My name is Peter Ramirez and I am an SDR for a Social Media Marketing company called Revfluence. I graduated from San Jose State University in December of 2016, with a Degree in Hospitality, Tourism, Event Management. I attended the Always Hired sales bootcamp in January. If you would have asked me in December where my ideal job would be I would say working in the events department for a Major League Sports Team or Hotel/Resort. I worked multiple jobs throughout my college career such as; Bartender, Special Events Delivery Driver, Retail Associate, Banquet Server, and even as a Personal Concierge for an AirBnB property owner. Never did working in "tech", especially as an SDR come to mind (I didn't even know what an SDR was). After a couple of weeks searching for jobs, I realized I didn't have the "experience" to get many of the jobs I wanted and the jobs that were left for me in the hospitality industry, even with a degree, were not ideal for where I wanted to take my life. After working weekends for 4 years of college, I wanted a regular M-F work schedule, which was near impossible in Hospitality. So I heard my friend got a new job and asked him how he likes it and what he does. He told me he was working for a start-up tech company as an SDR and it's one of the best decisions he’s ever made. Naturally I wanted to know "why?' and he started listing the various things that he enjoys about his job "fun work culture, flexible schedule, great pay, huge room for growth, and it's exciting". I thought to myself wow this does sound exciting and meets all of my criteria so I asked how he got the job and what he does on a daily basis. My friend told me he got the job through Always Hired which is a tech sales bootcamp built exclusively to train people for the SDR role in the Tech Industry. For those who do not know, an SDR is a Sales Development Representative and is the standard entry level sales position. Responsibilities include sending out emails and cold-calling potential prospects in hopes that you will gain their interest to see a software demonstration of your product. In other words, SDR's are relationship builders. In sport's terms, SDR's are the Quarterbacks whose job it is to distribute the ball to their playmakers, who are the Account Executives that work to close deals. After hearing this, I immediately signed up for the upcoming Always Hired Bootcamp with a couple of friends who were also looking for career shifts. One friend worked as a bartender and server all throughout college and the other worked as an SDR but quit because he didn't have the proper training for the role. In the beginning, I was nervous because I never saw myself as a salesman and was worried I was just chasing this career for the money. At the time I thought of salespeople as the opposite of what I wanted to be; in-authentic, sleazy, tell you what you want to hear, aggressive. However, after the first couple of hours, my entire perspective shifted thanks to Gabe and the team. I realized I had never met a good salesman which is someone who is able to listen, finds solutions, is creative, and most of all, is curious about people and wants to help them. These are all things I naturally enjoy. Coming to this realization was a pleasant surprise, as I finally felt that my job search was over and I already started my career with this Bootcamp. This month-long program was intense, as me and my friends all commuted from San Jose and could not be late to class. But it was well worth the extra effort. I enjoyed how well rounded this program is. We didn't even start discussing "sales tactics" until we understood all the terms and definitions used in the Tech Industry. We even covered trainings on empathy, listening, improvisation, and a self-assessment of what truly makes us unique and separates us when we are asked the interview question "so tell me about yourself?".
My name is Peter Ramirez and I am an SDR for a Social Media Marketing company called Revfluence. I graduated from San Jose State University in December of 2016, with a Degree in Hospitality, Tourism, Event Management. I attended the Always Hired sales bootcamp in January.
If you would have asked me in December where my ideal job would be I would say working in the events department for a Major League Sports Team or Hotel/Resort. I worked multiple jobs throughout my college career such as; Bartender, Special Events Delivery Driver, Retail Associate, Banquet Server, and even as a Personal Concierge for an AirBnB property owner. Never did working in "tech", especially as an SDR come to mind (I didn't even know what an SDR was).
After a couple of weeks searching for jobs, I realized I didn't have the "experience" to get many of the jobs I wanted and the jobs that were left for me in the hospitality industry, even with a degree, were not ideal for where I wanted to take my life. After working weekends for 4 years of college, I wanted a regular M-F work schedule, which was near impossible in Hospitality.
So I heard my friend got a new job and asked him how he likes it and what he does. He told me he was working for a start-up tech company as an SDR and it's one of the best decisions he’s ever made. Naturally I wanted to know "why?' and he started listing the various things that he enjoys about his job "fun work culture, flexible schedule, great pay, huge room for growth, and it's exciting". I thought to myself wow this does sound exciting and meets all of my criteria so I asked how he got the job and what he does on a daily basis.
My friend told me he got the job through Always Hired which is a tech sales bootcamp built exclusively to train people for the SDR role in the Tech Industry. For those who do not know, an SDR is a Sales Development Representative and is the standard entry level sales position. Responsibilities include sending out emails and cold-calling potential prospects in hopes that you will gain their interest to see a software demonstration of your product. In other words, SDR's are relationship builders. In sport's terms, SDR's are the Quarterbacks whose job it is to distribute the ball to their playmakers, who are the Account Executives that work to close deals.
After hearing this, I immediately signed up for the upcoming Always Hired Bootcamp with a couple of friends who were also looking for career shifts. One friend worked as a bartender and server all throughout college and the other worked as an SDR but quit because he didn't have the proper training for the role.
In the beginning, I was nervous because I never saw myself as a salesman and was worried I was just chasing this career for the money. At the time I thought of salespeople as the opposite of what I wanted to be; in-authentic, sleazy, tell you what you want to hear, aggressive. However, after the first couple of hours, my entire perspective shifted thanks to Gabe and the team. I realized I had never met a good salesman which is someone who is able to listen, finds solutions, is creative, and most of all, is curious about people and wants to help them. These are all things I naturally enjoy.
Coming to this realization was a pleasant surprise, as I finally felt that my job search was over and I already started my career with this Bootcamp. This month-long program was intense, as me and my friends all commuted from San Jose and could not be late to class. But it was well worth the extra effort.
I enjoyed how well rounded this program is. We didn't even start discussing "sales tactics" until we understood all the terms and definitions used in the Tech Industry. We even covered trainings on empathy, listening, improvisation, and a self-assessment of what truly makes us unique and separates us when we are asked the interview question "so tell me about yourself?".
