Who is
this diva?
Bridget-Anne Hampden
was born in Guyana, South America. She studied accounting
at college but found it boring. Then she discovered
that the computer field was "hot," so she
graduated with a double major in accounting and computer
science.
Bridget-Anne Hampden has been
in I.T. for 30 years and has seen many changes over the
years. At Wachovia, she was responsible for managing
all the information systems and technology within a
large work group of an international bank. She and her
team made it possible for thousands of people to do
their jobs every day.
Bridget-Anne supervised over 300 people and became a respected speaker on computer security and other technology issues. She has given numerous speeches in Europe, Asia, Latin America and in the U.S. Among her many awards, she has received the Outstanding Banker of the Year award and the YMCA Black Achievers in Industry award.
What
do you do at work?
The day usually begins at 7 a.m.
I usually read my e-mails and review my schedule and any
meeting materials for the day. I have about 6 to 8 meetings
on a given day. Some are with my direct reports, business
partners and other staff members. I have at least one
meeting per week mentoring employees.
If there are breaks throughout the day, I check my e-mails;
otherwise my assistant will go through the e-mails, take
care of the issues she can handle and discuss the rest
with me during our daily meeting. My goal is to try to
return phone calls within 24 hours.
I tend to reserve the last one and a half hours at the
end of the day to respond to e-mails and make some additional
phone calls. My day usually ends around 7 p.m., and I
may have evening activities (either community-based or
business-related).
How does your job help other people?
My goal is to ensure that members of my group have an
opportunity to enhance their skills so there is always
a wide variety of technical courses sponsored by the company
that they are encouraged to take. Each employee is required
to create an annual development plan which will list the
technical courses required, and I commit to sponsor at
least one for each individual.
Do you work alone or with
a team?
In my job, little progress is made at the individual employee
level, so it is very important to form teams. That is
best done by setting clear goals, objectives and timelines
and also providing an environment where team members can
discuss issues and feel as if they are contributing to
the success of the effort.
What's
the best part of your job?
Working in teams and delivering
technology solutions for my business partners is the best
part of my job.
What's
the worst part of your job?
Having difficult conversations regarding performance issues
with team members is the worst part of my job.
Where
do you see yourself in 10 years?
Since I have been fortunate enough
to have already spent 30 years in I.T. and in Corporate
America, I see myself teaching some facet of I.T. at a college
or university level in 10 years. I would also love to
do I.T. consulting.
What
do you do when you're not at work?
I have three boys who are all in
college, so I now focus on my community work. Additionally,
I am on a couple of Boards (The Girl Scouts is one), and
I enjoy socializing with my friends. My fiancée
and I love to travel.
What advice would you give
a girl about the I.T. field?
Girls should absolutely consider a career in I.T.. I do
not believe that in order to be successful in I.T., one
has to love math. I do believe that one has to be a logical
thinker in order to succeed at programming. There are
so many facets of the I.T. field – sales and marketing
of I.T. products and services, web design, project management,
etc. I have had a very rich and rewarding experience and
the excitement for me was knowing that no two days would
ever be exactly alike!
What
were your hobbies when you were 11-14?
I was a voracious reader, and I loved playing board games.
My favorite was Monopoly. I also loved to write. Since
I grew up in South America, I also got a chance to learn
how to fish, and I loved it!
Describe technology you
wish was available now.
Though I know it’s coming,
I would love to have a “smart” refrigerator
which is hooked into the local supermarket. With the push
of a button, I want to be able to automatically re-order
food and have it delivered to my house.
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