Her Story
About Mary
I've been in my field for three and a half years, starting in August 2022, and I've worked for Cisco for the duration of my career. Before transitioning to sales, I worked for an insurance brokerage firm called Johnson, Kendall & Johnson out of Philadelphia doing commercial brokerage work and marketing, helping with messaging, social media communications, customer communications and events. I also did an internship at the National Air Transportation Association in Washington, D.C., focusing on marketing and communications. It was there that I learned I wanted a role that surrounded people and personalities, which led me to pivot into looking for sales jobs post-grad. I discovered Cisco's postgraduate program called the Cisco Sales Associate Program, went through an extensive interview process, and moved to Raleigh, North Carolina right after college. In that program, I took classes and learned about the breadth of the Cisco portfolio and how to sell, since I came from a marketing communications background with a business degree. I learned from amazing leaders and people who had been in the program before me, doing role plays and practicing giving and receiving constructive criticism. It was a great place that allowed me to grow personally and professionally while living on my own for the first time. I've been in my current role as account executive for almost 2 years now, staying in the services organization at Cisco my entire career. My main focus is attaching services to our products and software to help customers have a better experience post-sale. I've supported many different regions, including the West Coast from Hoboken, New Jersey, while going into the office in New York. Now I live in Florida and support customers close to where I live, which allows me to meet partners and customers in person. I've had the opportunity to talk to C-level executives for iconic brands like Hermes, Peloton, David Yurman, the Javits Center in New York City, and now the Tampa Bay Lightning. Being a small part of what these brands bring to people has been humbling and awesome.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Mary
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to amazing leaders that saw something in me, professional women that I've gotten to see juggle so much both personally and professionally and overcome so much. Having leaders who saw something in me allowed me to believe in myself and grow. I'm also willing to be open-minded and learn from others. I think I'm not afraid to ask questions and raise my hand when something doesn't make sense to me, and I think that's something that might differentiate me sometimes from other people. That has helped me grow and really learn things from the inside out and kind of have an advantage in that way. I've been able to soak in things from other people, and people have been willing to meet with me because of me being early in career and having that support.
02What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
AI is changing our daily lives, both personally and at work. An opportunity that someone like myself or someone in my role has is to, from a big picture standpoint, help us safely move into this world of AI. We sell security software and services, so being able to navigate this new world and hopefully use technology to the best of its ability to make people's lives better and connect people from further away is really important. It's been a big topic for all of my customers.
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