Three Questions with Christine Whitlock, Product Manager at SailPoint

Christine Whitlock, Product Manager at SailPoint, has been on our crew for 2.5 years, but her identity career began long before that. After graduating from The University of Texas Austin, she was still deciding what she wanted to do with her degree in management of information systems. Though she wasn’t in search of a job in identity, it found her by way of a consulting job at PwC (a global, SailPoint partner). “I was actually introduced to SailPoint during my first few months on the job, and at the time was very impressed by the advanced user experience compared to other tools,” she shared.

From living the road warrior life as a consultant to working at Visa on their IAM team, Christine decided that she wanted to help build the identity products she was using daily. With all her knowledge and experience in hand, she applied to the Product Management position at SailPoint, and the rest is history.

Today, we have Christine on the Women in Identity series to gain career and leadership insights. Read our conversation below.

What was your first career win, and how did that help you get to where you are now? 

I would say my first career win was very early on when I landed my entry level position at PwC. This is what placed me in the identity space, and I haven’t looked back since. I learned a great deal while I was there, and that’s also how I learned of SailPoint and sparked my interest in the world of Product Management. Not only was the work interesting, but the network I built was also foundational. I run into a lot of familiar faces at Navigate (outside of the pandemic, of course). So, it was really a direct line to how I ended up in my current role.

What habits or rituals do you have when you feel stuck?

Taking a break from screens and going for a walk. Bonus if the Austin weather is showing off. It’s easy to get overwhelmed and constantly interrupted when you’re in front of a screen with a stream of work and non-work push notifications, emails, and Slack messages coming your way. Throwing on some headphones with music or a podcast and fresh air always helps clear my mind. During this time, I also try to focus on gratitude. I find that I often get stuck due to frustration that comes with procrastination, to-do’s piling up, and a negative attitude. I ask myself what the top three things I am most grateful for that day, and the positive mindset always helps me reset. Then I am ready to dive back in.

What are you most proud of?

I am most proud of being a first-generation Vietnamese-American. My parents are Vietnamese refugees who were uprooted from all that was familiar and started a new life in a foreign country back in the 1970s. They went to school, established successful careers in IT, and raised two daughters to stand their own as self-driven, independent women. I don’t take it for granted how hard they worked to do so, and it drives my work ethic every day. Being a self-driven, independent woman has shaped who I am as a professional, wife, friend, daughter, sister, and dog mom.