Remote vs. Onsite Work: Is There an Impact on Hiring and Employee Performance?

Mc Lewers: And so being laid off, served as this forcing mechanism to really decouple who I was with the work that I did.think it was actually a huge inflection point for me personally and professionally. And it, forced to reflect, I think more.
Mc Lewers: on What it is that I wanted to actually do with my career and how I wanted to be a bit more maybe intentional with how I drove that forward focused on the work that I truly enjoyed versus a certain title necessarily that I was going after.
Krissy Manzano: Hello and welcome to the Talent GTM Podcast. I’m your host, Krissy Manzano, and with me today is MC Lewers director of Strategic Programs at Gainsight. So excited to have you on the podcast today.
Mc Lewers: Thanks Krissy. I really, look forward to our conversation today. Thanks for having me.
Krissy Manzano: Yeah, no, absolutely. So before we get started, would love it if you could share a little bit more about, what your role is at Gainsight, and for those who don’t know what Gainsight does.
Mc Lewers: Yeah, absolutely.
Mc Lewers: So I work at Gainsight. We’re a customer success platform that helps other companies drive durable growth for their customers. And so super relevant obviously to what we’re experiencing in the economy.
Mc Lewers: So I think first, it’s important to share the why of Gainsight. So our mission is to be living proof that you can win in business while being human first. And what our platform does is it helps companies of all sizes and industries achieve durable growth through customer led, product-led and community-led growth strategies.
Mc Lewers: So, super relevant to what we’re experiencing in economy right now and how companies are focused on achieving durable growth. And what I do specifically at Gainsight is I run core pieces of our operating rhythm, things like QBRs, WBRs, really making sure that we’re more thoughtful and intentional with how we have a connective tissue across all of the pieces of that rhythm. And then I’m the liaison or kind of lynchpin with the private equity firm, Vista, who acquired us couple years back. And so really making sure that we’re leveraging resources there, working with, and collaborating with the portfolio of companies that they have in their breadth.
Krissy Manzano: Wow, that was really well said. You probably deserve a raise.
Mc Lewers: Robin, if you’re listening.
Krissy Manzano: Yeah. No, that’s, it’s, a great company and I definitely think the CS leader for sure. and they’ve been around since the beginning. So, I’ve enjoyed kind of watching your journey there and seeing all the things that you’ve been able to accomplish, so I know that’s been awesome.
Krissy Manzano: So, for today, kind of taking a step back but also talking about something that’s very relevant. Our title today is pretty telling, we’re talking about rebounding after layoff. Right. And I think, you know, right now a lot of companies are laying off folks. And it doesn’t necessarily seem like it’s gonna be stopping anytime soon.
Krissy Manzano: It’s not new. It’s been going on for the past, you know, six months. I think it’s been a really interesting time. We had Covid where everyone got laid off and then there was this mass surge of hiring, and then everyone’s getting laid off again. and you know, from someone who’s experienced, you know, a layoff. Within, you know, recent years, wanted to kind of have you walk us through your experience and also how you coped with it and kind of give people a little bit more of a background on that.
Mc Lewers: Yeah, absolutely happy to share some of that context. So back in 2020, I was working at an event management software company, and you know, along with so many other companies and industries that were affected, we were massively impacted by COVID 19. And so there were about 60% layoffs globally within the business, 90% of those being impacted were within sales. and at the time I was leading our North America sales team. So I had a couple teams in Nashville, we had a team in Toronto. And honestly, at the time, it, felt like one of the most traumatic experiences I had been through. More so because so much of my identity had been wrapped up in the work that I did there to really stand up and scale the sales team from the Nashville office.
Mc Lewers: And so being laid off, served as kind of this forcing mechanism to really decouple who I was with the work that I did. Additionally, I had recently returned from maternity leave and so here I was, you know, in early 2020. Being back at home with my baby and being kind of the primary caregiver as my husband was still working.
