strategic consulting, workshops, and events.
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