Building a rewarding career is one of the most important, fulfilling, and challenging things people all over the globe work to achieve. Between managing families, finances, coworkers, and the day-to-day ups and downs of life, carving out time for a gratifying career can often be an afterthought. Harder still is deciding to pivot and change career paths after investing time and energy into an initial profession.
Changing your occupation can be scary, empowering, and seemingly impossible all at the same time. Not only is finding a new vocation a huge challenge, but the daunting task of having to rebuild from the ground up can often be demoralizing, to say the least.
Today we’re going to feature a few Replicants who have had the opportunity to change roles and build a new career, and we’ll learn about how Replicated has supported them along their journey.
Name: Chauncy Mattei
Lives: Fort Myers, Florida
Hobbies: Being a serial hobbyist, music, coding, and cooking
Fun Fact: Inspired by David Blaine to learn card magic as a kid
Customer Success Manager (CSM)
Previous Role: Account Executive (AE) in a non-SaaS, large company; Sales Development Representative (SDR) at Replicated
How was your previous role different from a Customer Success Manager?
As an SDR, I had to be somewhat of a generalist and convey the Replicated message to a wide audience (technical personas, C-Suite, IC, etc.). Being a CSM allows me space to nerd out and build deep expertise on particular features and use-cases to better enable our vendors and therefore extract the most value out of our product.
What did you learn from your last role, and how does it apply at Replicated?
From both being an AE and an SDR, I’ve been able to better my executive communication skills. I’ve learned how to take complex things and distill them down to a simple explanation. Working and collaborating with my colleagues at Replicated really helped me communicate better with C-Level executives.
How has Replicated supported your career change, growth, and goals?
While I had voiced I wanted to go into sales, my Account Executive, Kelly, keenly picked up on some aspects of my personality and skill set, and suggested moving to customer success. I’ve felt super supported by those at Replicated who surround me. They are people who have my best interest at heart, who have noticed what I am good at, helped me progress in my career, and have done so in a way that not only benefits me but Replicated and our customers as well.
How has a career change benefited you?
The most important change is my ability to be more present at home with my wife and kids. Additionally, I’ve learned that I have a deeper interest in software sales than I thought, which has paved the way for me to dive into coding boot camps. Overall, I’m a more well-rounded individual and employee.
How do you want to grow your career at Replicated?
At first, I wanted to jump into an AE role. Now that I better understand the CS journey, I really enjoy it and want to keep moving up the chain, or perhaps eventually upskill enough to become a Technical Account Manager. I’ll keep building my tech acumen and grow as a CSM in general, all in an effort to be more helpful to customers.
Name: Ziyad Dadabhoy
Lives: Chicago, Illinois
Hobbies: Community volunteering, anime, manga, videogames, family time
Fun Fact: Played Division III basketball
Sales Development Representative (SDR)
Previous Role: Civil engineer
What was your previous role?
In my last job, I was a Civil Engineer II with a utilities and engineering company, focusing specifically underground.
How was your past role similar to being an SDR at Replicated?
One of the biggest similarities between roles is the importance of time and project management. While my day-to-day is completely different, I still have a “project” and a “deadline,” and no matter what, I need to get things done without a lot of hand-holding.
What did you learn from your last role, and how does it apply at Replicated?
I learned a ton from my old role, including time management, people skills, and other soft skills. This experience has tied into my sales role, allowing me to interact with people more effectively and nail down meetings during stressful situations like a large conference.
Why did you change careers and join Replicated?
Honestly, there were a few reasons. In the civil industry, salary growth was not really an option. I wanted to make more at a faster pace, and I saw the tech industry as an awesome opportunity to do that. Pace was one of the biggest deciding factors, as I really like the feeling of being busy and checking tasks off my list.
How has Replicated supported your career change, growth, and goals?
I’m lucky at Replicated. We receive a month of training, a month of ramp-up, money for both a home office and personal training courses, and the opportunity to attend the biggest Kubernetes conference in America. From the beginning, Replicated has proved to me they wanted me to grow, and have made it abundantly clear that I can move within the company in order to provide the most impact.
How has a career change benefited you?
Changing my career has been huge. Mainly this new role has helped with my mental health, as I had really stopped enjoying work at my previous position. Changing jobs has made me feel happy to be at work, which is mirrored in my personal life. Additionally, having amazing benefits, work location flexibility, and a home budget has been fantastic for me. Replicated has really enabled a remote environment that helps me perform at my best.
What’s next?
Being new to the industry, I want to do as much as possible in my new role. I see so many opportunities at Replicated, and whether that is CS, product, or presales, I’m excited to figure out what exactly I want to do.
Name: Treva Williams
Lives: Syracuse, New York
Hobbies: Goggy the dog, building, tinkering, computers, puzzles, DIY
Fun Fact: Does everything except write with her right hand
Community Manager and Developer Advocate
Previous Role: Linux Academy Instructor; Cloud Virtualization Administrator
How was your previous role similar to a Community Manager/Dev Advocate?
The biggest similarity would be the need to continually learn and self-improve. That being said, I feel so much better in my new role, where there is no assumption that I already know everything. The biggest difference would be that I notice so much more grace and awareness at Replicated when it comes to everyone being on a different playing field. Also, there is so much more room for creativity in my new role, which is something I haven’t experienced at work before.
Why did you change careers and join Replicated?
In all honesty, it just kind of happened. I’m really good at networking and community building, though I am absolutely an introvert. I did not seek this role out, but it did seem to seek me out. I’ve always worked to build community, though I never knew there was a field or career track for it until now!
How has Replicated supported your career change, growth, and goals?
In any and every way I could possibly want. If I can figure out how to accomplish something, Replicated will help me do it.
How has a career change benefited you?
At Replicated, I really feel the amount of encouragement, joy, support, and appreciation for the things I do. I feel valued now.
How do you want to grow your career at Replicated?
It’s less about what I gain & more about what I can give. Ultimately, my goal is to leave something positive behind. Replicated is extremely supportive of any and all initiatives to give back, something I never expected to have at a job. Honestly, I couldn’t ask for more.
In Closing
In a post-pandemic world, businesses are thankfully adapting to take better care of their employees. To train them better, support them more, empathize with them, and treat them as valued members of a skilled and needed team.
We have built Replicated as a fantastic place to grow one’s career, ensuring everyone experiences thorough product training, communicative and collaborative team members, generous home office stipends, frequent team bonding activities, engaging leadership courses, and promotions from within. This is something we take great pride in.
That said, not everyone has 15+ years of experience doing what they do at Replicated, and we think that’s a good thing. We have a team full of fresh eyes, clear hearts, and new perspectives. Overall, we have structured this company as a great place to grow an existing career and a great place to pivot to build a revitalizing and rewarding new career.
Thank you to Chauncey, Ziyad, and Treva for sharing your interesting, meaningful, and thoughtful experiences at Replicated.
Speaking personally, Replicated has been a place to grow and explore. I, myself, transitioned from sales to my passion for writing, marketing, community building, and social media. To learn about Kubernetes, collaborate with geniuses, and succeed at something new.
Feeling stuck or trapped in a role is never easy, but finding a new place to call home and forge a career can seem impossible. Having the support, trust, training, and tools from Replicated has made so many Replicants make this transition not only seamlessly but also successfully.
If you are looking to try something new, learn a trade, join an incredible team, or better grasp what we do at Replicated, take a look at our careers page. We are hiring over 25 roles, from marketing to engineering everything in between.
No matter your experience or background, we’d love to connect and chat and hope to have you join our squad soon!