Own Your Career at Chime: Meet Audrey Wilk, our Director of Organizational Development

“I’ve never been a fan of the five-year plan,” says Audrey Wilk. “I think it’s important to aim yourself and your career in a specific direction while maintaining flexibility.” In her own career, she’s taken risks and learned from them, but always focused more holistically on how her career ties into her personal values and the life she wants to live.

Audrey’s approach to career development and growth comes from her experience working in people-focused organizations and the thought leaders she follows. “I’m personally a big fan of Christine Didonato — she’s set an industry example of aligning values and life aspirations with one’s career path.”

When Chime reached out to Audrey about joining our team, she looked for the parts of the role and company that were aligned with her personal values: “What stood out to me was our mission and how Chime bridges the gap for people and their finances, as well as the scale we’re experiencing,” she says. “The mission, the challenges the role presented, and the team I’d be joining were all in line with my values and broader goals.” Audrey joined us in March of 2021 as the Director of Organizational Development.

People product management at scale

“I think of myself as a people product manager — when it comes to development, my role helps people grow, scale, and improve,” Audrey says. “I learn what Chimers’ specific needs are, identify priorities and focus areas, and then develop training and programs to achieve development goals.” And at a point when Chime is scaling faster than ever before, the need to help our people grow is greater than ever.

“Because we’re scaling so quickly, we need to make sure Chimers, across leadership and employees, can navigate these changes,” she says. “As we grow, we also need to ensure that everything we do is rooted in our values so that we can stay true to the DNA of Chime.”

To do that, Audrey takes a holistic approach to career development, emphasizing that it should be employee-owned and manager-supported. “Employees must put in the work to know what they want to do and formulate a plan and vision,” she says. “Then they should lean on their managers to support them in achieving their plan — whether that’s finding roles, projects, or mentors to further them along their path.”

Audrey’s holistic approach isn’t just limited to an employee’s career at Chime though — it extends to the employee as a whole person, recognizing that their career aspirations may or may not line up with Chime’s needs. “We are always changing, so I think it’s important to look at every Chimer as a human and consider the best way for them to achieve their goals, whether that’s at Chime or elsewhere.”

What’s most interesting for Audrey — and one of the reasons she decided to join Chime — is how quickly we’re growing and changing. “Because of the speed at which we’re scaling, our development needs are evolving faster than normal,” Audrey explains. “For example, managers are taking on larger teams, or ICs are moving into management roles for the first time, so we need to provide everyone with extra support.”

Own your career month

To kick off the leadership development program at Chime, Audrey and her team started with Own Your Career Month, a program aimed at explaining our career development philosophy to Chimers, sharing how to have productive career development conversations, and understanding what development can look like at Chime.

“We wanted to provide information from different angles, so we offered an external speaker, two internal panels, and several manager roundtables and employee workshops,” Audrey says. “Blended learning is crucial to the success of any program so that every Chimer can learn in the way that’s best for them.”

Several key takeaways emerged during Own Your Career Month:

• Development isn’t just about being promoted — it’s a checkerboard, not a ladder. For example, moving from one team to another might be better for you than a promotion or raise.
• It’s more than ok to not know exactly where your career is going. Frequent conversations with managers, mentors, and colleagues about career growth — whether that involves changing roles, becoming a manager, or returning to an IC role — are a great way to get clarity on where you’d like to take your career.
• Think about the life you want and then craft the career that supports it. This will ensure you’re aligned with your personal values.
• The pandemic has given people perspective on what’s important and empowered Chimers to align their work with their personal values.

Supporting the whole person supports the business

“By supporting the whole person, I believe we’re contributing to positive outcomes for Chime across the board,” Audrey says. “Rooted in our Be Human value, we want to do what’s best for the people at Chime — then they can do what’s best for our members and business. The way we approach that at Chime is to aim directionally but stay flexible — not by following a set plan.”