About Myra
(in her own words)
Don’t take career advice from just anyone. Use the same high standards you have for almost every other aspect of your life. Here are some highlights from my resume that drive my advice. If they resonate with you, welcome to the Leadership Lab!
About my career journey
I have a high bar for life.
I am a leader at home and at work, and I have high standards for both. I appreciate (and resent) the dualities of life like feeling blessed and also annoyed with my family, loving my job and still dreading to get up on Mondays, being restlessly ambitious and also content with steady state, wanting to endlessly improve myself/my job/my life and yet always searching for the shortcuts. I am a very pragmatic person and believe there are practical ways to improve almost any situation if you have the tools to do it.
I am mom to two sassy girls, an enthusiastic eating and travel partner to my husband, and a proud rep of all things Asian American. I am also a trainer, facilitator, and advisor who has weaved my way through retail/tech to find my own version of professional success. Read about my career journey below…
Happenstance, international stints, high-performing teams
I started my corporate career at the Gap, I didn’t seek out retail but I happened to intern at Macy’s after meeting the recruiter at a Wharton Women networking dinner. I learned the fundamentals of manufacturing, product development, merchandising, and inventory management. I had many lessons, frustrations, inspiring and demotivating managers, and plenty of ownership for my first job out of college.
I moved to the Gap China team to be a part of something new and get a chance to travel. When they told us our NYC based team was being shut down to start a local team in Shanghai, I casually asked if I could go too. And...they said yes! I spent 2 1/2 years in China helping start a local team, learning the Greater China market, and bringing the Gap brands to life from scratch. We scaled it from nothing to a multi-million dollar business.
I learned that I loved to be scrappy and create solutions in ambiguous situations. During my time at Gap China, we operated like a tight-knit, highly-functional family. That's also when I learned what it took to make such a cohesive, thriving team - strong, empathetic, solution-oriented leadership.
I didn't intend to leave the Gap after I moved back to NYC, but they shifted their international strategy, and my position was eliminated. I stepped into the role they suggested for me but negotiated to keep my severance if I didn't like it. This was the first time I reflected about my career experience and what I wanted to do next. I loved the scrappy, fast-paced nature of Gap China, coupled with the nice, comfy stability of a large company. E-commerce seemed to be a good next step.
That’s when a mentor of mine sent me a post for an Amazon subsidiary buyer role. I didn’t have any e-commerce experience so I thought it would be a tough sell, but they were looking for apparel and manager experience which I had - win, win. I learned the ways Amazon's culture permeated in every aspect of how we worked, including our hiring. I became a bar raiser and met hundreds of teams across Amazon’s varied businesses.
But good things are never guaranteed - the entire subsidiary was laid off and shut down. I once again learned the power of my network and joined the Amazon grocery business which was just starting its crazy growth trajectory. I had no intention of moving into grocery but they had a semi-related role under leaders I respected, and I had just bought an apartment that I needed to pay for and a baby on the way.
Though my next two roles were not my dream jobs, I added value and got energy from side projects around org culture, talent development, and team ways of working. I learned how to advocate for myself and develop my own rubric of when to push through crappy situations and when/how to move on. I started asking my teams to do their own Love/Hate list for development conversations - things that brought them energy and things that drained them. When trying to get promoted and expand my scope, my manager said “You are good at relationship building and team culture, think about how you approach those and teach others. This is how you drive impact beyond your area of ownership.”
Lay-offs, Amazon, lay-offs, Amazon, promotion
Love/Hate List to L&D and beyond
After finally getting promoted to a senior marketing leader, I personally reflected on what gave me energy and what I wanted to be known for. I loved creating new solutions and leading through others - whether that was equipping my team or managing up to my leaders or sharing ideas with my peers. I continued to utilize my strengths and things that gave me energy to add value to our business challenges. When I looked at the Love/Hate list, everything was people and culture related. Light bulb moment! My leaders supported me in pursuing this within the org.
I started a small and scrappy learning and development team to provide practical solutions to our org's needs. We focus on delivering content in ways that actually solve for people’s gaps and stick with them. No fluff, no minute wasted, just practical, actionable trainings.
Which brings me to today - taking the learnings from these experiences to build and share my toolkit to be a more effective contributor, build stronger teams, and ultimately have a happier you. I am particularly passionate about 1) Finding the right career path, 2) Raising the bar in service of your career goals, 3) Cultivating high performing teams. These have been big lessons for me in my career and I hope to share some of the frameworks I’ve created with you.
Myra’s Accolades & Accomplishments
Amazon Bar Raiser
Wharton Graduate
EQ@Amazon Champion
AAPI NJ Member
Harvard Advisory Council Member
Asians@Amazon Board Member
Co-founder Amazon’s Culture Advisory Board
Gap Retail Management Program Graduate
Leader of multi-layered teams
10+ years at Amazon, 6+ at Gap
McKinsey Connected Leaders Academy Certification
Writing & Speaking Effectively Teacher
