My #AdobeLife: Michael Stoddart on the ‘magic’ to creating a meaningful and fulfilling career

My #AdobeLife is a series of employee stories that showcase a variety of career journeys across Adobe Asia Pacific. In this first episode, APAC Head of Employee Experience Sarah Dunn sits down with Michael Stoddart, Adobe’s Director of Strategic Business for Digital Media Enterprise and one of our first employees in Asia Pacific.

In the first episode of our new employee showcase series, My #AdobeLife, Sarah Dunn, the Head of Employee Experience at Adobe Asia Pacific, sits down with Michael Stoddart, one of the first and longest-standing employees at Adobe Asia Pacific and Director of Strategic Business for Digital Media Enterprise.

Some people might say that three years is a long time to be at one company, especially by today’s standard. So to continuously encounter new challenges, opportunities and possibilities that get you out of bed every morning at the same employer for almost three decades – well, that’s extraordinary, to say the least.

Michael or “Stod”, as his colleagues fondly call him, has been a significant part of Adobe’s engagement with the Asia Pacific creative, media and design industry for more than 25 years. Stod started his career at Adobe as an IT manager when there were just ten employees, and the marketing industry was undergoing its first digital transformation, making the transition from analog to digital tools.

Stod believes his early training in design and psychology was fundamental in cultivating empathy– which he now says is the “number one skill” in customer-centric user experience design. By saying “yes” to opportunities to learn and try new things at Adobe, Stod built expertise across various roles and today has a long and impressive track record of accomplishments, including evangelising new technologies for global brands and individual creatives.

When asked by others how he could stay at one company for so long, Stod’s response is simple – “it hasn’t been the same company”. Every career path is unique: what’s important is to look for a digital-first, agile company that can keep pace with a fast-changing environment to help its employees build the skills and knowledge they need to stay relevant and advance in their careers.

Stod offers two pieces of advice on preparing for the future of work: “Be aware of the technology and where it is heading, even if you are a psychologist… and have a wonder and appreciation of the magic we can do with technology, the outcomes of the technology and what it can achieve for you and your customers.”