Mc Lewers: And so admittedly it felt like I was having a bit of an identity crisis. And so when you ask how I coped with it, I’d say at first maybe not so great. But I think it was actually a huge inflection point for me personally and professionally. And it kind of forced me to reflect I think more on what it is that I wanted to actually do with my career and how I wanted to be a bit more maybe intentional with how I drove that forward. And focused on the work that I truly enjoyed versus a certain title necessarily that I was going after.
Krissy Manzano: Right. No, I can’t, I mean, my husband’s been laid off once. I haven’t, knock on wood, at this point in my career, but I’ve obviously had a lot of friends and family who have experienced that. And being a mom, a new mom on top of that, right. Coming back, like that’s just almost a double whammy. Right. so it, and during Covid right, it’s like a triple, threat in that case. What were some of the things you kind of progress day to day as that news hit cuz you were a leader, right? So, you know, you were losing your job, but then people that you really cared about that you’re managing, were losing theirs. How did you balance that? Or maybe you didn’t, right? Of just like how you were going through that coping and grieving process while also potentially trying to be there for others.
Krissy Manzano: And what advice would you give leaders that are in that situation?
Mc Lewers: that’s, a really good question. I think on top of that also my leader was part of the reduction in force. And so that’s the one positive I think, to that particular experience is that we really had each other to lean on. And we would still meet very regularly, almost just as we were having team meetings, but more so, from the perspective of you know, how can I support you?
Mc Lewers: Are there any connections in my network that I can help make for you? Any introductions? Let’s help prepare each other for interviews, let’s go through like resume revamps and things like that. And so, it really tightened the relationship that we have. I think that, just because you’re no longer professionally leading someone, there’s a relationship that’s built there and this natural trust that exists that you continue to work with each other kind of in a similar capacity and you really want what’s best for each other. And so that’s kind of how we approached it. And it was almost like anybody else who had also been affected, we had our own culture of folks who had kind of come together, to support each other and the best way that we knew how and the outcome of that really was probably the strongest networking I’ve ever experienced in myself and in others. And that would be my recommendation for anybody going through this because you may not have that group of people right to lean on and to really kind of empathize and sympathize with you. So, I would say, you know, really take advantage of any hands that are reached out to you. Who are offering to make an introduction, who are offering to get on a phone call and have a coaching conversation, or even just listen, and offer advice or guidance.
Mc Lewers: And that’s what I started to do. You know, I was a master networker, I guess you could say. And I would have informational interviews with folks. I would have virtual happy hours, you know, whatever I could do to continue to connect with people, both at a human level, but also trying to learn from those conversations and really think through what does that mean for maybe my next step forward.
Mc Lewers: And so from that, I really started to put together an actual plan, and through those conversations and ones that I was having at home with my partner, I really began to reflect on what it was that I actually enjoyed about previous roles, what I actually wanted to focus on from a priority perspective, and seek out in a next role or in a next employer.
Mc Lewers: And I put together that list. And so I had kind of my list of priorities, you know, that may look different for other folks. It could be that you wanna shift career path. It could be you’re focusing on culture, growth, salary, stock options, et cetera. But, for me, I put together an actual table and I kind of weighted each of those priorities.
Mc Lewers: And each company that I talked to or that I was opportunity that I was seeking out, I put them on my table. And I kind of did this stack ranking as I was going through interviews and having conversations. That really helped me also prioritize, where I wanted to spend my time and where I wanted to make sure I was doubling down to try to progress and push and move further towards the right career path or company that I had in mind.
Krissy Manzano: Yeah. No, I think that that’s, great advice and also just insight it. It kind of leads me into what you’re talking about, which is how did you go about finding your next job and was there any personal or professional growth that came out of that experience? You know when you get laid off, one of the things I’ve seen a lot of people say, and I would totally agree with this is you don’t need to like take a moment to process.
Krissy Manzano: That’s not tobe insensitive to folks that are living paycheck to paycheck, right? And acting like you don’t, you know, need to make money to pay your bills and put food on the table, right? But, if you can at all, all costs, take a moment, but would love to kind of hear how you went through that process when you decided to try to find your next place and how that went.
