Adriana Segovia | Area Manager, LPS in Cancun, Mexico

Over my professional career, I have taken several professional development courses and received advice from many people but there’s nothing more important than these three fundamentals I have learned: 1) Be now the person you aspire to be, 2) Challenge the Status Quo, and 3) Own your Career.

I have worked in the Travel industry for about 6 years before joining a group of entrepreneurs in one of the first Online Travel Agency (OTA) in Mexico. This adventure took me to be part of the founding team and the first female General Manager (GM) for PriceTravel.com, a Mexican Online Travel Agent specialized in Domestic Travelers.

Years later, I met Expedia. During the recruitment process, one of the recurring questions from my interviews was “Why would you move from being a GM with people management and projects responsibilities into an individual contributor role?” My response was always simple “I want to be part of Expedia”.

I joined Expedia Group as a Market Coordinator for the Mexico and Central America markets in the Cancun, Mexico office in 2006. Cancun had been the first office opened in Latin America in 2004. At the time, we had only 8 people handling the Latin America Region, including a Director, Market Managers and a Market Coordinator.  Since then, the LATAM team has grown to 16 offices in 8 countries (Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, DR, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico) and 157 market management members. In these 12 years, I’ve had roles in Mexico, Central America, and South America markets and relocated twice with my family.  As result of my performance, I have been awarded Latin America Market Coordinator of the Year in 2008, Market Manager of the Year in 2013, and Area Manager of the Year in 2016. My newest project is Area Manager of Regional Chains for Latin America Resorts and I love it!

Here are the three principles I have applied during my career at Expedia Group. These fundamentals were instrumental in me receiving numerous awards and being promoted on four separate occasions:

1) Be now the person you aspire to be

• Don’t wait to be promoted to take ownership. If there’s a role you’re interested in, ask your manager how you can start developing skills to prepare you for that role.
• Do raise your hand and be proactive. Participate in projects and build best practices.
• Don’t limit your network to your market or region. Surround yourself by great people.
• Do the best version of you. Persevere and be a team player who is honest, respectful, humble, and positive. Work hard and have fun.

2) Challenge the Status Quo

• Don’t assume all is correct and there is no room for improvement or change. Take risks.
• Do raise the question for how a current process can be improved or executed faster.
• Don’t be afraid to fail. Learn from your mistakes.
• Do evolve, adapt, and embrace change. Don’t stay in the past.
• Don’t accept “No” for an answer. Don’t let people tell you it’s not possible.

3) Own your Career

• Don’t expect your manager to tell you what your development plan is. YOU control your professional and personal growth.
• Do define where you want to be and how you plan to achieve it.
• Do use many sources available to work on improving your competencies. For example, LinkedIn Learnings and Ted Ideas are great resources.

Expedia gives you the opportunity to keep learning all the time, which is why I love working here. Challenge yourself and you will amaze yourself with what you can accomplish. It’s contagious too! I am surrounded by super smart people with the best attitude, which brings out the best in me and could bring out the best in you too.