I have been thinking about marketing leaders, lately.  Marketing leaders get product, story, customer.  But, in their job search, all of the tricks they have in their big bag disappear.

Like many things in life, the biggest obstacle in your job search is you.  Marketing leaders have so many advantages that are really tailored for a job search.  Developing a unique value, adding a bit of hustle and innovation is a prescription for job search success.  Marketing leaders should be able to crush their search.  Most don't.

I had a brief message exchange on LinkedIn with a marketing leader that understands the hustle.  I find her inspirational and I wanted to share her thoughts with you on her job.  See Amy's thoughts, below.

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You can find the full article here: https://www.builtinnyc.com/2019/10/16/NYC-women-in-tech


PAYFONE

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You could call Amy Harris, VP of marketing at Payfone, a superhero of sorts. Her favorite part of the job includes being part of a team that prevents fraudulent villains from thwarting online businesses’ privacy barriers. That sort of excitement is what led her to a career in tech after holding a senior management role at a more traditional organization. She shared more about what gets her out of bed every morning, below.  


Tell us a bit about your career journey. Why did you decide to pursue a career in tech?
My career has always been in marketing. I’ve done everything from strategy to product development to marketing communications. For the lion’s share of my career, I was on the client/buyer side, creating new first-to-market solutions. It soon became obvious that the real innovation and excitement was happening at tech startups, which is when I made the move from a senior management role at a tier-one financial institution. While keeping my home base in NYC, I’ve run marketing at tech startups in Silicon Valley (ground transportation), Israel (the loyalty space) and now my current role at Payfone (digital identity authentication).
It soon became obvious that the real innovation and excitement was happening at tech startups...’’


What do you love most about your tech career? Any specific aspects of your job that really make you light up?
My passion for working at tech companies comes from the collaborative culture with smart colleagues who are creative, ambitious, and want to make a difference. At Payfone, our focus has always been on creating customer experiences that engage consumers and make it easy for them to interact with brands. This requires being one (or two) steps ahead of fraudsters while creating deterministic ways for brands to identify their customers. 
My favorite part of the job? Being part of a team that focuses on important topics such as privacy, inclusion and stopping the bad guys from ruining great customer experiences. 


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It happens...a lot.  I hear these stories over and over again.  You were in process for a job and everything was going great.  The recruiter was supposed to inform you of next steps anddddddd....POOF!

Nothing.

A little plug for the poor souls in Corporate Staffing.  It's a hard and thankless job.  It can be overwhelming processing thousands of candidates every week.  However, there is NO EXCUSE for not letting candidates where they stand...even if the company is not interested.

The job market gets super spooky this time of year.  Fewer great jobs pop up as we get to year end.  Second thoughts happen for employers as they think about pulling job req.s until next year.

How do you combat this?  You have to put on your cape and work that JOB SEARCH MATH...the more people that know you + feel a need for you = . The Better the Job and the Faster it Comes!

This last new client take in was themed..."Good HP!"  I don't know if my messaging was different or it was just a fluke.  Everyone I am working with believes they have the horsepower to make things happen, NOW!

I LOVE THAT ENERGY!!!  People are attracted to speed.  Sometimes this translates to raw talent and sometimes this is more refined.  The commonality is that you can feel the speed from these folks.  They are instruments to make $$$, achieve mission, and do it over and over again.

The question is, how do you project that kind of power when the job market has taken a chunk from you?  There are practices of presence where you focus on the fact that you get to be a candidate and have done so many great things.  That didn't work for me.  I needed more.

I did two things to release my inner beast:

1) I taped single but major wins from my resume and taped them on my fridge and in my bathroom.  I did this for two weeks, adding more and more.  It was like a drum beat getting louder and louder everyday.  I got more pumped, every day.  I believed in me.

2) I met with two or three people a week that I used to work for.  They have a memory of me as a Ferrari.  It was Cocaine for my search.  I felt high and fast.  I channeled that into more touches...meet more people and massaging to more people.  

My inner Ferrari turned into offers, fast.

Get Racing!!!

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