Life @ Cohesity Heather Lock On Always Being Curious

The Life @ Cohesity blog series shines a light on the various ways Cohesians — what we like to call ourselves here at Cohesity — foster community, lead by example, and live out our RADIO values in the work that they do both inside and outside of their #LifeAtCohesity. 

Learn from Heather Lock, field marketing director, about how staying curious and having the will to learn drove her career in tech, and how she shares these values with her family. 

Did you always know that you wanted to pursue a career in tech?

After graduation, I started to work, but I felt that I wanted to do more for myself; hence I earned my marketing degree at Wycombe and Amersham College while working full-time, two evenings a week for three years. This curiosity and the will to learn are still driving me every day.

My dedication to the start-up industry began with my previous company, SimpliVity, where I first met my manager Claudia. I am looking back on 20 years of experience in the IT industry with companies such as NetApp and Citrix.

Can you tell us a little bit about your role at Cohesity?

Since I joined Cohesity in 2018, no day has been boring! As a field marketing director, I am responsible for developing and executing integrated marketing programs to generate pipeline within end-users and our global product organisation (GPO) in UK, Ireland & Nordics. The past two years taught us to be flexible and think outside the box – definitely challenging a marketer’s creativity, which I have enjoyed. However, I am looking forward to getting back into the groove with trade shows and industry events as restrictions lift, and the world opens back up with F2F engagement again.

What do you find most meaningful about the work that you do?

I love doing things that bring people together.

I truly believe that people make our company unique and successful. I like to work on fun ideas to keep the team engaged. For example, during the pandemic, the EMEA Marketing team hosted a cooking experience over Zoom on a Friday afternoon – sharing different ingredients, utensils and laughing together as we created a cottage pie to eat with our families.

What challenges do you face in your role, and how do you overcome them?

We all need to remember to show more empathy than ever before – with colleagues, customers, and partners. People are tired of “death by PowerPoint, over Zoom.” Today, I try to relate to people’s needs more than ever. Our efforts have been fruitful, as we can see with the quality of registrations for upcoming webinars as we work with relevant hot topic guest speakers having quality over quantity registrations with prospects. What makes me happy is when others are happy.

Leadership also makes a large impact when overcoming challenges as a team. I am appreciative of the strong leadership from our NEUR Country Manager Mark Adams and our Head of EMEA Marketing Claudia Zieschang. Our competitive advantage in the region is winning and losing and learning together – as a team.

What about your life outside of Cohesity?

Family is very important to me. We recently took up paddle boarding at the local lake to enjoy the great outdoors. My partner Ben and I have two children: our 14-year-old daughter Evangeline and our happy, easy-going 8-year-old boy Harry. A big personal challenge right now is trying to understand a teenager, but I am learning very quickly this is an impossible task and to just be patient and do a lot of listening.

My newest joy is raising four chickens, who produce four lovely fresh eggs for us each morning. We promoted our stay-at-home hobbies on our summer fun series to encourage human interaction during our isolating circumstances. Check out the video here.

My challenge to you is to never stop learning and take some time for yourself and others.