Karen Ji is a Senior Manager for Customer Operations at Cloudera.
Her team help the company's global customers, with a main focus regionally on China and Korea as they provide local language support to them. Their role is to help customers resolve any issues and give them the support and expertise they need to do so.
"One of the things I love most about my job is that it enables me to work with teams from across the business. On a daily basis I work with colleagues from the field, sales and professional services. This cross team collaboration is vital to helping understand our customers needs and exceed their expectations," she says.
Key traits of empathy and ambition
Karen cites empathy as the core skill you need to work in Customer Operations at Cloudera: "Without empathy you will not succeed," she says.
"It’s often called a ‘soft’ skill, but I truly believe it's a super power. Technical knowledge can be taught, but empathy cannot - you either have it or you don’t. Our customers want to know that we understand and care about them; that we’re their partner," she adds.
Whilst empathy is the number one skill she looks for in her team, when she is recruiting for new team members it’s really important that she is able to see their ambition and desire to grow.
Karen suggests that someone who is brave enough to step outside of their comfort zone should always apply for a job at Cloudera because whilst you will be challenged, you will also be supported.
Elevating women in Cloudera
Cloudera's Sponsorship Programme aims to develop and elevate women in Cloudera with the goal of building a more diverse pipeline for leadership positions. Each female leader in the programme is given a mentor from within Cloudera and also paired with an executive coach.
For Karen, it has been a game changer.
She explains why: "When I moved into my role as senior manager, my mindset changed from how do I develop myself and ensure my own success to how do I make my team successful?
"The Sponsorship Programme takes this to a whole new level by demonstrating the business - not just team - leadership skills I need. It has also enabled me to better understand the varying factors that impact our success as a business for our customers, employees and ourselves," she adds.
"Without question the programme has expanded my vision, but that is one of the things I love most about working at Cloudera. I am continually challenged to think differently."
Making the impossible possible
Karen genuinely loves the Cloudera culture.
"Our vision is to make what’s impossible today, possible tomorrow," she concludes.
"That’s such a powerful statement and I believe in it. It shapes how we are as an organisation, how we look out for each other, help and support our colleagues."
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Disclosure: Where Women Work researches and publishes insightful evidence about how its paid member organizations support women's equality.