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July 27, 2018
Career and Interview Tips
How to Keep Up with the Constantly-Changing Tech Industry
Partner Content
A version of this article previously appeared on Skillcrush, an online education program for creatives, thinkers, and makers that gives total tech newbies the tools to make major career changes.
Cameron Chapman, Skillcrush
Sometimes it seems like new technologies, techniques, and standards get released on an almost daily basis, making the tech industry dizzyingly fast.
For someone new to the industry, keeping up can feel puzzling—or nearly impossible. How do you stay on top of changes that happen all the time, especially ones that can directly impact the work you do and what your boss (or clients) expect?
I talked to web designers, developers, and other techies to find out what they do to keep up. The answers are more straightforward than you might expect.
Follow Influencers on Social Media
Almost everyone I spoke to said one of the best ways to stay on top of innovations in the industry is by following influencers on social media. Setting up custom lists (or following lists others create) on Twitter can take a lot of the legwork out of finding the news you need to keep up with.
Watching what influencers are doing in their spare time is a great way to know what might be coming next. "Things like 'Initial Coin Offerings' and AI seem like moonshots, but the smartest people I know work on those subjects in their free time. That makes me confident that some big businesses will emerge in these areas," says Philip Thomas, co-founder and engineer at Moonlight. Pay attention to what gets developers excited and you'll know where to look for the next big thing.
If you're looking for whom to follow on Twitter, try Skillcrush's Women in Tech list—our favorite influencers and experts.
Spend Time Reading Every Day
"Read. Read. Read." That's how Kate Chan, a full-stack marketer at BlueFox.io, stays up to date on changes in the industry. She sets aside time daily to read about tech, insuring she won't fall behind. James McCarthy, CEO and lead web developer at Boldtask, is specifically a fan of A List Apart for long-form articles that keep him up to date. We also love:
Staying in the Know Doesn't Mean Falling for Trends
Nathan Kontny, CEO of Highrise (a spin-off of the wildly popular Basecamp project management software), warns against the appeal of quick fads at the expense of staying grounded. "I think keeping up with changes is far overrated. We're better served by studying history and how companies that are decades old, if not older, have made customers happy. It's a fool's game to keep chasing fads and responding with knee-jerk reactions."
It's a fair point and one that's well evidenced. He uses Google Wave as one such example, touted as a revolutionary product that would change how we all work together. Instead, Wave was dead within three years due to lack of interest despite all the hype of its release.
The moral here: Focusing on user needs can allow you to create successful projects without falling for fads.
Skip the Four-Year Degree
As Erik Zuuring, a 10X programmer who dropped out of college, told Mashable, "One of the biggest issues with post-secondary education in the technology industry is its ability to keep a curriculum current and at the cusp of technology…Just in the web-sphere, trends and technology change on a monthly basis."
We see this proven over and over again at Skillcrush: You don't need a four-year degree to find success. What you learn in your first semester might be obsolete by graduation day. Learning in a faster-paced environment sets you up to actually start working in the tech industry in way less than a quarter of the time it would take to get a degree.
Want to get started in the tech industry right away? Check out the Ultimate Guide to Coding for Beginners for a step-by-step plan to launch your tech career.
May 21, 2020
Work From Home
The Two Causes of Conflict Within a Team: And How to Resolve Them
(With specific tips for remote teams!)
Teams have conflict. It happens. Whether it's disagreeing with your manager's feedback, going head-to-head with a coworker for a promotion, or feeling supreme levels of annoyance at the department head who consistently claims credit for work he didn't do, all of us have gotten into it at some point on the job. (One of my favorite personal conflicts was when a woman who worked for me refused to use our publication's style guide when communicating on behalf of the business. Yes, I once found myself screaming in a newsroom about the need to use size-16 Tahoma in marketing materials rather than size-12 Times New Roman. But I promise I'm better at dealing with conflict now.)
