Ready to seriously kick start your career?

Sophie: From sales newbie to leading ApplianSys' US sales operation

Sophie joined ApplianSys' sales team in 2012 straight from university. Having worked in retail during her degree course, this was Sophie's first role in sales. Initially working on opportunities around the world, she has since specialised in US schools opportunities and, in October 2015, flew out to the US to lead ApplianSys' development of a local sales presence.

Did you always want to work in Sales?

Before joining ApplianSys, I had very little knowledge of what sales really was. One of the things that drew me to the role was that I'd get to talk to lots of different people from all around the world. I've always enjoyed this but my confidence has grown rapidly at ApplianSys. With a very consultative sales process, it's essential to enjoy communicating, building relationships and thinking on your feet to respond to customer needs.

Don't you need to be pushy to work in sales?

That's one of the most pleasing aspects of sales at ApplianSys: we're not looking to 'push product'. Ours is a very complex sales process and 'closing' a sale is built into a sophisticated consultation that takes place over many interactions. I spend most of my time educating customers, helping them to understand their requirement and solving complicated problems. It's a fascinating process that requires you to pay really close attention to detail, build genuine relationships with your prospects and truly understand buyer psychology. It's intellectually challenging and this makes it far more rewarding than playing the numbers game of trying to sell commodity items to hundreds of prospects a day.

So you need to be technically minded to sell ApplianSys products?

I was a little worried about this before joining ApplianSys. It would have been fair to describe me as 'technically challenged' on day one and I'm sure that the grads I joined with were in a similar position. But with training and guidance from technical colleagues, and by just putting my brain to it, it's been a lot easier than I thought to get a solid grasp of technology. It's definitely helpful learning together with other graduates, we've grown together. And it's not like we need to know all the technical detail, there are plenty of ApplianSys engineers to turn to for help when needed.

Where will this job take your career?

Well, this isn't really a 'Grad scheme' I've been working on real prospects from day one and I've been given increasing responsibility since then: from small opportunities to large, on to leading our Schools sector team and now establishing the US office. It's been rapid and I'm really motivated to develop our caching appliance into the de-facto market leading product for schools worldwide. Watch this space!

I'm also confident about life after ApplianSys. The training that I've received is explicitly geared to develop me into the kind of salesperson that tech vendors see as the only kind worth employing. Confident relationship builders that are comfortable dealing with complex solutions and customer psychology.

What type of character should apply for an ApplianSys Sales Job?

I'd recommend ApplianSys to seriously ambitious grads who enjoy an intellectual challenge. We decided years ago that "good isn't good enough" and you need the drive to live up to this mantra. Unusually, for sales teams, we're not really competing with each other in a cut-throat competition. We work collaboratively, building on each-other's growing expertise to smash our collective targets.

But it's not all work, work, work... across ApplianSys and especially amongst the graduates, we grow together in work and play. There's always a group heading out for drinks after a challenging week in the office!

Callum: From theory to real-world software development

Is being a developer at ApplianSys what you imagined it would be?

One of the most surprising aspects of the job is variety, in terms of the complexity and where, within the software, I'm working. In minutes I can go from tweaking a bit of JavaScript at the high end to investigating a bug deep in the system. If I'd found a web development job, it's likely I'd have been working at the high end all the time.

What's different from Uni?

The biggest difference is that my work is actually used... in the real world! At university I'd put a huge amount of time and effort into a project and I'd be really proud of the end-result. But the only other person who would see this is my lecturer and once the module was over, I'd not think of the project again. Now, every little thing I do makes it into a product that is deployed thousands of time, all over the world!

Is developing software for real a lonely job?

Whilst we don't explicitly do 'Peer Programming' we have a very collaborative team. Everyone's always turning around and nudging their neighbour for help. The whole team is happy to help each-other. We have a system of 'Code Reviews' whereby, before any code is committed to the system, a colleague checks it over to ensure the code remains consistent, coherent and human readable. I've even reviewed code from our Senior Developers and they all seem to value my input.

Outside the development team, what's it like at ApplianSys?

Everyone's very friendly and welcoming. The company is very 'open', we have a Monthly Team meeting where all sorts of information is shared that I would have assumed would be kept under-wraps. Because I know how we're performing financially, where our sales are coming from and any issues we've had in Operations, I can really see the impact that we have on each other's work. That's fascinating!

What skills have you developed whilst at ApplianSys?

Managing time is a big deal. Obviously, I had to stick to deadlines at Uni, but they tended to be further in the future for bigger tasks. In the real world you have far more smaller tasks, each with it's own deadline. It's really highlighted the value of time and shown me how much can be accomplished in a comparatively short space of time.

Where can your career at ApplianSys go from here?

Well, I've been here less than 1 year so initially I expect to continue doing what I'm doing right now but faster, better and on even more complex tasks. One of the best things about our Development team is that everything is out in the open so I have visibility of engineering direction and can contribute to the thinking on things like System Design and Architecture. Perhaps I'll move on to take responsibility for those areas in future.

Alex: From Junior Support Engineer to problem-solving 'machine'

Alex joined ApplianSys's support team in 2013. His technical expertise was very strong from day one and he's quickly matured into a customer-focused Support Engineer. His ability to rapidly solve customer issues and close support tickets at a consistently high rate has earned Alex the nickname "The Machine".

What attracted you to working at ApplianSys?

I chose my degree course because other Computer Science courses were more theory than practice: I wanted something hands on. So when it came to looking for my first job after graduation, I really wanted to get stuck into real-world technology. I was attracted to the promise of responsibility and dealing with lots of real customers with real problems. That's exactly what I got at ApplianSys.

Whilst my course gave me a good basis of tech skills, ApplianSys has developed work/life skills: customer service, setting expectations, commercial awareness, relationship management and translating technical information into simpler language. It's fascinating talking to customers all over the world.

How did your degree prepare you for working at ApplianSys?

I learnt about routers and switches in great detail at uni, but the exposure to real deployments in real customers' networks is priceless. Unlike some other 'Graduate Scheme' jobs, this isn't an extension of university with day-after-day of lessons and role-playing. I was very quickly trusted with support tickets - and not just the easy ones!

Because our customers are all over the world, to succeed at ApplianSys you need strong problem solving skills. It's not a case of one solution working for the same problem in every network. I had to just get stuck in and put my problem solving skills to the test. That's not to say I was on my own, I had a team of more experienced colleagues to draw on for advice. And this collaborative approach works both ways. It isn't just a case of me using more experienced colleagues when I need them: they value my input on bigger challenges.

So, are you just dealing with customer issues all day?

Whilst much of my job is about reacting to customer problems as they arise, I've also worked on some really satisfying platform migration tasks. These have been an opportunity see a project through from start to finish rather than just getting involved when a customer has a problem. I also really enjoy internal IT projects for the chance to focus on improvements rather than fixes.

Who should apply to be an ApplianSys Support Engineer?

If you're a strong networking problem solver, conscientious and looking for a proper challenge, ApplianSys is great place to start your career. And because ApplianSys is part of one team, there are serious opportunities to influence work in other functions, drive projects outside the world of support and even move into software development.

It's easy to get lost in a corporate structure, there's no chance of that here! Everyone has an important role to play and can genuinely influence the company's success.