Mc Lewers: Mm-hmm.. Yeah. So when I mentioned going through kind of my list of priorities and doing, you know, a bit of reflection on previous roles, what I realized in all of that was that the majority of my professional experience had been in sales and sales leadership, and I really kind of focused on working my way up to kind of expand my preview, expand my experience within that scope.
Mc Lewers: And so when I went through that reflection point, I realized that there were a lot of components of those types of roles that I really enjoyed that were actually more on the operational side of the, you know, I was involved in helping with setting territories, quotas, comp plans, performance management within all of those things. Making sure that we had the right processes in place to to collaborate cross-functionally with engineering and support and marketing. Did a lot of forecasting. And so while I really enjoyed obviously being, you know, on the sales side of the business, the excitement, the competition, working with elevating and coaching and mentoring sellers.
Mc Lewers: There was this side of the business that I’d kind of gotten a glimpse into on the operational side of house that, you know, I realized, “Hey I kind of wanna actually pursue that.” And so that was probably the biggest light bulb moment for me. And I’d say like the biggest growth that came out of that experience was realizing that if I didn’t have kind of a clear path in front of me, that’s okay. I can create what that path looks like. and it also was kind of an interesting moment. I remember actually sitting at, at the time, at our dinner table, before we had an actual office space, we thought that it was temporary to be working from home. And I remember, I shifted from searching for specific role titles to searching for specific skills or certain levels of experience or experiences that somebody had or even, you know, groupings of parts of the business side that were really interesting. And so even just changing how I was searching for things, I realized that a lot of the roles that were actually really interesting to me were more in Biz ops and Rev ops. But a lot of the folks I talked to obviously really saw my background as, oh, we want, we see you in a sales leadership role.
Mc Lewers: We have the sales leadership, you wanna talk about it? And so, making that leap from sales to operations was also, kind of a bit of a challenge, but it kind of gave me something to hone in on and focus on something that I wanted to make happen, in that moment.
Krissy Manzano: So how did you do that? And I mean that in a sense of ofa a I would absolutely agree, and it’s great advice when you’re going through a situation like this where you’ve been laid off, it is a time to reflect on what do you actually really wanna do, right? And not to overthink it, but to look at going through the exercises that you went through, right?
Krissy Manzano: Like what are things that I like about my current job and is there something that actually would make more sense in another role? But then going to apply where you’ve moved so high up, right on that sales side, and then you’re wanting to go over to another part of the sales side, right? But that’s more specialized.
Krissy Manzano: How do you get hiring managers to buy in to something that you’ve done, you know, at a high level, per [00:13:20] se? Or maybe more detail than they would realize. Right, on the sales side, but, you know, not necessarily for that one role. Like what was your strategy and what advice would you give people that are maybe looking at switching kind of the roles that they’re gonna go.
Mc Lewers: I think, I think first and foremost, I had to completely revamp my resume and how I talked about my experience. Making sure that I highlighted the specific part of my experience that was more, rev ops or biz ops related and the impact that had on the business. I did end up actually working at a company for a previous leader of mine, and so she actually had firsthand experience to some of the responsibilities that I held in previous roles.
Mc Lewers: And what I did though to even get, you know, into that more, it was actually a sales strategy and operations role was, it was an early stage company and I basically pitched to them that like, “Hey I know that you are looking to hire a sales leader here. I see a great opportunity to also mature other areas of the business as the team grows to make sure that team is supported and we have a tighter and a stronger go-to-market motion.”
Mc Lewers: And so I basically put together some materials and I pitched to them that, you know, while they wanted to offer me just the sales leadership role leading, some sales leaders across S & B, mid-market and enterprise, that there’s also a longer term opportunity to kind of shift and expand my purview across more of the rev ops realm and kind of stand up a function within the business around that.
