CyberWire Daily - Amanda Adams: Pivoting into the tech world. [VP] [Career Notes]

Episode Date: October 16, 2022

Amanda Adams, VP of Americas Alliances at CrowdStrike sits down to share her story as she pivoted into the tech field. She started her career by wanted to be involved with sports, after getting her masters degree Amanda was faced with a difficult choice between working for The Golden State Warriors and Cisco. She ultimately chose Cisco as her path to move forward and has been working in technology ever since. Now she works for a team where she gets to prove her social skills and is focused on partnerships. She say's that working in technology doesn't just have to be working with technology, there are many other ways you can get involved with the field. Amanda says "you can always pivot into the technology industry and support the broader mission by doing that job function." We thank Amanda for sharing her story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to the Cyber Wire Network, powered by N2K. and VPNs, yet breaches continue to rise by an 18% year-over-year increase in ransomware attacks and a $75 million record payout in 2024. These traditional security tools expand your attack surface with public-facing IPs that are exploited by bad actors more easily than ever with AI tools. It's time to rethink your security. Thank you. Learn more at zscaler.com slash security. Hi, I'm Amanda Adams, and I'm the vice president, but my dad was actually a college football coach. And we grew up in a very athletic family. I played volleyball through college. And when I was nearing the end of my college education through my MBA, I actually probably had the most definitive answer to that, which I always wanted to be involved in sports.

And really, that's being a general manager of a professional sports team. So I was interviewing at Golden State to be in their sales department and went through a plethora of interviews from a group interview to a panel to meeting with their leadership. And ultimately, at the same time, I was interviewing at Cisco to participate or to work for rather marketing operations. And so one of the factors in my decision making was the commute from San Jose to Oakland. And the Golden State Warriors team was like, you realize that the commute is going to be awful, right? And so looking at the options, I chose the path of least resistance. I look back and sometimes regret going that route of not moving forward with Golden State just because being around sports, obviously the run that they just came off of, obviously winning the NBA championship.

There was so many good moments that my friend who worked there at the time has seen, and he's progressed his own career with the organization. I still think about possibilities well into the future. If I can pivot my career back into sports, I would love to do that, I think at some point. But I'm so glad that I ended up at Cisco. At the end of the day, I mean, from a technology standpoint, my friends laugh because during college or even in high school,

if you would have put a bet to see who would have ended up in the technology space, probably would not have been me. I majored in international business for my undergrad, which technology, what I do today, centers around all things business. And so I feel like it fits nicely. But really, at the end of the day, from a technology standpoint, I focused on how do I make a difference within the relationships? What gives me joy is creating relationships, is seeing people grow.

And I feel like as I got into technology through a connection that I had when I was growing up in Cisco, understanding the opportunity of the impact that you can make within technology, but now within cybersecurity, it's not as intimidating as it kind of comes off. Just because you can do so many things, right? Marketing, legal, finance. There's so many avenues to participate in technology.

And I just didn't understand that in college, right? And it was a leap of faith into that first role at Cisco. And I've been blessed that I took that risk, obviously, because I was very naive and didn't understand the possibility. Today, I lead a team that's focused on partnerships and our alliances. And it ends up being, you're meeting new people,

you're meeting new partners who end up positioning CrowdStrike. You have to focus on building your own brand, but also to representing the company that you're working with. And it really comes down to people do business with people that they enjoy being around, that they trust, that they respect, that they built rapport with. And it takes a little bit of that extrovert nature to get to know some folks, right? And it has definitely been a skill that I have learned to enjoy. And I'm so glad that I inherited that from my mother. that I have learned to enjoy.

And I'm so glad that I inherited that from my mother. Really, that first job at Cisco allowed me to understand how we made an impact for our customers globally within technology. And then from there, really, the journey took me from San Jose to I had an opportunity to go work from our OnePen office in New York City. And my manager at the time was like, you should do that. And so I moved to New York. And from New York, I ended up jumping all together to work for a reseller. And I did direct sales in Manhattan for a little while. And that was probably one of the biggest risks that I took at that time. And I was talking to my VP at the time. And talking through the options, I was very transparent with her.

And I wanted to get into sales. I was in marketing at the time. And talking through the options, I was very transparent with her. And I wanted to get into sales. I was in marketing at the time. And she said, I know it's shifting to the partner side is going to be very different. However, it will give you exposure to the sales cycle, obviously managing accounts directly. You won't ever get that experience if you don't take the risk. The next step in my journey was I did direct sales. But the one thing I hated was you have an opportunity and I wasn't able to maintain those accounts, right? And it was always moving on to the next thing. And again, going back to the relationships,

I was like, how do I get into a position where I'm influencing sales opportunities, I'm driving revenue for the company, but I get to manage and really grow relationships. My old boss at Cisco actually had shifted to Tenable Network Security at the time. And she referred me in to a cam position. We were a very small team at the time.

And I moved down to Charlotte, North Carolina with my now husband. And after a little over three years with Tenable, through again, somebody who I'd worked with in the industry, had hired me into CrowdStrike to lead one of our partnerships here. But it's given me such a great opportunity to understand different partnerships, the business, working with our sales teams, geography. I've learned a ton in the last five and a half years. I want to leave individuals, but also programs and things and jobs better than I found them. So it's looking at how do you develop your team to support obviously your business?

How do you achieve your goals? Personal development is really important for me, right? And so I want to make sure that I'm growing my people and supporting them in a way where they enjoy come to work every day, right? I don't ever want to be a hurdle for them. And so it's looking at ways basically to make their lives easier where we can keep them at CrowdStrike for longer. I think that looking back at, and I try to, I need to do a better job of this. And I always tell my folks to do this as well. There's a folder that I look at in my personal email, as well as in my professional email, where I've saved some comments from either key salespeople or leaders or partners. They compliment either the team, myself. And it's nice to look back on those compliments to say like, we're here for a reason. I'm making an impact to validate essentially what you're doing. There's always tomorrow. And

all I can strive for is little by little each day, right? And just reminding myself that. I feel like we don't do a great job of communicating what's possible to folks that are in either college or high school outside of traditional STEM, right? Which I'm not super technical, but I am able to support our mission by focusing on relationships, by partners, and very, again, business-oriented. If there's something that you're passionate about, you can always pivot into the technology industry and support the broader mission by doing that job function. It doesn't always have to be something super technical,

which I think a lot of people get nervous about. So for folks that are coming up in school, if there's something in particular creative, I mean, there's so many different outlets within our industry that you can look to. Don't be nervous on looking at technology companies. Like don't rule them out just because there's so many different outlets within our industry that you can look to. Don't be nervous on looking at technology companies, like don't rule them out just because there's so many different options. And then for people who are pivoting into the industry, right? I think that validating,

if you are making a pivot, you know what you like and what you don't like. I really hope to be remembered by my peers and my partners as somebody who made their lives better, right? Who gave their all, who had strong commitment, who was a direct impact to our overall success in the last six years. And also too, just being somebody who's a great coworker, last six years. And also too, just being somebody who's a great coworker, right? Like who's supportive, who's easy to work with. I love being helpful, right? Of providing solutions before people actually know that they need them. That's something that I strive for is looking for future issues to make, again, people's lives a little bit easier. Hey everybody, Dave here. Have you ever wondered where your personal information is lurking online?

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