Sally McKenzie’s success didn’t come by making a perfect plan and executing it. The vice president of Eddie Bauer’s interactive media division doesn’t have a background in computing. What she has, however, is an ability to make use of all the seemingly disparate elements of her life--her liberal arts education, retail experience, a crash course in online merchandising, and even a few mistakes--as building blocks in her career.

Interviewed on "Information Technology Leaders," McKenzie makes a good case against adopting a rigid career plan, cautioning students, "What you want to do now can look very different five or 10 years down the line." In college, she wanted to act. A decade later, she was working in business--and loving it.

"Information Technology Leaders," produced by the University of Washington’s School of Business, presents multi-faceted portraits of the people filling the top IT positions at major corporations such as Microsoft, Boeing, and AT&T Wireless Services. The revealing interviews show that personal characteristics often play an important role in the unpredictable career trajectories of this industry.

McKenzie’s first love was theater, but she realized that a career on the stage couldn’t provide stability. After earning her bachelor of arts degree from Washington College in Chestertown, Md., the newly married Pacific Northwest native opted to work in a clothing store, the first of many retail jobs that would lead her back to Seattle, and, eventually, to Eddie Bauer.

McKenzie soon found that in the buying side of the business, she could "use a little more of my intellect." Through personal connections, she moved from assistant buyer at the Bon department store to buyer at Jay Jacobs, a clothing chain. Her marriage ended-amicably--but her career went into high gear, with greater responsibilities and frequent travel. At the peak of this period, she served at the helm of Eddie Bauer’s booming outlet business, a wild ride that she recalls as one of the happiest times of her life.

Then she hit a wall. "Itching for that next thing," she left the outlet division to work in product sourcing. Although she had appropriate experience, the role was a bad fit. "Business makes sense to me when I can see all of it and I can see how all the pieces interconnect," she explains. The new job required a level of specializing that limited her. Within months, she left Eddie Bauer.

It was a confidence-crushing experience, but McKenzie rallied by seeking career counseling. "What I really wanted to do was not make another mistake," she says. The counseling provided a "toolkit" that helped her figure out what she required in a fulfilling job and what was negotiable. Armed with this valuable self-awareness, she never made another career misstep to date.

And it helped her strike out in new directions. At Greatfoods.com, a small, pioneering gourmet-food company, "I was put in an office with a computer and a T-1 connection" and left to figure out how to do business with a customer without human interaction. These skills were exactly what Eddie Bauer was looking for when they started a Web site in 1996. Now, back at Eddie Bauer, she leads a team that provides content, design, and strategy for their online business.

McKenzie is still no techie, but she’s the next-best thing: a businesswoman who knows how to forge alliances with the systems people. "The thing that’s really fun is taking a business objective and being able to translate it and formulate it in such a way that a technical person can understand it and be able to execute it--and then share in the wealth when something goes well," she says.

Communication has everything to do with this teamwork. McKenzie says it’s her best skill, and one she credits to her liberal arts education. "When I look back now at what’s valuable in the job market and what’s helped me in my jobs, it’s being a generalist, being able to communicate well, and being able to solve complex problems effectively," she says.

Produced By: Christopher Redner

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