Meet the Hiring Manager: Molly Conway — Director, Product Marketing

Our Meet the Hiring Manager series allows you to get to know the people who grow teams at VMware. You'll learn about our hiring managers' career paths and what they look for in candidates during the interview process. This week we'd like you to meet Molly Conway.

• Job title: (Director, Product Marketing, Security Business Unit)
• Years at VMware: (3 years and 4 months)
• First job: My first real job was working in retail, at a university sportswear store in Ann Arbor, Michigan. That experience taught me the importance of putting the customer first. As a bonus, I got to meet a handful of famous people who came into the store, including Michael Phelps and Desmond Howard.
• Fun fact: I'm a musician. I play the cello and used to play in string quartets at weddings.
• Favorite social distancing activity: Now that the weather is warming up, my family and I are enjoying going to the beach. My 17-month-old loves playing in the sand!

VMware Careers: Tell us about your career journey to date.

Molly Conway: I began my career as a Marketing Consultant for Fortune 500 companies across many different industries. Eventually, I decided I wanted to be on the product side in the tech industry, which led me to Product Marketing. To help me make that transition, I went back to school full-time to complete my MBA. Afterward, I held a variety of Product Marketing roles at Apple, Cisco, and a healthcare startup. In 2018, I joined a high-growth cybersecurity company called Carbon Black. It was the perfect opportunity to combine two areas of my Product Marketing expertise: selling to IT and Security and leading the go-to-market strategy for companies evolving to a SaaS platform. One IPO and an acquisition later, I now work for VMware! (Carbon Black is the Security Business Unit of VMware.)

VMware Careers: How is VMware different from any other tech company you have worked for in the past?

Molly Conway: The EPIC₂ culture is truly special here. The collaborative spirit is unlike anywhere else I have worked. I'm surrounded by teammates who are passionate about the opportunity ahead of us and solving customers' problems together. I also appreciate that VMware takes care of its employees. The company's response to Covid-19 is a good example of this. They've added several benefits to improve employee wellbeing, and everyone will have the freedom to decide when they are comfortable returning to the office, once their office is open (if they aren't remote, that is).

VMware Careers: What gets you out of bed in the morning?

Molly Conway: A sense of purpose (and a good cup of coffee)! My family and job motivate me to get out of bed every day. At VMware Carbon Black, we have a massive opportunity to transform the security industry and become the leader in securing the digital foundation at every layer, across any app, any cloud, and any device. You don't get an opportunity to transform an industry like that very often!

VMware Careers: What has been the biggest lesson you have learned as you moved upwards in your career?

Molly Conway: When you're first starting any job, you must prove you can be trusted and can execute. Do what you say you'll do and do it well. To move up, other things become increasingly important, including rallying people around a common vision or purpose, bringing ideas together, driving solutions that will move the company forward, and finally - having a network of strong relationships. The latter is especially key. Relationships are everything!

VMware Careers: What makes the team you lead so effective?

Molly Conway: Everyone is empowered to be the 'owner of their own business,' as we say in the Security Business Unit. On my team, that means each Product Marketer owns the success of their product in the market. I look to my team to help identify their top priorities, and we are protective of our time to ensure we're focusing where we can have the biggest impact on the business. It's better to do a few impactful things well than to do many things marginally well.

VMware Careers: If someone reading this was coming to interview with you tomorrow what interview tips would you give them?

Molly Conway: Do your homework - on our company culture, history, vision, recent announcements, etc. What excites you about VMware and this role in particular? Prepare insightful questions for each interviewer that will help you gauge if this is the right next move for you. (You are also interviewing us!) Most importantly, let your guard down and be yourself! It's not just about your skillset. We genuinely want to get to know you as a person!

Senior Product Marketing Manager, Endpoint Security - Opportunity for working remotely

Senior Product Marketing Manager, Endpoint and Workload Security - Opportunity for Working Remotely

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