Sandra Rivera is a Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Network Platforms Group at Intel, where she is responsible for guiding Intel’s strategy, commitments, and deliverables for 5G. Rivera leads a global organization of over 2500 employees with an annual $20 billion market segment. In this episode, Sandra shares about the importance of building a board of advisors to help with career development, mentoring, and working through tough challenges, why a diverse workforce is critical to business success, and how she balances work with being a mother of four.
A dream career path
Sandra thought she had it all figured out: engineering school, a degree, and a job in corporate America with Westinghouse Electric. Although she held many roles at the company, she pinpointed that what she enjoyed most was working with customers to solve their problems with products and technologies. When the entrepreneurial urge became too much to squelch, Sandra left Westinghouse to join a startup as their first sales engineer. Her path proceeded from there, with timing and the market always being on her side, as she left to form her own business, and then joined another startup. It was then that Sandra started consulting for Intel, which ironically now owned the original startup she was with earlier. She joined Intel full-time, which has become a career of 18+ years and counting.
A difficult adjustment
When she first joined Intel, it had been a few years since she was in a big company. The adjustment was not an easy one, as she learned that the things most valued in a startup are not the same in “big corporate America.” Sandra decided to try to change some of the things that frustrated her most from the inside, and she says, “The magic began to happen.” She found others in the company who valued the same things, and they worked together to build the business from virtually nothing into a multibillion-dollar company..
An immigrant heritage to be proud of
Sandra is the daughter of Colombian immigrants “who came to the US with $100 in their pockets, 100 English words in their vocabulary, and a very big dream to make a better life for their family.” Sandra says she received many valuable traits from her parents, including courage, integrity, work ethic, collaboration, passion for life, and a desire to do good in the world. She realizes the massive bravery it took for them to leave the country and life they knew with a toddler in tow and head toward an uncertain future. She credits them with laying the foundation for her personal and professional success.
Finding success in a man’s world
Sandra realized early on in her career that there were very few women in tech sales and even fewer Latina women. As she saw that she never got “the benefit of the doubt,” she decided to be more prepared and more knowledgeable than the competition. She approached each business encounter with the philosophy that, “They will remember me and they’ll remember me for something good.” It was preparation that helped her push through any self-confidence issues.
A key to success
Sandra explains the concept of having a personal board of advisors. This is because everyone needs a set of voices to bounce your ideas off – those who will give you the brutal truth. This board needs to be a wide range of people whom you trust to give you a different perspective, and not just a bunch of yes people who will tell you what you want to hear. You have to be willing to be vulnerable and share what motivates you, what you are afraid of, and what your goals – all with authenticity. It’s good for us to be accountable.
Making sponsorship work
In sponsoring a group of women at Intel, Sandra has a hand in their success and progress. She operates under the goal of leaving something better than you found it. Sponsorship makes a more equal environment and gives more opportunities for women. Sandra feels like she owes it to the ones who came before her and to those who will come after her. Sponsorship is actively advocating for someone else with your own equity, and it takes a significant amount of personal investment, connection, commitment, and selectivity, but it’s an essential part of paying it forward.
Optimization at the enterprise level
A leader should always be looking for those who can operate at the enterprise level, putting the enterprise first and thinking beyond their role, their job, and their performance. As a business leader, Sandra looks for those who can envision themselves being part of something “bigger.”
Conquering self-doubt
You might think that Sandra has always had confidence in herself, but there were times when she wasn’t sure she could do the job. In one case, there was a big challenge that she had never faced before. It was someone else who had faith in her and proactively reached out and affirmed that she would be a good fit. Because of that experience, Sandra is careful as a leader today to emphasize the value of collaboration and teamwork because she has heard the voice that says, “You are not enough.”
Making deliberate choices
As the mother of four kids, Sandra tried to find a balance between her family and career. Her parents were a big part of her support system, and this was why she was willing to limit her career growth and opportunities by refusing to relocate. This refusal eliminated her from some opportunities for a time, and her career flatlined for a while, but it was all to keep her support in place. Sandra says it was frustrating at times to live with these deliberate choices, but she knew there was value in living according to her priorities.
Highlights of this episode:
- 4:49 – The different cultures in startups and big corporations
- 9:55 – The impact of being an immigrant
- 13:18 – A Latina woman in a man’s world
- 15:43 – Having self-confidence as an outsider
- 17:35 – Creating a personal board of advisors
- 21:11 – The people who need to be on your side
- 25:40 – Why sponsorship is important
- 28:08 – The uniqueness of sponsorship
- 31:05 – Taking mentorship to a whole new level
- 34:42 – How employees and teams can optimize
- 38:12 – How Sandra experienced self-doubt
- 42:19 – Balancing career and family
- 46:53 – Fem Five
Resources mentioned:
- Find Sandra on Twitter: @SandraLRivera
- Know Your Value: Women, Money, and Getting What You’re Worth by Mika Brzezinski
The Fem Five:
1. Favorite book to recommend for women?
- Know Your Value: Women, Money, and Getting What You’re Worth by Mika Brzezinski
2. Favorite self-care hack?
- “Breaking a sweat once a day.”
3. Best piece of advice and who gave it to you?
- “Aicha Evans told me,’Have a mindset of abundance’, and ‘The more of us there are, the more of us there are’.”
4. Female CEO or thought leader you’re into right now?
5. One piece of advice you’d give your five years younger self?
- “Take more risks.”
Last Time on The NextFem Podcast
Ending Unconscious Bias to Eliminate the Gender Pay Gap – with Meggie Palmer
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