Life After Layoff With Amy Fair

Hosts Gianna Whitver and Maria Velasquez sit down with guest Amy Fair to discuss being laid off and how to navigate it in stride. Gianna and Maria ask Amy about her own experiences being laid off as they approach the rarely-discussed but important topic. Amy dives into what it means to be laid off in the cybersecurity content marketing industry and how she has turned layoffs into new opportunities within weeks. In their conversation, Maria, Gianna, and Amy highlight the importance of networking and community and how it is vital to maintain lasting relationships in the content marketing industry. Amy shares how, at the end of the day, these connections can lead to amazing opportunities. 

We’re joined this week by Amy Fair, Content Marketing Manager at SpyCloud, 

 

Timecoded Guide:

[8:50] The value of building a network and maintaining a community

[17:29] Using Slack in job hunting and making connections

[23:21] The value of mentors and keeping people in your corner

[25:48] Advice for those anticipating a layoff

How can you prepare to be laid off?

Amy opens up with stories about getting laid off and how she was able to quickly land new jobs. Sometimes layoffs are expected and sometimes they can be a shock. Amy shares how she used the community around her in both scenarios to turn the layoffs into success. There’s a lot of stigma surrounding the topic of being laid off and Amy offers a dose of optimism to those who come to her for help. She seeks to take away the stigma as she mentions that the attitude towards layoffs has changed over the years. They are even expected in many industries now. Amy highlights how her experiences have taught her that, in content marketing, it’s not only about ‘making connections’ but nurturing relationships that make the most impact along the way.

“I also want to kind of remove the stigma that comes with it . . . I think it might even be more rare for people to not have been laid off in their career, then, you know, for those who have experienced that. But I don't think it's a shameful thing.”

How “your network is your net worth” and why a strong personal brand matters

Amy shares how vital it is to open up outwardly into circles to build lasting relationships with people who will have your back. Having a strong standing in the content marketing industry starts from the beginning: personal brand. Amy shares how those in the content marketing industry can apply their expertise to themselves if they want to build a solid personal brand. She also highlights how building a personal brand can save someone from a lengthy job hunt after being laid off. Having a resume counts but a personal brand extends to networking and recognition. Doing this is vital in the cybersecurity marketing industry as Amy shares how it’s a field where layoffs are widespread.

“We make our brands look good, we make our products look good, we make our customers look good. We can take all those skills that we have making everybody else look good. And we can make ourselves look pretty damn good. . . it doesn't have to be when you lose your job, you can do that all day every day.”

Slack, newsletters, and job boards: why community counts

Amy, Gianna, and Maria dive into their experiences in how something like Slack can lead to lasting connections and to rekindling valuable relationships with people. Amy shares a story on how she stumbled upon an old coworker on Slack while Maria and Gianna share how they have found a lot of success in finding job candidates by using newsletters, job boards, and meeting people through their Slack channel. Maria emphasizes how, through community and reaching out to others, a boss can get to know someone before their resume shows up on a pile. People make lasting impressions through these connections. The hosts also discuss how building these connections throughout the interview process is valuable regardless of whether someone gets the job.

“Even if you feel like maybe you're new in your career, and you don't really have a network, if you have a mentor who can connect you with so and so for XYZ, like that is huge tap into that resource. That is something that can make a huge impact on your own network.”

Advice for those anticipating a layoff

In cybersecurity content marketing, people need others to lean on every step of the way. The business can get competitive, leading to unexpected job turns and layoffs. One thing that can stay constant, though, is maintaining steady and solid connections with people in the industry. Amy talks about how someone can have a network of dozens but it’s the three or four people who they have kept in touch with and have built relationships with that matter the most. She adds how it’s a two-way street and that these interactions aren’t transactional but they’re reciprocal: like friends, the people in someone’s corner should be willing to give just as much as they’re willing to take. Making connections is similar to lead generation. To find success after getting laid off, Amy says that those in content marketing need to nurture their relationships all the way through the funnel just like marketing business leads. 

“You need to nurture your relationships, like we do that as marketers, with our leads, we nurture them all the way through the funnel: you need to nurture your relationships all the way through your career and beyond. I think that's so important. Because they might need to lean on you too.”

 

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Definitions:

Funnel: Top-funnel/mid-funnel: Levels of an audience to a brand or company and their awareness of the products or services—top funnel being those not yet aware of the company and the mid-funnel being those who have shown interest and might engage with the company. Marketers ‘move through the funnel’ to build an audience for their brand.

 

Links:

Get tickets for our upcoming CyberMarketingCon2022. 

Spend some time with our guest Amy Fair on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Check out SpyCloud on LinkedIn and the SpyCloud website.

Keep up with Hacker Valley on our website, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter.

Follow Gianna on LinkedIn.

Catch up with Maria on LinkedIn.

Join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, and keep up with us on Twitter.