<h3>Two main causes of conflict within a team: <br></h3><p>Whether we're talking about remote teams where everyone works from different locations (whether by design or <a href="https://blog.powertofly.com/a-guide-to-remote-work-during-coronavirus-2645402589.html" target="_self">because COVID-19 required it</a>) or traditional office settings, conflict at work tends to stem from one of two places:</p><p><strong>1. Substantive or task-based conflict arises when people clash over a specific goal or action. </strong>This kind of conflict is usually contained to the issue at hand and can be more straightforward to solve. For example, you as an engineer want to get to work on coding a new feature, but your product manager might want to deploy you to fixing an old bug instead, and you disagree about the right use of your time.</p><p><strong>2. Emotional or interpersonal conflict arises when people can't get along. </strong>The root issue might be jealousy, insecurity, annoyance, or just plain incompatibility. It can be harder to solve emotional conflicts, since you're unlikely to change someone's entire personality. As an example, if you hate interacting with your fellow sales rep because she's self-obsessed and constantly gossips about the rest of the team, that's an emotional conflict that you can't sit down and cut through quickly.<strong></strong></p><p>Within <strong>task-based conflict,</strong> your team might struggle with:</p><ul class="ee-ul"> <li>Competition for resources that pits people against each other</li><li>Disagreement over strategy where there's no clear path forward</li><li>Planning issues that reveal weaknesses in people or in processes</li></ul><p>Within interpersonal conflict, your team might have issues with:</p><ul class="ee-ul"><li>Differences in behavioral styles that lead to frustration or misunderstandings</li><li>Failure to take responsibility that leads to resentment and lack of a team attitude</li></ul><p>And there are some causes of conflict that can be both substantive and emotional:</p><ul class="ee-ul"><li><strong>Communication issues</strong>, whether they're pet peeves or structural inadequacies in how your team communicates</li><li><strong>Cultural issues</strong>, where your team's culture is a negative and toxic one that either allows or actively supports pettiness, bullying, or gossip</li></ul><p><strong>Remote teams </strong>will see all of the above kinds of conflict, but might have unique issues, too, including:</p><ul class="ee-ul"> <li><strong>Loss of context and communication signals. </strong>Teams that don't work face-to-face and communicate mainly over email or messaging apps miss out on the trove of information that human beings communicate through body language and facial expressions. That makes it easier for a message to be misinterpreted or someone to take offense to a perceived tone.</li><li><strong>No informal run-ins. </strong>If you work in the same office and get a weird vibe from a coworker, you can grab them casually in the hallway and ask them if there's anything wrong. Working remotely means you may need to be more purposeful about addressing conflict when it happens, whether that's in a team meeting or a direct message (more on those options later).</li></ul><p>Even though interpersonal conflict can be more complicated, both kinds of conflict can be resolved. Remote teams that don't have the option to quickly pull everyone together into a room to solve a problem are at a bit of a disadvantage—but at the same time, their focus on constant communication can actually be a boon in fixing issues and making sure they don't happen again.</p><h3>Exercises to resolve conflict (whether in-person or remote)</h3><p>All of these exercises share a common framework, which can be summed up as<strong> "understand what the problems are, understand why they're happening, and create a plan for the future." </strong>Sometimes the plan will be to do nothing, like with some interpersonal conflicts where you can't force two people to like each other. But you need to be aware of what's going on and why if you're going to manage conflicts well. Try one of these methods:</p><h4>Diagnose issues with your team.</h4><p>Get into the nitty gritty. When an issue arises, make it an agenda item at the next team meeting, and have someone who isn't part of the conflict walk through a resolution process. (Since issues will happen all the time, a good practice is to have a standing "issue resolution" agenda item for every meeting and update it with whatever the biggest problem of that week is.) Start by stating the problem, then have the people involved explain what should have happened versus what <em>did</em> happen, why it happened, and what they'd do differently next time.