Don’t forget to dance: Katie Szeto reminds you to find a work-life balance

Building a great user experience requires great minds. We’ve spoken to eight Dropboxers who are working to make the world work better. By sharing what these leaders are up to in their daily routines, we hope to highlight the values that grow our culture.

As Chief of Staff to the Dropbox CEO Drew Houston, Katie Szeto manages a small team of Dropboxers, and the responsibility of implementing the company’s vision often lies on Katie’s shoulders. But that wasn’t her first role at Dropbox. Katie started in Business Operations.

“I came to Dropbox by chance. I went to MIT for Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. And I actually almost did my Ph.D. there as well. But I realized that the world was a lot bigger than just academia, so I decided to explore industry for a bit before committing myself to university life for another 5 to 6 years. Turns out I liked working in industry and never went back.”

Katie was never interested in being a programmer, which is why she started off in a business role. And because the company was small and growing fast at the time, she got to explore roles from Product Management to Executive Recruiting. When she eventually became the Chief of Staff to the CEO a few years later, she realized that a lot of her friends and family didn’t even understand what the title meant.

“‘Chief of Staff’ is a term that people understand within the military and D.C., but it’s a relatively new thing in tech. There’s no universal definition — and that ambiguity is part of why the role appeals to me so much”

Regardless of definition, Katie knows that she has to stay focused to do her job the right way. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the competing priorities, so she has developed a process to help.

“What I’ve found is that work expands to fill the time you give it. So when I start a project or a task, I try to decide in advance how much time it actually deserves, and then ‘time-box’ my effort accordingly. I also try as much as possible to work on the highest-leverage work first and ignore the rest”

By timeboxing her work, Katie keeps the time open for what she really loves.

“I dance salsa about four days a week. And being on an amateur performance team helps me stick to my time-boxing — I know I need to finish my work by around 6:30pm on Thursday, for example, otherwise I’ll miss my team practice.

It’s easy to lose yourself in the grind, and in the tech bubble we’re all living in. Our culture rewards busyness, and to borrow one of Drew’s metaphors, people wear their busyness as a badge of honor. I’m a better, more grounded person when I dance. And this helps me show up better in the workplace. I think if people were to understand this better, everyone would win”.

We’re looking for more people like Katie to join our team. To learn more, check out our opportunities page. We’ll have more interviews with digital pioneers soon!