Growth Mindset Leadership Style Passion

Unexpected Road to CEO

04.27.22

Rami Rahim says he never set his sights on the CEO chair at Juniper Networks. But that’s exactly where he found himself after starting at the company in 1997 as “employee number 32.” He credits his ambition and desire to work on increasingly challenging projects as the driving forces behind his journey to the top.

Summary:

Thuy

You have a great story: rising from entry-level engineer at Juniper to now CEO at the company. When you first joined Juniper in 1997, did you know then you wanted to be an executive at the company someday? And how do you strategically position yourself to be viewed as a leader?

Rami Rahim

An executive? I’d say, probably yes. CEO? No, I never set my sights on the CEO chair. I mean, I’m delighted to have this awesome responsibility that I have today. Now, it doesn’t mean that I wasn’t ambitious, I was super ambitious. What drove me was just getting the opportunity to work on more and more interesting, intellectually-stimulating projects, to have a seat at the table where important decisions were being made for the company. So I was very ambitious. Whenever an opportunity presented itself to me, then certainly I would raise my hand and I would go for it. It doesn’t mean that I always get it, but I’d absolutely go for it. So, in short, lots of ambition, but not a strategic positioning with a specific target for the corner office in mind, quite frankly.

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