Making sense of career pivots and communicating with managers
"You're never going to know 100% what the next role is. There's a leap at a certain point; however, there is a lot you can do to figure out how to lessen the gap."
At Propel, we host events spotlighting leaders and founders. We share their most candid and relevant learnings on the blog.
Elspeth Rollert is the Global Head of Brand Partnership Marketing at Uber. For the majority of her time at Uber, she led the Uber Eats Partnership Marketing team, developing strategic relationships with partners at both the global and regional levels. In addition, she serves as a public face for Uber Eats, having spoken at New York University, USA Today and South Beach Wine & Food Festival.
During her time at Uber, Elspeth has developed and executed marketing campaigns with some of the world’s top brands including: Starbucks, McDonalds, Sweetgreen, The NY Jets, The Toronto Raptors and The Pittsburgh Steelers.
Prior to joining Uber, Elspeth held positions with Microsoft, CHANEL, Burson-Marsteller, IBM and The White House. Her career has been focused on the intersection between pop culture and technology to achieve brand and business goals.
During her time at the White House, Elspeth coordinated operations for the inaugural Physical Activity Summit, bringing together more than 100 public- and private-sector leaders in support of First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! Initiative.
Elspeth holds a Master’s in Business Administration from New York University Stern School of Business.
On making sense of career pivots
"I would say there are two common themes: interests and people. In terms of interests, I graduated from Georgetown and interned at the White House for six months during the Obama administration in the Office of Public Engagement. Another decision I made around interest was leaving the workforce to attend business school. In terms of people, I've followed a manager to a different company and another manager to a different line of business within Uber because I believed in their vision and their ability to lead."
On not getting pigeon holed
"Say you're in a specific CRM lifecycle role, but you want to try something new. Ask your manager if you can spend 5-10% of your time working on something different and that you’re genuinely curious about. Ask for things if you want to work on them. It's good to be vocal with your manager. He/She can't read your mind. It's your job to be in control and to be the captain of your career."
On uncertainty in career growth
"You're never going to know 100% what the next role is. There's a leap at a certain point; however, there is a lot you can do to figure out how to lessen the gap."
On Uber's resilience during the pandemic
"Uber operates in two primary lines of business: mobility and delivery. As is no secret, our mobility business went down and our delivery business went up as COVID became a reality worldwide. As a result, we re-strategized internally to think through how we might redeploy resources from mobility to delivery and to rethink priorities all the while being sensitive to the realities of COVID. Ultimately, I would say this brought our collective Uber family closer together as we worked through the pandemic's travails."