</p><p><strong><em>Example:</em></strong> Your team released a product update that was full of errors. Your manager brings it up at a team meeting and has the head developer explain what went wrong. She says that normally, a release goes through two stages of testing before being shipped, but that this time around, it only went through one, since half the team was busy doing recruiting interviews on the day the update was meant to go live and no one was around to help with the testing. Your manager and the head developer agree that next time, if they're short on resources, they'll delay release instead of pushing through an imperfect product.</p><h4>Communicate productively and personally. </h4><p>No blame game here. Find a direct way (face-to-face or over the phone is best) to touch base with the person you're in conflict with. Communicating productively around conflict means understanding why you are upset, communicating that using "I" statements and not blaming others, and communicating a need and a suggested resolution.</p><p><strong><em>Example:</em></strong> You're pissed that your coworker left you off a meeting invite for a check-in with your client, so you ask him if you can do a 1:1 call. On the call, you say, "Yesterday, when you left me off of the client invite, I felt frustrated, as I didn't get a chance to present my work and build a rapport with the client. In the future, I'd appreciate it if you could double-check the invites to make sure I'm on them. I'd also like you to send a note to the client introducing me so that we can start building a relationship. Does that sound reasonable?"</p><h4>Create a space for surfacing conflicts.</h4><p>If your team doesn't already have one, suggest that you start a special channel for logging problems as they happen. You can ask to make it anonymous, if you're worried about retribution, or you can keep it tied to employee names. Send in issues big and small, from disagreements with management on corporate strategy to someone forgetting to send a new hire welcome email and making said new hire feel awkward on their first day.</p><h4>Invest in conflict training.</h4><p>So much of what flusters us at work is due to bad communication, whether our own or others'. Not everyone has been exposed to productive, positive communication techniques before (like the therapists' tips mentioned above), and investing in bringing that to your team can bring huge payouts. Look at training companies or consultants who specialize in effective communication and see if they can do a live session, whether in-person or over a videoconference, for your team.</p><p>They should cover things like:</p><ul class="ee-ul"><li>Keeping discussions about interpersonal conflicts relegated to behavior, not personality (saying "Sometimes you don't give people time to ask questions when you're presenting" versus "You're impatient and condescending")</li><li>Listening actively and repeating what you understand (after someone shares their perspective, saying, "So what I am hearing is that you felt unappreciated" instead of jumping in with solutions or disagreements)</li><li>Learning how to self-soothe when you're too upset to communicate well (asking if you can take a break before continuing and going on a walk, listening to music, or taking a few deep breaths in private)</li></ul><p><strong>Conflict at work isn't fun—but it doesn't have to derail you, either. </strong>It happens, and learning how to communicate productively through it will serve you well at work and beyond.</p>
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May 21, 2020
Diversity Reboot Summit Speakers
Join Us to Discuss the Future of Work: Come to Our (Virtual!) Diversity Reboot Summit
Join Diversity reboot 2020 virtually
COVID-19 has forced us to map the future of our workplaces at a dizzying new pace.
The Diversity Reboot 2020 Summit is a virtual gathering for professionals who want to share how we can all rebuild faster in partnership with diverse talent. Join us, along with thousands of diverse women and allies, to remake our world the way it ought to be.
Learn more here
May 18, 2020
Work From Home
5 Tips to Manage Up While Working Remotely: Advice from Lattice software Engineer Mona Bocharova
Mona Bocharova knows a little something about managing through change.
