Business
Ep. 48 — A close encounter with a Mack Truck on an icy freeway convinces a New York native to move to warmer climes and pursue a career in marketing / Linda Souza, Senior Vice President of Marketing, CareerArc. Driving home from her martial arts class in the middle of a January snowstorm in Pittsburgh, Linda Souza lost control of her pickup truck on the icy freeway and skidded straight onto the path of a Mack Truck. Fueled by adrenalin, Souza accelerated into a grassy ditch, narrowly avoiding serious injury even as the Mack Truck slammed into the back of her of pickup, substantially damaging both vehicles. The close encounter taught Souza a life lesson to trust her instincts in dicey and unpredictable situations. Needless to say, that was Souza's last winter on the east coast. She moved to Los Angeles where she's now Senior Vice President of Marketing at CareerArc. The company offers technology-based social recruiting and outplacement solutions to help Human Resources leaders recruit and transition employees. Souza says the unprecedented shutdown and slow resurgence of the U.S. economy because of Covid-19 raises many challenges for HR leaders, including work-from-home policies and pay scales. “I don't think it will be everybody will permanently work from home at all companies, but I think there's going to be a bigger appetite for that and a bigger demand for that,” says Linda. “And then that opens up things like, "Okay, well does that mean, for example, if I'm in a place where it's very expensive to live and so salaries are elevated, does that open me up to talent in different parts of the country if I don't need someone to physically come in every single day? And that also entails, "Well, now we have to rethink the compensation structure. Do I pay less if I'm hiring in Kansas versus Los Angeles?" But Souza is seeing one positive trend behind all these murky questions — and that trend is that companies are slowly but surely starting to hire again. Read the Transcript Download the PDF Chitra Ragavan: Linda Souza was driving home from her martial arts class one afternoon in the middle of a January snow storm in Pittsburgh. As she merged onto the icy freeway, Souza lost control of her Dodge Dakota pickup truck. The Mack Truck could not avoid hitting the back of Souza's pickup, but she was able to accelerate into a grassy ditch, narrowly avoiding serious injury. Hello everyone, I'm Chitra Ragavan. And this is When it Mattered. This episode is brought to you by Good Story, an advisory firm helping technology startups find their narrative. Chitra Ragavan: Needless to say that was Souza's last winter on the east coast. She moved to Los Angeles where she's now Senior Vice President of Marketing at CareerArc, which offers technology based social recruiting and outplacement solutions to help HR leaders recruit and transition employees. Souza is a 7 x tech startup marketer with more than 20 years of experience helping lead early stage and growth stage startups to successful exits. Prior to CareerArc, Linda served as Vice President of Marketing for cryptocurrency and blockchain startup Gem, where she was my colleague. Souza also served as Vice President of Marketing for Deep Six AI, an award-winning artificial intelligence company. Linda, welcome to the podcast. Linda Souza: Thank you Chitra, I'm excited to be here. Chitra Ragavan: Tell us about that potentially fatal highway accident that January day. Linda Souza: So I was training at a martial arts workshop actually. This is back when I was living in Pittsburgh in the early two thousands, and it had started snowing while I was in the class because it was in January. And by the time I got out and had to hit the road to get home, which was a good 30 or 40 minute drive home, it was full on snowstorm. And I was driving a pickup truck at the time, which unfortunately does not have great traction all the time in the snow.