So for the last year I’ve been working as a Sales Engineer with a IO manufacturer. This was my first position on the “Dark Side”, working day to day in the sales environment in support of the account management team both inside and out. Additionally the role required a good amount of end user and channel/partner education. It’s interesting working for a technology company where your product is not the leading position but auxiliary to the overall solution. There are many moving parts in what I would consider Enterprise-Class data center deployments and upgrades. In many instances a solution will require input from various vendors who ultimately work together to provide the winning combination of technologies. Its a very interesting and complex space to work in.
My role required me to step well outside my immediate comfort zone compared to my previous jobs within the Information Technology spectrum. Having worked on the end user side for roughly 15 years, you get used to a certain level of consistency and expectation of results. Sure you may get challenged when something breaks but for the most part, the days can be routine and much of what you mange is within your immediate control. When you transition to the sales side, nearly all of that control is lost, and the level of control you can exert upon the process of is limited to what you can deliver. Sometimes you can deliver a significant value or contribution that leads to closing the deal. Other times you are simply along for the ride, beholden to higher powers. It can be a little unnerving at times.
For me it was a pretty significant change to a new career path that I had decided that I wanted to transition to. While I won’t go into all the details (this is a drama free zone), my first year in this new career presented some significant challenges that I think were significant and uncommon in the industry as a whole.
Leaping Forward
So the impetus for today’s post is that I am now moving on from my current role. This was something that I was not necessarily seeking, sometimes opportunities come before you and they are simply too good to pass up. While I cannot divulge the name of the company I am moving to just yet, I can say that I will be going back to my roots, and my true passion: Storage & Virtualization. I will be working with a lead-in technology, and not an auxiliary piece. To say that I’m excited about this would be an understatement. This is also what I would consider a highly disruptive technology that will challenge perceptions and the status quo.
I must say that I am very grateful to my previous employer for taking a chance on an unknown quantity, and providing me with the ability to learn a great deal. So watch this space in the coming weeks as I should be able to “go-live” with more specifics. It’s a very exciting time for me.