How I Got Hired

110: Sapna Chadha: From New York to New Delhi to Singapore: Career (& Life) lessons working at Amex & Google

Sonal Bahl

My guest today is one of Asia Pacific’s 50 most influential and purposeful marketers. Sapna Chadha is VP Marketing at Google (at the time of this recording), based in Singapore and runs its consumer and business products in 12 geographies in India, Southeast Asia and South Asia. Prior to Google, Sapna was Chief Marketing Officer at American Express Banking, first in New York, and then in New Delhi. Sapna’s name is Indian and she looks Indian, but had never ever lived in India before moving with Amex. Today we are going to talk all things Google, YouTube, Marketing, being expatriated.

We talk about:
- How Sapna decided to take the less trodden path at Kellogg during her MBA
- Those 10 years at Amex with all the highs and lows
- How Sapna got hired at Google and how (a form of divine) timing made a big difference to actually getting into the company
- What life was like living in India as someone who looks Indian but never lived in the country
- What are some of the top traits Sapna looks for when recruiting for team members at Google
- Biases she has experienced repeatedly as a working mom and practical steps she is taking to change that for herself and everyone around her
- And so much more.

In a world where people only celebrate their successes publicly and leave the less flattering elements out, Sapna and her candid style are a breath of fresh air.
Follow Sapna on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sapna-chadha-1128671/
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