<p>Over the last eight or so years, she's lived in four countries on three continents and worked in three different roles, going from a freelance writer in India to an account manager in Ukraine and England to a software engineer in the U.S.<br/></p>
<p>Each time, she's gotten used to a new country and a new set of responsibilities. That transition never went so smoothly as it did when just last year she started working as a software engineer at performance management software company <a href="https://powertofly.com/companies/lattice" target="_blank">Lattice</a>. She joined the San Francisco-based company after pursuing her passion for programming and loving Lattice's thoughtful interview process and diverse interview lineup.</p><p>And then everyone went remote as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and Mona had to adapt again — it's a good thing she's had some practice.</p><p>We sat down with Mona to talk about her successes and failures in managing up and giving/receiving feedback, how to do so even when you don't see your manager in person, and how Lattice's employee-driven culture supports personal and professional growth.</p><p>Read on for her advice!</p><h3>1. If you don't already have a regular (a.k.a weekly) one-on-one with your manager, schedule one. </h3><p>Just because you're not seeing your manager's face every day and don't have the option to grab them in the hallway to go over some feedback doesn't mean you can't have quality time together.</p><p>Set up a dedicated meeting time, says Mona, and don't treat it like any other check-in.</p><p>"Having one-on-ones helps you create a connection and can make you feel like, 'Okay, I'm not forgotten, my opinion matters, I matter,'" notes Mona. That's especially important if you're working from home for the first time and are feeling isolated from your team and company.</p><p>These meetings should include a regular agenda item of mutual feedback: you to your manager and your manager to you. Lattice's products include performance reviews and a range of manager tools to facilitate productive check-ins, but even if your company doesn't use set tools, make sure that you go through the entire agenda and share takeaways after each meeting so that you have a record of feedback and growth over time.</p><h3>2. Deliver on your responsibilities and be proactive when you can't.</h3><p>"Make sure that what you promise, you deliver," says Mona. That's not to say you always have to get it right, though. "There will be projects that you can't deliver on time. Just communicate that proactively," says Mona, who stresses how learning to think from your manager's point of view and raising problems for them ahead of time can deepen their trust in you.</p><h3>3. Take initiative.</h3><p>Once you've got your responsibilities handled and you're delivering on your goals, figure out what you can take off of your manager's plate. For example, says Mona, your manager is probably in charge of onboarding new members to the team, but you can take an active role in "getting to know that person and providing any help and support they need" to support your manager (and make a new friend, to boot).</p><p>This team-first mentality goes a long way towards creating a positive team culture, explains Mona. "At Lattice, we look at all projects or problems as a team, not as individuals, so nobody feels like they're in it alone," she says.</p><h3>4. Be explicit in asking for more responsibility.</h3><p>Identifying areas that you can help out is great, but if you're looking for a step change in your responsibilities that goes beyond a few side projects, ask for it, says Mona.</p><p>"Don't be shy in taking on challenging projects. If you feel like you've been working on a team for a while and you haven't gotten a project that would make significant impact, just ask for it straight away. Go and talk to your manager, share your concerns, and don't shy away," she says.</p><p>Letting your manager know what you're ready for more gives you control over your growth and shows your manager that they can count on you. "You should not always have the expectations that people will give you something. You have to ask and tell them, 'yes, this is what I want to do,'" says Mona.</p><h3>5. Don't shy away from sharing your questions and suggestions.</h3><p>Lattice uses their own products, so Mona has various avenues—including some anonymous ones—to present questions or ideas to management, including weekly pulse surveys, biannual performance reviews and engagement surveys, and regular feedback entries.</p><p>But whether or not your company has set ways of raising questions, Mona stresses how important it is that you surface any confusion or suggestions you may have.</p><p>"Don't think, 'Oh, I don't want to upset someone,' or 'Maybe I'm the only person in the group who doesn't know this,'" says Mona. If you have an idea on how to improve something, present it with confidence. "Come with facts, information, some case studies about it working at other teams or companies. If you're still getting pushback, you can propose it as an experiment, not an immediate overhaul," says Mona of the best approach for getting your ideas heard.</p><p>And if you're confused as to what's happening with a project or strategy, don't stay quiet. Mona shares, "I used to not ask questions because I was worried someone would think I was stupid. But then I realized that in the long term, it's for my own benefit—that's how you grow and develop."</p><p>And if you're confused about something, chances are, someone else is too, so don't let fear hold you back from asking your questions in a centralized forum, says Mona. By putting the answer in a team channel or shared location, you're helping other folks, not to mention saving the person with the answer from being pinged half a dozen times!</p>
<h3>Summing It Up</h3>
<p>When it comes to managing up and soliciting feedback, the strategies don't differ drastically whether you're in or out of the office — they just become infinitely more important when you're working remotely. In the absence of facetime and spontaneous run-ins, scheduled one-on-ones, taking initiative, and regular communication are essential to success. </p>
<p>If you're interested in learning more about Lattice's products and open roles, check out their<a href="https://powertofly.com/companies/lattice" target="_blank"> PowerToFly page</a>. And if you have questions for Mona about managing up while working remotely (or about finding a passion and following it halfway around the world), let her know in the comments!</p>
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May 15, 2020
popular
31 Remote Jobs Available Now in Sales, Marketing, and Engineering
Why You Should Consider These 3 Functional Areas When Looking for Work-From-Home-Jobs
If you're wondering what kinds of remote jobs are available now, you're not alone. With unemployment rates skyrocketing and questions about when—and if—"non-essential" workers will return to the office growing by the day, it's safe to say there's a lot of uncertainty about the future of work.
