Kendra is the Managing Director of SEEK Australia and New Zealand. Previously, she was their Chief Commercial Officer, where she led customer and commercial relationships and initiatives across the Commercial Excellence, Marketing, and Sales & Service teams.
Kendra joined SEEK in 2015 as Marketing Director, was appointed Chief Commercial Officer in July 2017, and Managing Director in February of 2018.
Prior to SEEK, Kendra has held a series of senior marketing roles within the retail sector, most recently at Coles where she was General Manager, Customer Insight & Coles Brand. Prior to this, Kendra was based in London where she spent seven years at Tesco, with her final role as Price and Promotions Director. Kendra commenced her career in strategy as a consultant with McKinsey.
Kendra holds a Masters in European Politics at the College of Europe, where she was a Fulbright scholarship recipient. Prior to this, Kendra completed a Bachelor of Economics and Mathematics at Yale University.
Sneak Peek Into What You’ll Learn…
01:26 – Kendra explains what SEEK Australia does as one of the world’s largest employment technology firms.
03:36 – Kendra tells us about her career journey that led her from McKinsey, to Oxfam, to Tesco, to Coles Supermarkets, and ultimately to SEEK Australia.
13:02 – Kendra talks about how she was able to get a business job again after spending time working in non-profit and the advice she would give to anyone interested in working in both the for-profit and non-profit sectors during their career.
17:28 – Kendra discusses the importance of workplace culture and how to assess whether or not a work environment will be a good fit. She also tells us about the cultures at McKinsey, Tesco, Coles and SEEK Australia.
23:08 – Kendra discusses the differences in the experiences of working women in difference countries and the impact of maternity leave policies on those experiences.
29:12 – Kendra talks about how she balances family and work life and how the dynamic changes often and regularly.
33:58 – Looking back over the past 10 years, Kendra tells us what she would have done differently.
37:09 – Brass Tacks— The lightning round of concrete advice and tips.
Quotable quotes:
- “I don’t think you can ever look back and regret making a [career] decision for a personal reason.”
- “[On regrets] It’s almost like a tech company mindset. You just have to try and if you fail, it’s alright because you learn from it. So you don’t really regret the things that went wrong because you’ve learned something valuable from the experience.”
- “I’m not a big one for regrets. I feel at each point in time I made the decision that was right for that situation.”
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