Mc Lewers: And so, , that’s actually what ended up happening. You know, I actually started leading the sales team. I hired, I had two leaders under me and I was, directly managing one of the sales teams, but owned the whole, North America number. Again, kind of back to my previous experience. But, you know, as the team started to grow and we launched into a new segment, we did really need a tighter rev ops motion to actually mature the processes that we had in place for forecasting, for quota setting, for comp plans.
Mc Lewers: And so, I, you know, elevated the leaders that I had hired into you know, owning more of the sales side of the business. And then I extended over to support, and scale out the rev ops motion and partner more closely with not just sales, but also marketing and customer success and making sure that it was streamlined.
Mc Lewers: And so it was a really exciting, at times, a bit scary part of my experience there. But I’m really grateful that I had the opportunity to do that and had a leader that I was, familiar with that trusted me, and what I was trying to accomplish there.
Krissy Manzano: Yeah, no, I mean, I think you bring up a, when you talked about, you put together kind of a presentation, right? And when you haven’t done something before in the traditional sense, like you, you weren’t in ops full-time. I think back to even for myself, when I started an office in Nashville, I had never started an office before.
Krissy Manzano: I had elements of experience of starting an office through other companies that I watched, that I’d been at and tried a couple of things, but I’d never done it all. And I think anytime you’re looking to do something new, you’re gonna have it. It’s gotta be more than just, I have an idea, this is what I wanna do.
Krissy Manzano: Here’s my resume that I’ve reformatted. You’ve gotta have a pitch in a presentation and show them the plan. It doesn’t mean that they’re gonna say yes always, and that’s why you’ve gotta have a lot of conversations to make sure that it’s the right fit for you. But at the same time, if you are taking that initiative, that in and of itself is showing what you’re capable of.
Krissy Manzano: Right? Walk them through why this is gonna be successful and why you can do this versus trying to hope that they’ll be able to connect the dots based on a couple of things that you said that you did at a previous role. Right. And I think sometimes people miss that they just try to update that on the resume.
Krissy Manzano: I’ve had some customer success folks as an example that actually have AE experience or wanna go back into being ae, but they’re still sending me the resume that’s tailored to a CSM, right? And then they’re not really doing any of that additional work to kind of show why they can actually, you know, be successful in that role.
Krissy Manzano: So I think that’s an excellent point and just something that probably would be helpful for a lot of folks could relate to.
Mc Lewers: Yeah. And I will add that, you know, I was at this second, this other company after I was laid off, it was in the reputation management space. I was there for about a year and it’s through that experience of really truly making the shift in that role from sales leadership to rev ops, that is what actually helped me be better prepared to then go and pursue this role in biz ops, where I am now at Gainsight.
Mc Lewers: So I wanted to also make clear that, you know, I didn’t just make this like clear cut jump, you know, it really was this journey and through that experience I even learned what components within the rev ops realm I really enjoyed, or, maybe that weren’t a strength of mine, you know, the business analytics side, not honestly, not a great strength of mine, but I had a great partner who I was working with, that helped, you know, supplement. So I had also say, you know, some of the parts are greater than the whole find the right people to work with. And a big learning coming out of that experience though, when I sought out to find a role in business operations and to work at, actually Gainsight was one of my hit list companies. And so I there’s a whole, process that I had there for how, I wanted to make sure I positioned myself well to try to work here. But you know, I realized that like each part of my experience, I learned from it what I liked and didn’t like or was, you know, good at or not so good at. And I think of it kind of like dating, like, you know, each date that you go on, maybe you learn,what you do or don’t want in a partner.
Mc Lewers: I kind of think it’s the same thing with the work that you do in the companies that you work for. I think that’s kind of a mind shift that helped me in the last couple years to think through like, okay, maybe this isn’t a good fit and that’s okay, but, what did I learn from that and how do I wanna apply those learnings into my next opportunity?
Krissy Manzano: No, I think that’s great. and also just as you kind of reflect and look at where was that personal growth and that professional growth, right? And what you can take away from that.