<p>Looking for remote or flexible jobs is one way to quell that uncertainty—but which remote jobs are most in-demand?</p><p>Below we've highlighted three functional areas — sales, marketing, and engineering — that will continue having open roles that can be done remotely. <em></em></p><p>Even as sectors like <a href="https://www.bls.gov/cps/employment-situation-covid19-faq-april-2020.pdf" target="_blank">leisure and hospitality shrink</a>, hiring in the information technology sector has remained relatively stable. Sales, engineering, and marketing are all essential functions at IT companies and offer opportunities for professionals from a variety of backgrounds (i.e., if you're a writer, you might consider roles in marketing; if you're a fitness trainer or coach, you might do well in sales) to find roles that suit their interests and skillset.</p>
<p><br/></p><p>---</p><p>Didn't see what you're looking for? Be sure to check out all remote roles available now on PowerToFly <a href="https://powertofly.com/jobs/?location=Remote" target="_blank">here</a>.</p>
Sales
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzI4MjUyOS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1MjY4MTMyM30.jFAxh1QzOg9AX5lK6MLO_hmmObI5PYzUwUa7GqaUpVo/img.jpg?width=980" id="70bac" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="c098e8a3441103e435a911a6c695bfe7" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" /><p>Although a career in sales no doubt gets tougher during a slowdown, sales as a function has become all the more essential as businesses look to <a href="https://hbr.org/2018/11/what-sales-teams-should-do-to-prepare-for-the-next-recession" target="_blank">pivot strategies</a> and maintain revenue streams amidst the current crisis.</p><p>Even if you lack prior experience in sales, you can get a foot in the door by applying to entry-level positions in business development, searching for new leads for account executives. </p><p>Business development representatives and account executives searching for new leads aren't the only important sales-related roles that need to be filled. Customer success managers and renewal managers have an even more important role to play during a recession as acquiring new business becomes more difficult, and demonstrating value to existing customers to secure renewals and minimize churn becomes essential. </p><p><strong>Consider a career pivot to sales if: </strong>you're a goal-oriented go-getter with excellent listening skills who loves strategizing, meeting new people, and isn't afraid of the word "no."<br></p><p><strong>Open Roles: </strong><br></p><p>- <a href="https://powertofly.com/jobs/detail/272850" target="_blank">Enterprise Account Executive</a>, Elastic</p><p>- <a href="https://powertofly.com/jobs/detail/272619" target="_blank">Enterprise Account Executive</a>, Mural</p><p>- <a href="https://powertofly.com/jobs/detail/272146" target="_blank">Enterprise Account Manager</a>, PagerDuty</p><p>- <a href="https://powertofly.com/jobs/detail/270350" target="_blank">Regional Sales Manager</a>, Peloton</p><p>- <a href="https://powertofly.com/jobs/detail/272222" target="_blank">Partner Sales Manager</a>, Google</p><p>- <a href="https://powertofly.com/jobs/detail/272168" target="_blank">Sales Operations Associate</a>, Mural</p><p>- <a href="https://powertofly.com/jobs/detail/272160" target="_blank">Director, Enterprise Sales</a>, PagerDuty</p><p>- <a href="https://powertofly.com/jobs/detail/271875" target="_blank">Sales Development Manager</a>, Contrast Security</p><p><span></span>- <a href="https://powertofly.com/jobs/detail/271877" target="_blank">Renewal Account Manager</a>, Contrast Security<br></p><p>- <a href="https://powertofly.com/jobs/detail/266976" target="_blank">Partner Account Manager</a>, Packet</p><p>- <a href="https://powertofly.com/jobs/detail/272617" target="_blank">Senior Customer Success Manager</a>, Mural</p><p>- <a href="https://powertofly.com/jobs/detail/271545" target="_blank">Customer Success Project Manager</a></p><p>- <a href="https://powertofly.com/jobs/detail/271909" target="_blank">Senior Customer Succes Manager</a>, Okta</p><p><strong>View all open remote Sales roles <a href="https://powertofly.com/jobs/?keywords=Sales&location=Remote" target="_blank">here</a>. </strong></p>Engineering
