Ellen Sundra has an interesting background of paring her love technology with the ability to teach it, to now lead a team of engineers at Forescout.

 

Her path wasn't linear, and at first, she had no idea what a Sales Engineer was, let along that she had the perfect set of skills to excel in this career. Now, leading a team of 80, Ellen shares so much with us in this latest Women in Tech Leadership Series episode.

 

Just some of what she discusses is:

- The pivotal moments in her career, and how she didn't even realize she should have been offended by some of them

- How Ellen had to review her hiring process to be more inclusive to women and encourage more diverse applicants

- The important traits Ellen looks for when hiring (and her impressive attrition rate)

- How we can encourage more young women to explore other tech positions other than just coding

- The current state of Cybersecurity

- Plus so much more!

 

Here is the official breakdown:

5:35 - Ellen discusses her background and her interests as a child that led her down this path

8:10 - How Ellen found her way into sales and systems engineering because there is no actual degree in sales engineering

9:40 - The pivotal moments of Ellen’s career, where she was put into roles because of her gender, but realized what she didn’t want to do

13:10 - The ah-ha moments that Ellen had growing up that really helped set her on her path

13:50 - How did Ellen get on the Cyber Security path from training

16:30 - Ellen’s team structure (and the shocking balance of men to women)

20:15 - The impressive number of women on Forescout’s leadership team

21:70 - The issues within sales engineering and how more people can get in this field

23:50 - How can we begin to solve the problem of developing and educating women at an earlier level

25:30 - The awesome program that Ellen has developed at Forescout to help interns get exposure to all kinds of different aspects of a technology company

29:05 - Are four-year degrees no longer required for various roles within Forescout, and Ellen’s view of leadership and hiring

31:15 - Ellen’s view of leadership and being imperfect

32:55 - The secret sauce of hiring a great team

36:10 - The view of ‘balance’ and how Ellen has a leader encourages finding that for those who work for her

41:50 - Agency and women in leadership, and where we are perceived as lacking

52:00 - How technology is having an impact on our lives, but the new threats it causes

53:10 - GenX and leadership and Ellen’s viewpoint of the role of this generation

 

The article that they were talking about: https://qz.com/work/1670468/women-seen-to-be-as-smart-as-men-but-not-ready-to-lead/