AJ Thomas: Former Chaos Pilot and Global Head of Talent Experience, X the moonshot factory

Global People & Talent Leader 🇵🇭 | Advisor & Executive Coach | Board Member | Award-Winning Children’s Book Author

Hello, It’s Julia, Founder of The Switchboard. Thank you for being part of our community. I’m grateful to you for reading, reacting and commenting. If you enjoy this edition, consider sharing it with a colleague or friend.

What sparked your career path and drives your professional path?

If you look at my path, it's been very unconventional, but there’s a main thread — it’s always been about learning at the intersection of talent, product and teams. Each experience has led to the next – I’ve worked in sales, recruiting, operations and supported engineering and product. 

I believe a professional breakthrough is not possible without the personal breakthrough. Over the past 20 years, my professional breakthroughs were powered by personal experiences and turning those perspectives into creating something new that could be more impactful.

What’s a pivotal project that you’ve worked on over the years? 

I started the Infuse Program Foundation to teach students business and life-skills critical to achieving their life-long goals. Over the past few years, we've created an ecosystem to support and enhance the student experience and exposure in their own local and corporate communities. I didn't set out to start this, but it called to me. 

Working in tech, I was surrounded by very awesome visionaries. I was seeking a volunteer project outside of work in the mid-2010s. While reading a newspaper, the San Jose Mercury News, I came across a biotechnology Academy in the Eastside San Jose school district that was looking for after school mentors. There were primarily first generation immigrant kids. I saw very different drastic resources that led me to create an opportunity to connect these students with executives from top tech companies. We created an accelerator year program with adjunct faculty.

We focused on students who were repeating high school or Juniors with a 2.0 GPA or below. Ultimately, we graduated 860 kids from this program and distributed over $150,000 dollars in scholarships that they would not have access to until they graduated high school so there was an incentive for them.

It was here that I discovered the power of open-sourcing your goals and inviting really amazing perspectives from people who are willing to give it to you because you're curious enough to ask. If you get people rallied around your curiosity around learning, people will come out in droves to help. I stand on the shoulders of the teachers who were willing to experiment in the classroom. 

Can you tell us about a time you had an ordinary assignment that you transformed into something extraordinary? 

I think mentoring is that for me. I felt the calling to give and it became an opportunity that altered the possibilities of the students that participated. Students like Kevin Velasquez, who went through Infuse Program, sparked his interest in tech and business who we then ended up hiring at Alphabet.

He had never thought about the possibility of a Tech career path before as a career. I’m so proud of him. He works at Apple now. I believe it’s extraordinary because at the core we created opportunities and possibilities that otherwise would not have been connected. 

You recently published a book, “A Kids Book about Teams.” Can you tell us about it and how it's relevant for all ages?

The book’s hypothesis is that teams are everywhere — you are going to be a part of so many teams throughout your life. I think most kids don’t realize that they're part of a team until you start getting older and there's a goal. 

I talk about my story growing up being on teams that I didn't even know that I was part of and the team roles I play now as a mom, a wife, a leader, a partner in a firm. Wherever you have a shared passion with a group of people, you're on a team. There's something about the combination of curiosity when you're part of a team that’s where the true magic really happens. 

Teams transcend the general moniker of what we know, which is sports. Having a team spirit requires there is a sense of belonging to something and having a shared purpose with other people.

It’s about remembering that feeling you experienced when someone passed you the ball or when you had that encouraging word from a friend. You will never really be that self-made person without that team. A team is defined by these very four key things: giving and taking of curiosity, courage, connection and kindness. 

How do you continue learning and growing for yourself and others?

For myself, I'm always learning through experimentation. I am equal parts thought leader and thought do-er. What's really important is to show up and create ways where I can discover infinite possibilities and that hopefully shows people what's possible by leaning in and getting curious.

For others, I do a lot of coaching specifically for African-American and Latino Heritage leaders, and that's very important to me because it allows for me to hold space. Every time I have a conversation with a leader in that space, it inspires me to help co-create those infinite possibilities. As a first-generation immigrant, it has guided the way in which I think about how to hold space. 

What's the biggest insight you've had in your career so far?

So much of work is really about how you arrive versus how you show up. Arrival is so much more an intrinsic motivator; showing up is a tiny nuance. Showing up is extrinsic versus the intention of the arrival — showing up the way you want to be seen. 

For example: how do you arrive to an uncomfortable conversation versus how do you show up? Showing up is having an outcome in mind. Arriving is being open to outcome and being mindful of how I am going to have the conversation, how does it make me feel if it goes well? And what if it doesn’t? Will I still be ok or will I dwell on what happened? The spirit of arrival leaves me in the state of flow and consciousness that I think is really important to be grounded in. 

About AJ

AJ Thomas is the founder of Infuse Program Foundation, a non-profit providing entrepreneurial education and experiences to underrepresented youth in East Side San Jose, and is currently the Chief Explorer and Board Advisor at BrainCandy Labs, powered by Women in Technology International.

Her experience includes roles that have spanned across sales, support engineering, product & design, and human resource and leadership, most recently serving as Chaos Pilot and Global Head of Talent Experience, X the moonshot factory.

AJ is also a Certified Executive Coach from UC Berkeley and the Berkeley Executive Coaching Institute. When she's got down time she loves writing music, flying planes, traveling, and spending time with her husband and three children. 

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Thank you for being part of The Switchboard community. I’m grateful to you for reading, reacting and commenting. If you enjoyed what you read, please consider sharing it with a colleague or friend. Signing off for this edition. — Julia