Krissy Manzano: Last thing on that piece, what would you say is the biggest takeaway from that whole experience before you got to Gainsight in going through the layoff to trying to transition, like personally and professionally?
Mc Lewers: Oh, that’s a really good question. I actually think that the biggest takeaway is that like, I can do hard things. I think I also, I built a lot skills that I don’t think I had in the past in terms of I was working at more on an executive level and with the C-suite on helping prep for board decks.
Mc Lewers: And there’s a lot of things that I was like, I don’t know if I can do this but I realized like, no, I can do these things just because I haven’t exactly done them before. So I think that was like the biggest learning was to just like, do the best that I can and know that the best that I’ve done, is what I’m going to put forward.
Mc Lewers: And I think also really taking a step back and realizing like, I don’t have to actually pursue a particular role or title. I need to make sure that I’m pursuing work that fills me up and working for a company that’sreally culture first. And so that was something that was really eye-opening for me, was like I cared a lot about culture and I didn’t realize it as much because I had been in an office.
Mc Lewers: And the culture’s just so different when you’re in an office. And so to be in a virtual environment, and not have that, I realized like, “Oh, this is actually very important for me. How can I find this in a virtual environment for a company that maybe has a bit more experience being virtual first?” And so those are some big kind of eye-opening moments that I had in, that year that I was,where I was at the reputation management company.
Mc Lewers: And then I think also, I realized it’s okay to be myself, because I was so concerned with like trying to be professional and making sure that I was elevating myself to the executive level and trying to pay attention to executive presence, that I kinda lost a bit of myself in that. And I can be a bit like goofy and I love writing poems and doing parodies and little silly, you know, bits of fun throughout my workday. And I realized that I was missing that side of myself. And so that’s something that I made sure to prioritize, you know, when I was looking for my next opportunity.
Krissy Manzano: Oh, I love that. And when you said, I can do hard things, that resonated with me so much because, a girl I went to college with, we were in the same social club. She, got cancer I think, what, two years ago when she was, pregnant with her fourth child. And her motto of getting through it was, I can do hard things.
Krissy Manzano: We can do hard things. It always resonated with me as, we go through these, especially with Covid, I think we all faced really challenging times and when people go, how did you do that? What or, whatnot. When you have to do something, you have to do it. You don’t have a choice. Right. And so, but then you realize the strength that you have, right?
Krissy Manzano: And what you are capable of going through. Not that it is an easy or fun thing or something that you want to but I love that. Right. And I think that’s a huge takeaway from this. When it came to you going after Gainsight. So one thing you said was you had a very specific approach of how you went after them.
Krissy Manzano: And it doesn’t have to be Gainsight specifically, but as. I can’t remember what year you started. When did you start with Gainsight?
Mc Lewers: I started what are we in 2023 ? 2021, I think it was. Yeah. So I’ve been there about a year and a half.
Krissy Manzano: Okay, so that was still before like the crazy hiring spree I think, depending on when you started. So what did you do to kind of stand out for them? Not having a long background in just ops or whatnot and or just in general, what would you recommend, even if it’s not for Gainsight of when people are kind of going after that?
Mc Lewers: Yeah, I think, kind of what I touched on earlier where, you know, I realized like, I wanna be somewhere I can be myself. And that’s like celebrating and appreciated, even encouraged.And so what I did with any outreach, honestly, it wasn’t just Gainsight, was I made sure that I overly personalized my cover letters that were very specific to the company, but obviously the specific value I thought that I could bring, and would add a touch of you know, childlike joy, which is one of plug for one of Gainsight’s values, into that by way of maybe writing like a parody for a song or a poem or, whatever was speak, creativity was speaking to me at the moment. But it was very specific and personalized to that company and the position and the value that I thought I could bring. I also made sure that I wrote very individualized thank you emails and even have kind of a formula that I would write out like a little recap of our conversation, something that we had a connection on. And then again, like a bulleted list of the things, the ways in which I thought I could bring value. And then asking for feedback. I think that is such an underutilized question to ask for feedback, from anybody that you meet with.
