The right personality
Tori Wieldt: You've got to like people, variety, and learning new stuff. I remember at Sun Microsystems, whenever somebody would use an acronym I'd never heard in a meeting, I'd decide that before the end of the day, I would figure out what that was.
Being able to read between the lines is really important. I'm a vendor but when I look at other vendors' information, I have to be able to determine how much of that is vaporware versus what's really out there. You've got to have a sense of curiosity.
"You must be able to deal with uncertainty."
—Tori Wieldt
Crucially, you must be able to deal with uncertainty. It's a rollercoaster being in this role. I keep seeing the word "uncertainty" in more and more job ads, which, at first, made me a little bit nervous. Then I thought about it one morning when I came into a conference and the booth was in the wrong place...