Episode 83: Betting On Yourself with CaaStle’s Gail Fierstein

Imagine this scenario… You take on a role and you are knocking it out of the park. Getting positive feedback from managers and leaders. So, you decide to ask for and create a new role that plays to your strengths and would elevate your team. Your idea is well received BUT instead of you for the role, your told they’d prefer someone else! What would you do?

In this episode, you’ll hear how our guest, Gail Fierstein, Chief People Officer at CaaStle, decided to advocate for herself early in her career, garner support from other leaders, and ultimately get the role she proposed.

Gail is a seasoned senior HR and Tech executive with extensive international experience transforming organizations in large scale public companies and cutting edge startups in finance, education and retail.

Gail spent several years as the SVP, Product and Technology HR Business Partner at Pearson Education.

And had a successful 25-year career at Goldman Sachs, where she was a Managing Director in Technology and Human Capital Management (HCM).

Gail is a Board member, Secretary and Nominating Committee Chair at NPower, whose mission is to bring the tech community together for social good by creating pathways to economic prosperity by launching digital careers for veterans and young adults from underserved communities.

 

Highlights:

[03:28] Gail’s 1 st career lesson

[06:10] 2 nd career lesson

[07:36] 3 rd career lesson

[10:13] 4 th career lesson

[15:12] Gaining the confidence to ask for what you deserve

[20:03] Overcoming limiting beliefs

[23:33] Building relationships

[29:30] Developing trust

[34:51] Preparing for success

[38:54] Accelerating success in the digital age

 

Quotes:

“Stay true and authentic and advocate for yourself.” - Gail Fierstein

“Sometimes others see something in you that you may not see in yourself. And you need to be open to that.” - Gail Fierstein 

“Confidence gives you energy.” – Gail Fierstein 

“How women process information and build relationships is the key ingredient, the secret sauce, in this digital age of accelerating success.” – Gail Fierstein

“Seek out mentors and sponsors from your day to day because they see and work with you and will have the best insight.” - Gail Fierstein 

 

About Gail Fierstein:

Gail is a seasoned senior HR and Tech executive with extensive international experience transforming organizations in large scale public companies and cutting edge startups in finance, education and retail.

Collaborates and advises senior leaders on setting strategic direction for their people strategies and developing best in class HR capability to create an engaged workplace in ever-changing business environments.

Gail is currently the Chief People Officer at CaaStle, CaaStle is creating a new economy for apparel with its technology and services platform for retailers and fashion brands offering rental clothing subscriptions to their consumers.

Gail spent several years as the SVP, Product and Technology HR Business Partner at Pearson Education. She led Pearson’s digital product transformation by defining the organization design, culture change and aggressively building out agile teams needed to create word class digital educational products.

During Gail’s 25-year career at Goldman Sachs, she was a Managing Director in Technology and Human Capital Management (HCM). In her role as the HCM head for Business Partner teams, she developed senior executives across many areas of the firm and was an active voice for women and in particular women in Tech. Gail developed the firm’s workforce re-entry programs, The ReturnshipTM– an internship designed for people rejoining the workforce after an extended personal time off.

Gail is a Board member, Secretary and Nominating Committee Chair at NPower, whose mission is to bring the tech community together for social good by creating pathways to economic prosperity by launching digital careers for veterans and young adults from underserved communities.

Gail received a BS from Rutgers University and lives in New York City with her husband and son.

 

Links:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gailfierstein/

Twitter: @GailFierstein