Mc Lewers: And almost everybody that I met like gave me feedback, which I so appreciate. Feedback, it’s a gift. I also think that it helps you stick out because it reminds them, again, recapping where you think you can add value, but also like it reminds them like, okay,I have a growth mindset, like I’m open to coaching.
I think a lot of people actually really appreciate that and they generally want to help everybody and offer that feedback. also something that I admittedly I hadn’t done before. I spoke on networking earlier. every job that I had before Gainsight, I had a referral into the company.
Mc Lewers: Gainsight is the first company or that I didn’t actually have a referral into and so it was very intimidating. You not, to have that, that warm referral into the company. and that kind of insight into somebody who’s already working there and kind of connection into it. So I felt like I had to work a little bit extra hard to figure out my, what made the most sense in terms of a role, but also like how I was gonna navigate or, get in there.
Mc Lewers: And the first position I interviewed for actually was a rev ops position. And. Met with a panel of folks across maybe two or three months. and ultimately they were looking for someone that had more of that business, analytics side of the rev ops experience, which it’s not a strong suit of my wheelhouse.
Mc Lewers: I was more focused on kind of the biz op side in the way that I had at least been in that role and. In the and so when they shared the news with me that they had selected somebody else, they actually had men. They mentioned that there was this newer role that was being scoped. They were still kind of working on it cuz of the recent Vista acquisition and but they thought that I might be an interesting candidate for
Mc Lewers: And so I followed up on that. And kind of was stayed on top of those conversations and learned more about the role and it actually, it sounded perfect. And so I went kind of through the interview process again, really also kind of helping them even scope it out cuz it was a new role and trying to figure out like what if my background actually makes the most sense for this role and how I can add value and how it can actually help them.
Mc Lewers: Kind of mature the role [00:26:40] as our relationship with Vista matures. And so, I ended up obviously getting that role and starting in the summer, I think all in, it ended up being like a six or seven month process with, a lot of conversations, some, personality tests and attitude tests in there.
Mc Lewers: it really intense, but it was totally worth it because they were one of the top companies on my list that I wanted to work for. and I felt really proud to to make it.
Krissy Manzano: So if you are looking to try to find a way to go to a company that you really like or you have your hit. you need to pause what just happened and rewind back to I don’t know what minute Mark was, because what AMZ just explained is gold for an outline of how to go after companies that you do not have the end with.
Krissy Manzano: And it doesn’t mean you’re gonna get into all of them. like, one of the things that’ll happen with us is sometimes, whether it’s with our clients or it’s, you know, people applying directly, to jobs that we have posted on Blueprint, when we see people that, you know, they’ll apply to like six different jobs.
Krissy Manzano: Right. and. I feel for people in that sense, but that comes across to me as like it’s panic and you don’t know what you want. Right? Or someone’s applying for jobs all over the realm. And so that is something that, you know, don’t do that because it’s, automatically gonna make you for a lot of people, like they’re not gonna probably have that conversation, so don’t go and apply to a bunch of different jobs.
Krissy Manzano: but, you know, take your time to like even cover letters. I saw someone write the other day, cover letters are dead and I don’t actually agree with that. When I’ll go through applications, if someone has a cover letter and it is specific to that company, it gets my attention. It does. It’s actually a lot easier to like get someone’s attention through a cover letter than it is always through a resume.
Krissy Manzano: Right. And if you’d want your resume to not be looked at incorrectly, like, “Hey I’m not a job popper These were two contract jobs that ended Right. and I have X amount of years of SaaS experience. I wanna make sure they understand that before they read my resume. And then putting in the values and things like, , you would not believe how many people don’t do that.
Krissy Manzano: Right?
Mc Lewers: Hmm.
Krissy Manzano: and you know, if someone’s like, I don’t have time. I remember someone actually wants to tell me, I don’t have time to customize for all these jobs. I’m like, well, let me tell you what you don’t have time for to go take the wrong job and then find out six months later you need to find something else.