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzI4MjU1MC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxNjI4MTI1MH0.FBRJTwoBmWwulUIgI1-jkWSspt5rPlL67Nt265U00Jk/img.jpg?width=980" id="5b220" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="8cf184e8db210026d9cd76946fa700e0" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" /><p>Developers have <a href="https://blog.powertofly.com/best-work-from-home-jobs-2623761914.html?rebelltitem=4#rebelltitem4" target="_blank">always</a> had a leg up in the remote job market, and that has become especially true now, as <a href="https://blog.powertofly.com/companies-still-hiring-during-covid-19-2645619431.html" target="_blank">many of the companies that are still hiring during COVID</a> are tech companies that provide the very tools and services we're all relying on to conduct business (not to mention our personal lives—hello, Zoom family dance parties). And engineers are essential to making these products a reality.</p><p><span style="background-color: initial;"><strong>Consider a career pivot to engineering if</strong>: </span>you love technical problem solving and have some coding expertise. If you have an academic background in data science, pursuing a corporate job in engineering <a href="https://blog.powertofly.com/expedia-group-data-science-2629320148.html" target="_blank">may be a more natural transition</a> than you think!</p><p>There are <a href="https://powertofly.com/jobs/?keywords=engineering&location=Remote" target="_blank">hundreds of remote/flexible jobs for engineers on PowerToFly</a>, but some of the newest include:<br></p><p>- <a href="https://powertofly.com/jobs/detail/272776" target="_blank">Principal Software Engineer</a>, DigitalOcean</p><p>- <a href="https://powertofly.com/jobs/detail/272730" target="_blank">Lead Software Engineer</a>, New Relic</p><p>- <a href="https://powertofly.com/jobs/detail/231839" target="_blank">Full Stack Engineer</a>, Sentropy Technologies</p><p>- <a href="https://powertofly.com/jobs/detail/272332" target="_blank">Principal Software Engineer</a>, Dell</p><p>- <a href="https://powertofly.com/jobs/detail/272278" target="_blank">Developer Solutions Engineer</a>, Okta</p><p>- <a href="https://powertofly.com/jobs/detail/271879" target="_blank">Full Stack Developer</a>, Contrast Security</p><p>- <a href="https://powertofly.com/jobs/detail/265740" target="_blank">Front-end React.js Engineer</a>, Pluralsight</p><p><strong>View all remote engineering roles <a href="https://powertofly.com/jobs/?keywords=engineering&location=Remote" target="_blank">here</a>. (And before to check out this <a href="https://powertofly.com/career/live-chats/125179-why-women-should-learn-to-code-resources" target="_blank">chat</a> if you need advice on how to make the pivot!)</strong></p>Marketing & Product Management
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzI4MjU3OS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyOTY4MzgzMn0.fJ-9gJJoRStzKCh0Hk19eHDyIO5RIMUO2kScuoDy9Z0/img.jpg?width=980" id="38e0f" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="1cefd097a9c739ae91d24196148a4bce" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" /><p>Once the engineers have built a product, who's going to sell it? Sales, right? But in case you haven't already heard the classic, "Everyone is in sales," now you know — marketers are salespeople too.</p><p> In recent years, marketing has moved out of the shadow of sales and instead of being viewed simply as an internal support department, it's now seen as having a strategic function of its own. Much like sales, marketing departments must now find creative ways to maintain old revenue streams and secure new ones.</p><p><strong>Consider a career pivot to marketing if: </strong>You're a creative problem solver who loves big-picture thinking and analysis. Top notch analytical skills <em>and</em> communication skills are required to really thrive in marketing, but there's plenty of opportunities to find your niche within the broader 'marketing' umbrella. Love writing? Consider content marketing. Obsessed with customers, user experience, and business strategy? <a href="https://blog.powertofly.com/product-manager-vs-project-manager-2636589609.html" target="_blank">Product management/marketing</a> might be just your thing. </p><p><strong>Open Roles: </strong></p><p>- <a href="https://powertofly.com/jobs/detail/272142" target="_blank">Head of Marketing</a>, OctaneAI</p><p>- <a href="https://powertofly.com/jobs/detail/271874" target="_blank">Digital Marketing Manager</a>, Contrast Security</p><p>- <a href="https://powertofly.com/jobs/detail/272632" target="_blank">Director, Geo Global Product Partnerships</a>, Google</p><p>- <a href="https://powertofly.com/jobs/detail/272404" target="_blank">Product Manager</a>, Mural</p><p>- <a href="https://powertofly.com/jobs/detail/272387" target="_blank">Director of Product Management</a>, Elastic</p><p>- <a href="https://powertofly.com/jobs/detail/272385" target="_blank">Senior Product