Introduction

So, in all honesty, my journey into Advanced was quite random as opposed to the usual transition you get when you move from one corporate company to another. I started off my career in the catering industry in pursuit of becoming a head chef. I worked my way up the ladder in a few kitchens at various restaurants (some of which were acclaimed as Michelin star rated). During my time in the hospitality industry, I really knuckled down and worked hard; determined to make something of myself as a young chef!

After six years working in hospitality, I eventually realised that it just wasn’t for me, and that I needed a new challenge. I wanted to work somewhere where I could develop on both a personal and a professional capacity. My desire to take my career in an entirely new direction, which is what led me to Advanced.

I was looking for jobs online and came across a job advertisement for a Sales Associate at a large software company (Advanced). Looking back, I would definitely say that I was taking a chance as I didn’t know a huge amount about software and knew very little about the corporate world. However, after a six-year period in hospitality – I’d made my mind up that I wanted to work nine to five; I wanted to have my weekends back so I could spend much-needed time with family and friends which the hours I was previously working didn’t really allow me to do.

Anyway, I applied for the role, was successful with my application, then got onboarded and trained up as a Sales Associate in Business Development (BD), and I guess the rest is history.

My Advanced Journey

In my first year with the business in my new role, I found it difficult to begin with as it was just such a drastic change. Although eventually I did get into the swing of things and started to find my feet. From then onwards, I did quite well for myself; hitting over 100% of my targets, which secured me a place on this year’s Top Achievers Club in Athens back in May. It was an absolutely awesome experience from start to finish and it was a great feeling to see that the business recognised my hard work and dedication. 

It’s safe to say that I am very happy in the job that I’m doing, and I’ve got Advanced to thank for helping me to get into this position, and this career that I enjoy immensely. Going on something like the Top Achievers Trip is something I could never have dreamed of whilst working in hospitality, where there was very little praise involved, meaning that you often felt undervalued and underappreciated. Therefore, coming into Advanced, it was really nice to get the appreciation that I thought I deserved for my efforts. 

After spending a year within BD, I branched out into Account Management (AM), which was a really useful experience for me to understand the sales cycle in probably more depth than I did previously. The major difference between the roles is that BD primarily involved lead generation, whereas in AM, you’re dealing with existing customers and are involved in the upselling of our products, as well as cross-selling – meaning you need to understand the sales cycle from start to finish as you’re a lot more heavily involved with it.

Seven months later, the opportunity then presented itself for me to move back into BD in a managerial role which was a great chance for me to step up and gain some valuable experience in a team, and a department that I knew very well. This was a very recent change for me, and I’m still finding my feet as there’s a lot to take in and learn. However I’m loving it, and enjoying every minute, so yeah, I see a bright future for myself at Advanced – particularly with the #CultureOfOpportunity we have within the business; allowing people to progress their careers and seek new opportunities, as well as the other perks and benefits they provide.

Career Progression

So, I think my career progression since joining Advanced has been my personal ambition to succeed, combined with having a really great support network and framework around me, making the progression process much easier. I've been very lucky to have supportive managers and people that care about my personal development and growth within the business. Also, I’m quite a driven person. I know what I want, and I’ll go after what I want, but I would say that having the support of my managers throughout my career at Advanced has definitely enabled me to pursue different opportunities within the business.

What advice would you want to give someone looking for a drastic career change, like yourself?

Based on my personal experience - which might resonate with some people more than others – I think I would have probably backed myself a little earlier on in my career. That would have meant that I’d have been open to taking on new challenges and moving out of my comfort zone, which is what I did when I joined Advanced. Ultimately however, I’ve adopted the mindset that you’re only going to regret the things that you didn’t do, as opposed to the ones that you did.

I guess it’s also about having the courage to step out of a career that you have your doubts about. If you’re not getting the job satisfaction from your day-job, then you need to go and find it by figuring to what you’re good at and you need to hone in and capitalise on the skills that you have, whilst also being able to embrace change when needed. What I’ve found is that in your career, it’s all about backing yourself, and believing in yourself, no matter what background you’ve come from. That’s what makes Advanced such a great company as they allow you to discover the things that you’re good at, as well as the things that you might need to improve on, whilst providing you with the platform to progress your career.

The Advanced Culture

Naturally, Advanced is such a big company, that not every department is the same in terms of the subcultures that exist within each area of the business. But I would say that, what I’ve found in my experience is that there’s a really great team camaraderie, meaning I’ve always felt supported and look after, not just on a professional level but also on a personal level as well.

The wider culture here at Advanced is definitely all about progression and opportunity. Everyone working here has a really strong work ethic and as a result you get a collective effort of people pushing you and egging you on to progress. I like that the onboarding process is very particular and that we’re very diverse in how we offer opportunities to people so that everyone has a fair shot.

In the relatively short time that I’ve worked for Advanced, I’ve met so many characters and so many types of people and it syncs up nicely with the company ethos that we all come together as ‘One Advanced’.

Future Aspirations

Ultimately, my main aim is to absorb as many skills and as much experience that I can to get to the place that I want to be in my career. My primary focus over the coming year is to develop my managerial skills; developing my ability to lead a team to success. I’d really like to take the bull by the horns on that one as I think it’s such a privilege to manage people and to influence people to become the best version of themselves.

Looking further forward in terms of my five-year goal, I’d like to see really see what I’m made of by hopefully making a little bit of self-discovery along the way, to help me understand how far I can push myself and how far I can go in my career. I aim to become a well-rounded version of myself, be successful, and most importantly be happy and fulfilled. As long as I wake up every day, enjoying my job and going to work with like-minded people that are passionate about what they do – I can’t ask for much more than that.

Can you tell me a piece of career advice that's stuck with you?

There’s definitely one piece of advice that’s definitely resonated with me because it’s quite specific to becoming a manager, a challenge which I’ve only recently taken on. It’s advice that was passed down to me by our Chief Sales Officer, Roy Wood. He told me it’s really important to find a healthy divide between being a friend to your team whilst also being their boss. There’s nothing wrong getting involved and enjoying social activities with your team, cracking jokes and having fun. But ultimately, you need to have enough backbone to command things when you need to and get stuff done when it's needed and that’s definitely something that’s stuck with me as it’s definitely a challenge to strike the right balance between being a colleague and a boss.

What three words would use to describe your time at Advanced so far?

Eye-opening, Exciting and Challenging.