Krissy Manzano: That’s a waste of time. But taking hours for, let’s say you, you spend 20 hours across, you know, six companies that you wanna go after that is. that is absolutely gonna pay off and have an roi. So this whole notion of I don’t have time because I’ve got to go after so many things. One, don’t go after 20 companies.
Krissy Manzano: Definitely you, you can’t interview with that many anyways. Not even 10. Pick your five, no more than seven, I would say. and then don’t interview with more than, you know, three to four at one time if you can. But you absolutely have time for that so you can make the next move as promising as possible.
Krissy Manzano: Right. and then when you do really, in the interview process, even if there’s a better candidate. It’s not just your example, but I’ve seen so many people where the company was so impressed because of the relationship. They were like the way that they wrote thank you notes. The way that they took feedback, the way that they communicated with us and showed us like they are a true X, Y, Z insert company.
Krissy Manzano: You. Person, right? We wanna find a role for them here and you letting them know, I wanna work here. Like, do, would you see me in another role? So those types of things are not natural for us to always say, we’re not as natural for, you know, a lot of people. So planning this type of stuff out will help you remember to do those things.
Krissy Manzano: But I love that. I thought that was great. A huge takeaway for people, in my opinion. Just a couple more questions here, but what advice would you give to someone who’s currently facing job loss? And is there anything that people can do to prepare for, you know, upcoming future layoffs?
Mc Lewers: Yeah, are a few things you can do to prepare if you feel like you might be experiencing a layoff or if your company is in talks of having a reduction in force. I think number one is update your resume. that everybody that I’ve talked to has said that is the hardest part about being laid off or for even just if, you’re not yet laid off, but you’re starting to look for, a new opportunity is.
Mc Lewers: is getting started. It’s so hard to just like, oh gosh, I’ve been at this company four or five years. I don’t even know where to start. I haven’t updated my resume. I think just start updating your resume, and really making sure that you’re highlighting the work that you’ve done and the impact that you have.
Mc Lewers: I also would say, and this is just kind of advice for anybody, I’m not. Not even necessarily if you’re seeking, work or if you’ve been recently laid it off, but even if you’re happy in your role, I think actually it’s good advice to create some sort of like, go me folder is what I used to tell my teens.
Mc Lewers: that anytime you got kudos from somebody or you sent a really detailed project recap or anything like that, that you filter or you file away that email in that folder. So when it comes time to me to. Where you need to actually talk through and highlight the work that you did, the impact that it’s had on the business and how that speaks to future work that, that you wanna do, or have in mind.
Mc Lewers: It becomes really easily to do so. So I would definitely just in general, offer that advice, but it definitely will. That’s also gonna help inform, the layout of your resume if you wanna make sure that you’re highlighting particular projects or performance metrics or things like that.
Krissy Manzano: No, I love that. I think that’s so helpful. It’s easy for us to forget that, you know, even if we’re really happy and we’re gonna be somewhere for a while, you’re not always gonna remember all those details. Right. So just having those written down so it is a little bit easier to update your resume and.
Mc Lewers: Yeah.
Krissy Manzano: You know, you’d probably have to live under a box to not know this but it, is newer chat. G p t tools like that are incredible for if you, know, you can type in and say, “Hey reword this. Right. I think that they’re great because not everyone is gifted in writing. It doesn’t make them a. Bad communicator with clients.
Krissy Manzano: It doesn’t make them, you know, not effective at their job, but for some people they can end up putting out great things, but it takes a lot longer to get there. So this is something that can be helpful in getting them to a place that is a little bit faster. But, there’s lots of things like that, so I love that.
Krissy Manzano: I think it’s great.
Mc Lewers: I’ll, I’ll add one more thing. you know, I think that staying active with networking is also, is really relevant and that, that could be, again, like in just any role that you have, even if you’re not looking. But I think that it helps you keep aa tighter pulse on what’s happening.
