OPSWAT is a global leader in IT, OT and ICS critical infrastructure cybersecurity solutions and Deep Content Disarm and Reconstruction (CDR), protecting the world’s mission-critical organizations from malware and zero-day attacks.
More than 1,500 organizations worldwide trust OPSWAT to secure their files and devices; ensure compliance with industry and government-driven policies.
We recently had the opportunity to talk to Victoria Huang, Marketing Campaign Manager for OPSWAT and learn more about her career journey and why OPSWAT is a great place to build your career.
What led you to OPSWAT?
I joined OPSWAT in July 2020 as a marketing campaign manager, and this decision to join OPSWAT has been the best career decision I’ve ever made. Before joining OPSWAT, I worked as a marketing specialist at a Japanese corporation based in San Jose, California where I supported both field and digital marketing, and strategic partnership with Silicon Valley startups. After 5 years in the US, I decided to move back in 2019, right before the pandemic outbreak, and soon after everything was settled, I found a job at OPSWAT. When I first started, there were only 2 people in the Taiwan office, including myself. We have now grown into a 5-person team with people working in different departments, such as channel, marketing, and customer success.
The diversity of OPSWAT really makes it a place where you can constantly evolve as the company grows. With 500+ employees working in different countries and cultures, the advantages that every OPSWAT’er has are inclusiveness, caring, and excellent communication skills. What I enjoy the most about working at OPSWAT is the “people” we work with, and the “mission” we are on. Protecting the world’s critical infrastructure with a bunch of talented and great teammates only makes this mission so much easier to achieve.
Tell us about a skill you taught yourself. How did you go about learning?
I taught myself how to use Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop in my earlier job as it required design skills to help deliver marketing collaterals, such as posters, flyers, and tradeshow banners. I learned those skills through massive YouTube tutorials, practiced a project a day, and eventually was able to apply my design skills in the real world, bringing projects from screen to tradeshows. Nothing comes easy, so the beginning was tough for sure. Not knowing what tool to use one when creating a small graphic really frustrated me in the beginning, but with a mindset of knowing that I can achieve what I wanted with the right effort really helped me get where I wanted to go eventually.
How do you manage your workflow effectively?
Working across different departments on different projects helps me be extremely organized. Every day before I start working, I would prioritize and list out the tasks that are on my plate. I found listing the tasks on a piece of paper or even on a whiteboard that’s visible anytime is way better than a cloud document which often gets buried under other webpages or applications. It’s also important to take a couple of breaks during the day as it helps to spark innovative ideas and refreshes the mind.
What does your typical day look like and how do you make it productive?
I start my day checking Teams to see if there’s any urgent requests, then Outlook to see if any other requests coming from there. After those two, I will also check Jira to see if there’s any tickets assigned to me. I will first work on the routine tasks I have every day, then work on the requests/tickets people assign to me. It’s important to list out all the tasks I have and prioritize them so I can be both efficient and productive. If I have extra time, I will start to plan for the future. For example, what content strategy we are going to use next month for social media, what assets we have and need to be refreshed, how is the performance so far and how can we improve it, etc.
How does the company support your professional development and career growth?
I was working in more of a hardware industry/environment like semiconductors and manufacturing before I joined OPSWAT. Although I was also doing marketing for those companies, the marketing activities I could work on were not as diversified as what working at OPSWAT can provide. The opportunity for me to work with a company that has its own unique software and hardware technologies at the same time is just incredible. Not only can I apply my hardware marketing experience in this company, but also learn how to do marketing for software at the same time. This professional development I received from OPSWAT also helped with my career growth. In addition to having a complete skillset to be able to do marketing for both software and hardware, now I also understand the technologies behind cybersecurity and software, and I think that’s a skill I can apply to every job, even for my personal life.
How do you bring ideas to life? Describe your creative and analytical process.
I would start by structuring the idea first. To make this idea realized, what steps do I need to take, who will be involved, what outcome will result, if this is doable. If the idea is doable and worth a try, I will prepare the data to support it and the data will be strong enough for people to believe that there’s a reason we need this idea to be brought to life. Next is to consult the right person who can either supply his or her perspective to help strengthen the idea or help bring this idea to reality. When an idea is hard to carry out, I will ask for more people’s feedback and their suggestions. No matter how hard it is, if its realization helps the company or the world be a better place, I will not give up.
What software and web services do you use? What do you love about them?
For my daily job, I use HubSpot a lot for scheduling our newsletter, online seminar invites, social media posting, and such. I love how it helps to consolidate all our marketing activities in one single tool. We can analyze all the data from landing page performance, email performance, to social media performance. It also works well with Salesforce so that helps to bridge Marketing with Sales as well. In addition to its useful functionalities, it’s also been constantly improving. Every once in a while, capabilities we wanted but didn’t yet have will suddenly appear, and the UI/UX just gets better and better every day.
What is the best career lesson you’ve learned?
Teamwork. With teams in different countries and time zones, it could’ve been difficult for us to communicate and get things done, but not on our team. I learned how to communicate with team members effectively and use a variety of tools to keep each other updated on projects. It’s also important to know every team member and understand their scope of work so it’s more efficient when assigning tasks and getting things done more quickly. Most importantly, it’s the support we have been receiving from each other. We help each other when one is in need, and that only makes the team stronger!
Please share a quote that has been most meaningful to you?
“Sometimes it’s the journey that teaches you a lot about your destination.” – Drake
