Snap’s Head of Talent Development Has a Career Niche That Doesn't Exist Yet

Brooke Berry is ahead of her time. As the Head of Talent Development at Snap, she’s responsible for educating and helping creators and talent understand and maximize their opportunity on the platform. But more long term, she’s focused on “thinking about how Snap can position itself to foster homegrown creators or ‘Snap-first’ creators.” And that’s where her forward-thinking nature excels.

Growing up and in college, when Berry was asked what she wanted to pursue as a vocation, she’d reply that what she wanted to do didn’t exist yet, and it’s been her pursuit of work in cutting edge sectors that’s helped her be well positioned for her role at Snap.

Over the course of a phone conversation with The Org, Berry shares insights into the way in which caring for her mental health has aided both her personal and professional success and how figuring out who you are as a person and what makes you tick is the ultimate key to finding your groove.

As a kid, was working at a company like Snap always the goal?

When I was in college, social media was not something you could major in. People used to ask me, “Brooke, what do you want to do?” and I’d say, “I don’t think what I want to do quite exists yet.”

I began working in scripted television shortly after college—starting at Creative Artists Agency -— and people would ask me the same thing. I’d experimented with YouTube and had had a couple of videos go viral, so digital was something that was pulling at my heartstrings but I didn’t know anything about—or anyone in—the space. There was just a voice in my gut telling me that digital was the direction.

While you may not have had the descriptive words or technology at your disposal back in the day—because they didn’t yet exist—it sounds like you ultimately landed where you wanted to be.

I still think my ultimate professional purpose lies deep within the future in something that doesn’t exist yet. I think whatever it is, it will sit in the nook of talent development and social media.

Snap has been an incredible place, a place where the 21-year-old version of myself would look around and go, “This is all I’ve ever wanted to do,” though I think the future of social media is ever changing and there are a lot of yet-to-be-created jobs that I’m lined up for. So this is a great step, but certainly not the last, and I’m enjoying my time at Snap.

Was there an experience or particular set of experiences that reaffirmed for you that your ultimate professional purpose was still in the future?

I think joining Snap was that for me. I never thought I would end up at a social media platform. I’d had conversations with other platforms in the past and it felt like I’d sort of be a cog in the wheel and that there wasn’t much room for innovation. I sort of vowed to be social media agnostic, so to speak, and what made me really good at what I did—especially working with talent—was understanding all platforms intimately, but not being tied down to any particular one.

Once I started the conversations with Snap and started learning the “why” behind the “what they do,” it became very clear to me that Snap was ahead of its time and was identifying some of the major holes in the creative market. Ultimately, that’s the place I want to be. It’s funny to think how once upon a time, I didn’t want to work at a platform, and now here I am.

It is hard to work toward something that doesn’t exist, so I sought to be very strategic from the beginning of my career to ensure that when time sort of caught up, I’d be perfectly positioned. When I joined Snap, it kind of reaffirmed the path I was on, the ambiguity around what my ultimate goal was, and the necessary steps needed to get there. Snap’s been a place that’s seemingly brought all of my past experiences together in a really fantastical, impactful way.

With each calculated move, you aligned with your inner drive and the bigger picture vision for where you wanted to be. How has caring for your mental health helped you along that trajectory?

When you have such an external facing job—such as talent relations—you’re always on. Being a creator and talent is a twenty-four-seven job. What helps me be that advocate for creators is making myself fairly available to not only them, but the external partners I’m working with as well.

People at work will often say to me, “I don’t know how you do it.” What it really comes down to is taking moments throughout the day for myself. Even if it’s turning on the tv to watch my favorite show for thirty minutes. My new poison is Big Brother, I’ve just been obsessed with that show lately. So it’s thirty minutes between meetings throwing on Big Brother and taking those little moments throughout the day.

Another ritual I have is running in the morning to my local Starbucks to get a dirty chai. Then it’s forty-five minutes to an hour to not look at emails, put my phones down, and watch my favorite shows.

Is that your main technique for keeping your mental health in check?

Before COVID, and work-from-home life, I would never accept a job unless they accepted my alternative hours of 7 AM to 3 PM. It’s always been the case throughout my career. I know myself, I know I’m a morning person, and I thrive off of momentum. I get my day going early. I used to physically leave the office at 3 PM every single day. Because I make myself very available—I’m still working despite not being in the office—but I also know I’m a creative and I can’t function in a sterile office environment from the traditional 9 AM to 7 PM.

I’ve always believed in the work from home model and that if you give people the space to operate and manage their time in a way that works for them, then you’re just going to get the very best from them.

How have you approached the conversation around keeping alternative hours with your employers?

In general, everyone has been pretty receptive the way I frame it during the interview process. When I receive the offer is when I like to bring it up. I think that’s an appropriate time to say, “Just wanted to let you know, I have an alternative working schedule in that I come in at 7 AM and leave at 3 PM. It doesn’t mean 3 PM is when the work ends—I’m flexible. If I need to stay later, I’m happy to do so, but on any given average day, I like to be physically out of the office by 3 PM. And the reason for that is I just know myself and know how I’m able to operate and it just puts me in a great mental space to continue to operate at the level that I do, which is very high, quick, and fast.” I frame the conversation around how you’re going to get the best version of me on this schedule. It’s not about time restraint in terms of when I’m working and when I’m off—I’m always on—I just physically like to leave the building at 3 PM.

With COVID and the work-from-home schedule I feel like I’m able to get so much more done with this new style and I’m still able to meet up with creators in person. I more meet them where they’re at and it’s been way more efficient for my job specifically.

Do you think the same way in which you care for your mental health professionally also aids your personal life?

I think it’s the same. I’m incredibly self-aware of where I’m at emotionally and mentally, so my advice to anybody is to really push yourself to continue to understand yourself better. While certain things will work for certain people—as cliche as it is—no one’s going to know that individual journey better than you. There are certain things that just don’t work for me and it’s always been that way and I know that about myself, so tailoring my life around that helps.

The other thing is, I am very socially selective in my personal life for many reasons, but one of the biggest is that my job is very social in nature and it always has been. I’m easily dealing with over two dozen personalities every week. And because I’m very self aware of my emotional, mental, and physical ceilings, I manage my life accordingly.

Follow @brookeberry on Instagram for more insights into the life of Snap’s Head of Talent Development and follow @sladdin on Instagram for more interviews with interesting people across entertainment, tech, cannabis and crypto.