Kelso High grad is a top 'people person' at Microsoft
Sunday, April 16, 2006 12:02 AM PDT
By The Daily News
Printable version
E-mail this articleBrenda (Steppert) Zinkan acknowledges that her new job at Microsoft "has a really bizarre title."
The valedictorian of the Kelso High School class of 1982 recently was named the software giant's "director of people and organization capability."
Zinkan, 42, has worked mostly in human resources jobs for the Redmond, Wash., company since she began working there was a college intern in December 1988. Her new position has her working in executive coaching, organizational design and talent searching.
Microsoft, which has 65,000 to 70,000 employees worldwide, is such a large company that she almost didn't go to work there full-time after graduating from the University of Puget Sound in 1989 with a degree in business administration.
"It's a fast-paced, high-energy place. It has its moments of being stressful," but she likes that.
"I don't tend to look for a stable environment. I always looking for the next big challenge," said Zinkan, reporting that she works 55 to 70 hours a week. "I really like it there. I can't imagine where else I would want to be."
She's able to work from home two days a week. "I'm in my jammies now at the computer," she said recently in a phone interview from her home in North Bend, Wash.
Zinkan and her husband, Larry, have two children, Andrew 10, and Lauren, 7. She is the daughter of John and Sherry Steppert of Longview.
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