(Note: By accident, the first few minutes of the interview weren’t recorded. Sorry!)
Graduated in 2021 from the Boston Conservatory at Berklee with a major in Musical Theater.
Position: Commercial Account Executive (Business to Business Sales) at Salesloft, a company with close to a thousand employees that sells software which streamlines the sales process.
Overview: As BoCo wrapped up Paul had been planning to go into casting, then Covid hit and everything shut down. He considered getting a masters in marketing, but everyone recommended that instead Paul go into sales, saying he’d be a natural at it. He met a woman who was only a few years older and making great money; she suggested he apply to work at Oracle. Paul applied and was hired as a business development rep, but the job didn’t go great and he wasn’t mentally prepared to make cold calls nine hours per day. After four months, he left for another BDR job with a company, Drift, whose product, an AI chatbot, he found more interesting.
After close to a year, Paul wanted a promotion to account executive, but Drift had no openings, so he started applying to other companies. One application and eight (!) interviews later, he was hired into his position at Salesloft.
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You can see Paul’s LinkedIn profile here.
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Choice Quotes: “”In sales you’re always moving forward. You can close the biggest deal last week, but what are you doing today? Every new quarter you reset to zero.”
“Stay resilient and stay malleable. What happened to me was luck initially. Luck is landing the first job, then it’s hard work and grit and really making an impact where you get that oportunity. Noone’s going to make that happen other than you. You have to roll with the Nos. I know people who applied to over 250 jobs.”
“As a Musical Theater major I learned to sell myself in auditions and in class, and to roll with the punches. That sets me apart from a lot of folks in the art of conversation. Many people-facing creative people who have lots of conversations do really well in sales.”
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See the full index of successful Berklee/BoCo alumni.