While we’re busy working on new episodes, we wanted to revisit one of our favorite conversations from Season 3. When we first spoke with Hayete Gallott, she was Corporate Vice President at Microsoft. Today, she is President of Customer Experience at Google. We thought this was a meaningful opportunity to revisit her reflections on career choices, change, and growth.

How do you find the right career path when so many possibilities are in front of you? For Hayete Gallot, the answer has always been experimentation—trying new roles, seeing what sparks energy, and learning just as much from what doesn’t.

That curiosity has shaped her eclectic journey. Hayete has moved across engineering, product management, marketing, sales, and business planning—always following the thread of what felt meaningful at the time. Behind that drive is a lesson she learned from her mother: independence matters, because life can change in an instant.

2:10 Lessons from Mom

5:58 Being an Information Sponge

6:14 The Value of Curiosity & Lifelong Learning

10:24 Day-to-Day Leadership at Microsoft

14:42 You Probably Won’t Be Working on What You Studied

17:13 Confidence, Resilience, and Self-Belief

18:24 Prioritize and Protect Your Time

Links:

Hayete Gallott on LinkedIn

Suchi Srinivasan on LinkedIn

Kamila Rakhimova on LinkedIn

About In Her Ellement:

In Her Ellement highlights the women and allies leading the charge in digital, business, and technology innovation. Through engaging conversations, the podcast explores their journeys—celebrating successes and acknowledging the balance between work and family. Most importantly, it asks: when was the moment you realized you hadn’t just arrived—you were truly in your element?

About The Hosts:

Kamila Rakhimova is a fintech leader whose journey took her from Tajikistan to the U.S., where she built a career on her own terms. Leveraging her English proficiency and international relations expertise, she discovered the power of microfinance and moved to the U.S., eventually leading Amazon's Alexa Fund to support underrepresented founders.

Suchi Srinivasan is an expert in AI and digital transformation. Originally from India, her career includes roles at trailblazing organizations like Bell Labs and Microsoft. In 2011, she co-founded the Cleanweb Hackathon, a global initiative driving IT-powered climate solutions with over 10,000 members across 25+ countries. She also advises Women in Cloud, aiming to create $1B in economic opportunities for women entrepreneurs by 2030.

Subscribe to In Her Ellement on your podcast app of choice to hear meaningful conversations with women in digital, business, and technology.

Throwback: Eclectic Career Paths with Google’s Hayete Gallot