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Julianna Hayes
Proven Finance Leader with 15+ years in the tech sector. CFO at Philo.
Julianna Hayes is a CFO and People Leader with extensive experience in Corporate Finance, FP&A, and Revenue Finance. She specializes in Internet ad sales and guiding tech companies through transformation processes. With a career spanning over 18 years in renowned tech firms including Google, Twitter, and her current role at Philo, Julianna excels in areas such as Board presentations, People Management, Annual Planning, Budgeting, Sales Targets, Commissions, and Deal Review. Her educational background includes a BA in Economics and French from Claremont McKenna College, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude. Julianna is also a dedicated mom of three. Throughout her career, she has held significant roles such as CFO at Philo, Chief Member at Chief, SVP Sales Finance and Corporate Finance at Twitter, and various positions within the Sales Finance department at Twitter. Her past experiences also include roles at Google, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, and Navigant Consulting.
Highlights
I am so excited to announce that we are changing the paid parental leave at Philo to 20 weeks for all parents! Parental leave has always been something I am passionate about; I came back from 3 maternity leaves and each one had its challenges. I truly believe that the more time at home with a newborn, the more successful both men and women will be when they return to work. Not to mention that everyone will be healthier and happier. There is a plethora of data that supports this if you want to learn more! A special thanks to Orli Cotel and Katie Bethell who have pushed on this for years and taught me so much during their time at PL+US.
Working with the HR team has been very fulfilling in my new role, and I am so proud of this policy and that it was so well received by the company and our leadership!
I hadn’t looked for a job in over twenty years (yikes!) so I'm sharing some things I learned in the process. While I hope this is useful for any job seeker, I think it’s especially relevant to the 6,000(+?) Tweeps that are chartering unfamiliar waters. Their job search will be more challenging because a large part of their network is also unemployed.
Before you start, spend time deciding what is the most important thing in your life, and prioritize that. Is it money, experience, learning, work/life balance? After a few months of interviewing, I realized that I really wanted to stay in tech, it was important to me that it was a consumer facing product, and above all, I wanted to like the people. Once I realized those were my focus areas, my search became much less noisy.
You will get ghosted - a lot. I was ghosted by a place where I had 8 interviews and an office visit. I was ghosted by recruiters who had been “super excited about my candidacy” and put me forward for a 4-hour interview panel. Someone who interviewed me 12 times (and checked references!) took 4 weeks to get back to me. It sucks and it’s weird, but seems to be part of the experience. (PS, all those were jobs either closed or never hired for - more on that later).
Limit your time on LinkedIn. It’s a very valuable resource, but can also feel like a place where your resume goes into a void and you read about successes that aren’t your own. I got great advice to limit my time on the site to 20 minutes a day. (I also got a great job offer directly from a company who outreached on LinkedIn - that can, and does happen!)
At the same time, don’t sleep on LinkedIn. I hadn’t updated my profile for a looooong time, and it set me back in my job search.
During your first recruiter call, ask if the job is open and what specifically the process will look like. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT. It will save you lots of time and let you know if they are calling just to test the waters, or if there’s really a job there. A great recruiter will do this on their own, but most I found don’t. You may learn very interesting things like: there’s an internal candidate they are seriously considering (aka, you’re the backup), they need to find 3 candidates before they can proceed with in-house interviews (this happened 50% of the time with my jobs and can really slows things down), and you may find that the job isn’t actually approved yet (RED FLAG).
Trust your gut. If you don’t connect with someone during the interview, my guess is you won’t connect with them at work either. Cut your losses and move on. I wasted a day onsite at a place that I couldn’t stand. I should have politely declined the invite.
Most importantly, you’re very special. But most recruiters don’t know that. You’re a stranger to them and the hiring manager, so if they pass on you, just keep going. You will get a job. Remember, it’s a numbers game. The more people you meet, the higher likelihood you’ll like and connect with one of them.