Manager</a>, DigitalOcean</p><p>- <a href="https://powertofly.com/jobs/detail/271541" target="_blank">Head of Product</a>, Mural</p><p>- <a href="https://powertofly.com/jobs/detail/271168" target="_blank">Manager, Strategic Global Marketing</a>, Dell</p><p>- <a href="https://powertofly.com/jobs/detail/188582" target="_blank">Senior Manager of Product Marketing</a>, PagerDuty</p><p>- <a href="https://powertofly.com/jobs/detail/271296" target="_blank">Senior Director, Global Marketing, Advertising Business</a>, Spotify<span></span></p><p>- <a href="https://powertofly.com/jobs/detail/272195" target="_blank">Global Brand Solutions Lead, Go-To-Market, YouTube</a>, Google</p><p><strong><a href="https://powertofly.com/jobs/detail/272195" target="_blank"></a>View all remote marketing roles <a href="https://powertofly.com/jobs/?keywords=marketing&location=Remote" target="_blank">here</a>.</strong></p>
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May 15, 2020
Career Advice
4 Tips for Navigating Startups, Mastering Sales, and Growing from Individual Contributor to SVP:
A Conversation with VideoAmp's Alli Felter
Alli Felter likes competition. Challenge her to a game of soccer or a sing-off, and she'll be there, ready to give it her all.
<p>That made a career in sales a natural fit.</p><p>She found her way into the field early on. It helped that her dad was a long-time salesman. Then an early internship cinched her interest. Even while she was cold calling 100 people a day and getting a bit tongue-tied when someone was actually interested, she loved the work. Her internship turned into a part-time job during college, where although she worked just six hours a week, she was outperforming full-time employees. That's when she realized the first of several sales (and life) lessons that helped her on her path to becoming an SVP of Account Sales at advertisement investment platform <a href="https://powertofly.com/companies/videoamp" target="_blank">VideoAmp</a> just eight years out of college: quality of work is more important than quantity of work. </p><p>We're excited to share some of Alli's tips for building a career in sales, particularly in fast-paced startup environments.</p><h3>1. Be strategic as to how you spend your time</h3><p>"It's not necessarily how long you work or how many emails you send," says Alli. "The important thing is to focus on the quality of your work and to consider the bigger picture." For Alli, that means taking a long view and investing in herself to make sure she can bring her best self to work. "I think a lot about what's going to have the greatest influence on my overall success—not just tomorrow, but a couple of months from now and beyond. Missing workouts and eating like crap may mean I can cram a couple more things in, but longer term, it's unhealthy and it impacts your relationships with clients and colleagues, which are pivotal to the success of your career. It definitely makes it easier to focus on this balance when working for a company that makes health and wellness such a priority. VideoAmp offers daily workouts and really encourages us to make time for fitness and mental breaks."</p><h3>2. Create value-based relationships</h3><p>Alli credits her career—and her rapid ascension to a leadership role—to her hard work and the strength of her relationships. </p>
<p>Several years ago, Alli found herself in the final stages of the interview process with a company she was excited about. She called a client-turned-confidant—someone she'd worked with at another job and whose opinion she respected—to get her advice on whether she should take the offer. The ex-client told Alli that before she said yes, she should check out VideoAmp, where the ex-client had just joined. Alli zoomed through the interview process in a couple of days and ended up getting an offer from VideoAmp, too.</p><p>That new opportunity presented itself only because Alli had invested in the relationship long before it was time to ask for advice or a favor.</p><p>As a saleswoman, and now with a team of 20 people reporting to her, Alli has a rule: never just "check in." This applies to networking as well as relationship building with clients and prospects.</p><p>"Just 'checking in' is my least favorite thing to do. If you're reaching out to someone, what is the value you're offering that you feel is worth them giving back to you?" she says.</p><h3>3. Evaluate job opportunities with this framework: people, mission, funding</h3><p>With two offers in hand, Alli had to buckle down and figure out which company was right for her in the long run. Having worked for a company she'd loved, followed by a company she didn't like so much, she assessed why she loved the first company and what she found lacking in the second. From there, she created a framework to evaluate her options.