Melanie Fortman

***FINAL UPDATE*** Fake job posts, gauntlet interviews, constant resume tailoring, AI bias and ATS black holes and layoff after layoff after layoff - it's supposed to be a job search, instead it's an evil combination of the Wipeout obstacle course and the worst season of Survivor in history. The employment math still isn't "mathing" in 2024. It's a horrendous job market, the worst in my lifetime...BUT...I did want to share the final message sent by Thumbtack to those of us in the final stretch. Their empathy and human approach is extremely rare and very much appreciated. I'm still very, very impressed with Thumbtack and the way they treat their candidates. Considering Thumbtack received 2500 plus applications and sent out emails to all of us throughout the process, it seems other employers could raise the bar and do the same...instead, we get 👻 👻 👻 I just want Thumbtack to know I appreciated the positive and consistent updates and will forever be a Thumbtack stan.

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🙄 These sales emails are next level in 2024. While I commend you on your ingenuity, creativity, and, uh, shall I say sassiness, I really need you to quit. Let's talk about horrible emails. Here are my top pet peeves: 🖖🏾 Spelling my name wrong. You know. Car + Men. Two very elementary, dare I say newborn words. I get Camren or Carm at least once a day. You can't "Carm" me, unless I "Carm" myself. So. 🗣 Lead with assumptions. The "you must be busy because I know you need my help because I can tell and you haven't responded. What's wrong with you? Pick A, B or C and tell me." 💁🏾‍♀️ Those who want me to play gatekeeper. "Can you forward my email to the person responsible for something else? I know she/he needs me." 🐀 Too much drama to unsubscribe. Why do I have to tell you which list I don't want to be on? Done is done. 🐙 I know you and you, and you, and you, and you. The ones that figure out your email construction and email every person who posts on LinkedIn regularly. So then five or six executives forward me your crap - the stuff I already "marked as junk." Can we be free of nutty emails, please? What say you? What are your email pet peeves?

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Aspen trees. Now living rent-free in my heart. 💛 I have plenty to say about #NexusCon (via Nexus Labs) from last week, but I thought I'd start with the bigger picture. Beyond all the great conversations with top-notch people, a sense of community and an adherence to WHY permeated the space. Coinciding with this conference was the annual turning of the aspen tree leaves to an almost ethereal gold. Wandering some nearby peaks, I fell for these clumped golden, dappled (my equestrian side showing here!) trunk marvels. They're a symptom of a beautiful planet. As always, if time permits, curiosity took over, and Google did not disappoint. Did you know: 💛 Aspen trees in a stand share a single root system. 💛 New trunks grow from the underground roots of aspens. 💛 Trees in a grove often have identical genetics, forming clones. 💛 Trunks live for 100 years, and roots can last thousands. 💛 One Utah aspen clone is estimated to be 80,000 years old. "As a result of this unique biology, some experts say that aspen are the oldest and largest living things on earth. At the very least, they challenge our understanding of an individual organism." Wow. 🎤 ⬇ If you made it this far, you probably also understand some parallels between the community I'm always chatting about and even the smart building industry and all the systems that, together, make it work. Collaboration. Worlds never stop colliding and that means we're doing something right. This wraps up my love letter for aspen trees. Back to Redfin browsing. Look at what you made me do James Dice, Rosy Khalife Tyan, Carly Stansfield, Brad B. 👀

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🔷 To my network! 🔷 With leadership changes sometimes comes a swath of “replacements”.. so while this change was not expected, I am looking for my next adventure. To the OG wizards across the whole org - revenue, customer success, product, engineering, marketing, legal, SC/SE’s- everyone .. and the awesome GSI partners we crafted relationships with in such short time, thank you for all your guidance and engagement. All the Revenue leaders that leaned in with partners w transparency - thank you all - you rock. To my alliance and partnerships leadership and team - thank you for the opportunity - Wiz was truly one of a kind and I’ll be rooting from the sidelines - great people, platform and customer first. What I am looking for next is: 1) opportunity to work with a great team 2) platform or services that customers see high value in 3) an alliances/partnership leadership role with buyin from the executive team to lean in with 51 % on our side. This could be 🔸building an alliances/partnership strategy from ground up 🔸crafting a Cloud Alliances Strategy 🔸building/expanding a GSI alliance strategy (much qualification on expected outcomes on this one as most have wrong expectations without the right investment in this space) My continued goal is to leverage all my experience across Sales, Presales, Services and Specialty/overlay to build out alliances and relationships with integrity and ultimately more value for joint customers and partners. To my past customers, colleagues and partners - if you see great opportunities to work with great teams please DM me! I’d love to stay in the cybersecurity space, but have also crafted from scratch relationships in digital/product analytics and modern application platforms and no issue for the right opportunity quickly learning a new field! Truly appreciate all of you over the years !

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Ever since the term "Quiet Quitting" came in vogue I've been pretty vocal about how much I loathe it. Working to one's contractual obligations is simply meeting the mutually agreed upon parameters of one's time and effort in exchange of compensation. To assume that every individual is going to independently deliver more than is what outlined in their contract is at best complacent assumption, at worst theft of those individuals' personal time without communicating actual expectations and standards of success. The job of communicating the range of effort between contractual obligation and exceeding expectations falls to us as people leaders. This being said, I found this article in Forbes particularly interesting. The author touches upon skills development and training as a way of combating "Quiet quitting" and I couldn't agree more. Arming our employees with knowledge in the form of training and mentorship not only ensures that productivity is as optimal as possible, but it also demonstrates a willingness to invest in the most crucial asset in any company or organization, our people. https://lnkd.in/gxJhMUNd

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