Mc Lewers: With a lot of different companies. it also helps you maintain some of those relationships that, you know, may come in handy down the road to to lean on or to to help you with that introduction that you may need. But it’s a good way to stay top of mind with other folks, but also, make sure that you guys are.
Mc Lewers: Are keeping a pulse on things and staying relevant. So I think that’s, admittedly that’s one of the things that, first things that drops off of my kind of priority list when, I get busy and then I have to remind myself to add it back in just so that I’m also keeping in contact with folks and learning from them.
so that, that would be my advice is find a way to make it happen. You don’t have to do it every single week, but even if you’re reaching out to like maybe one person every other week or setting up like monthly maybe, you know, coffee calls or. or lunches or things like that, I would, definitely try to do that.
Krissy Manzano: Yeah, no, absolutely. And I think, you know, one of the key things that you said is update your resume, but even if you don’t know if your company’s facing a reduction in the workforce, just start doing it now. It doesn’t have to be all at once. I think the more you can gradually do things and not have to have it all hit you can be really, helpful.
Krissy Manzano: So I think that’s a great idea. you know, remember, you’re not alone. There’s, you can ask for help. you know, people love to help others. I think we always forget that. Right. and you know, ask for help, whether it’s on LinkedIn or anything like that. and also too, I don’t know how you feel about this but you don’t have to write a beautiful message about the company that has laid you off.
Krissy Manzano: I’m not saying to go and say something bad about them by any stretch, but you know, if you’re frustrated at your company because they said We overhired, and that’s why we’re now laying people off. It’s okay to be mad, angry, sad, all the above about that. Don’t feel like you have to go and. Write some poetic, you know, thing to them, to make sure that you seem like, you know, you’re a professional employee, you don’t need to go again and burn any bridges and be unprofessional by seeing bad things about them.
Krissy Manzano: But you can just simply say, I was laid off right looking for work. And this is where I’m at. So I don’t know what, your thoughts are about that.
Mc Lewers: Yeah, I mean, I did write, I posted when I was laid off and think it was, pretty straightforward, but I also wanted to make sure that I shared, you know, how I was feeling and how much I also appreciated, experience. the company was Eventbrite. I was there for almost five years and Had done a lot there and had even done some international work there, made some lifelong, friendships and relationships, that I’m incredibly grateful for.
Mc Lewers: And so I think to your point, like if you feel that way, like share it, like go for it if it also, if you feel the need to say that and and it’s serving. You do so. But also, like, if you don’t feel that way, that’s okay. Like, and to your point, I think it’s okay to just say, “Hey unfortunately I was impacted by reduction in force.
Mc Lewers: Here’s what I’m looking for. You know, open to work. Let me know if anybody has any connections. Look, forward to connecting whatever. I would definitely say. Change your settings on LinkedIn though. So it does say open for work I got , a lot of random inbound, messages, but, you know, I took a lot of calls at first and then I obviously started to pare it down but you’d be surprised like how, to your point earlier, like how much people want to help, how just changing some settings and setting up some alerts in LinkedIn can really, get your name out there and extend your reach.
Krissy Manzano: Yeah, no, absolutely. Well, we are. Just about at time. So I’m sure we could talk about this forever cuz it’s so relevant and but I hope people are able to take away some of these tips and hearing from someone who’s experienced it in some of the worst times and most inconvenient times. And also, you know, through different lenses.
Krissy Manzano: Right? But I think, you know, the biggest takeaway, you know, as I’m looking through this is just, again, remembering you’re not alone, can do hard things. getting started is half the battle and it’s gonna be okay. it really will be okay. Look where we’re at today. you’re, still standing here, right?
Krissy Manzano: Everyone is still standing here. So you’ve made it this far. You’re gonna keep making it. and then, you know, take a little bit of strategy, and some of those tips that you shared, MC, and it really will pay off. Again, storms. We can’t always see stuff while they’re happening, but there, they always pass and there is light on the other side.
there always is. So, but, thanks for joining us today. I really appreciate it. Thanks for sharing your insight. Until next time, we’ll talk to you later.