</p><p>"I really think that asking the right questions before you join an organization is key. Make sure you share and understand their views and support their mission, this will enable you to flourish and grow in your personal life and as well as your professional life," says Alli.</p><p>She realized the first key factor in evaluating a startup is understanding what the people are like. "Is every single person at the company just unbelievably excited to be there? Do they have that energy? And do you feel something when you're speaking to them? I think a lot of companies underestimate the importance of culture. You can tell when colleagues like each other, when they want to spend time with each other, and when they genuinely feel like they're in it together," says Alli. "And I felt that with VideoAmp from the moment I started the interview process."</p><p>The second factor to consider is the mission and whether the company knows what they are building towards. "Do they know what problem they are trying to solve?" she asks. "It's okay if it's not entirely clear how they'll get there—being part of the problem-solving is why many people are attracted to startups—but knowing where they're headed is key," says Alli. "At that time, VideoAmp was about powering the convergence of linear TV and digital to enable brand marketers to make better decisions between desktop, mobile, tablet, OTT, and then the big screen or television," she says. "And today, we really have been able to do so effectively."</p><p>Don't be swayed just by a fun team and an exciting mission, though. Alli advises that anyone considering a role with a startup be a realist, too, and ask to see the numbers on funding. "That has a huge, huge impact, especially in the startup world, on what kinds of programs a company is able to offer, what kinds of things they're able to do, how they're able to take care of employees and how they're able to build a presence and a name in the industry," she says. When she was interviewing with VideoAmp, they had just closed their series A round of funding and Alli felt comfortable enough with their growth path and potential to sign-on. Looking back, she's confident she made the right choice: "Right now, we've raised over a hundred million dollars to help us continue on this journey of solving our mission," she says.</p><p>If you've gotten an offer from a startup you like that passes Alli's criteria, she suggests you take it: "I challenge people to pursue opportunities outside of their comfort zone and to be scrappy — to have the power to drive towards a goal and build something that doesn't exist."</p><h3>4. Identify your leadership style and use it to lift up others</h3><p>When Alli was an account executive at VideoAmp, she was an individual contributor, which meant clear metrics for success: she needed to produce a certain amount of revenue and have a certain number of meetings.</p><p>But as she became a VP and then SVP, she had to shift her focus from her own performance to start focusing on building competency in others. She says she learned that "managing is about creating a mindset and a culture that you want to facilitate and foster."</p>
<p>Creating that culture has meant learning to not have all the answers and allowing your team to grow into their own working styles. "One of the things my mentor at VideoAmp, Laura Tormey, has taught me is to lead by example. It's important to create a framework for people to be successful but to also trust them to figure it out on their own. Show your team how to do something, instead of telling them what to do, and then watch how they make it their own," she says.</p><p>Three of the sales leads who work for her are women—"which is really, really rare for a sales organization," notes Alli. She wants to create a culture that encourages and empowers all employees, especially women.</p><p>"I try to promote speaking up and grabbing a seat at the table. You're not going to get what you don't ask for," she says. "I'm also always mindful of the words used to describe women's working styles, because language really matters. A woman can be perceived as bossy or aggressive, when really, she is just being direct. I try to create an open dialogue and conversation to empower my female colleagues."</p><p><em>Do you have questions for Alli about working in sales as a woman, growing into a VP or SVP role, or navigating the world of startups? Leave a comment below!</em></p>
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