Victoria Neri

I think the biggest thing that attributes to my success is being flexible and having the right mindset. For me, whatever job I get into, I know that I'm gonna be a top performer and I'm gonna excel. That comes from a lot of different characteristics - being flexible, being able to adapt to what the needs of that role are, and being able to actually go in there and perform and do well. I also have what I call a hunter mindset. If there's a problem or there's an issue, if there's something you don't know, it's like, what are you gonna do to find that, instead of just sitting around and waiting? It's being able to find these resolutions, be solution-oriented, and find the issues or the resolutions yourself rather than waiting around. I think that's what kind of helps attribute to success - having the mindset that you're gonna find it, and you're gonna know how to do it, and then actually actioning on it and doing it. Are you hungry to find the answer? Are you going to hunt it down, or are you going to wait to ask your manager on your weekly one-on-one? I think that makes the difference between somebody who's successful in the role and somebody who's not. It's somebody who's able to actually go and do what it takes to find the right answers.

The best career advice I received came from my first manager at a sales job at a gym. He taught me a lot about finding the why behind things and digging a little bit deeper into why people walk into the gym in the first place, to help really reveal their why. That has stood with me for a very long time, because finding somebody's why, not even just in sales, but in being able to mentor and motivate them, I think has been one of the biggest key pieces to why I've been successful in the roles that I've had.

I would say for the SaaS world, it's just finding a way to get your foot in the door, and then from there, it can open up so many different opportunities for you, because software as a service is just growing in general. But sometimes it's really hard or intimidating to find where you fit best, especially if you don't have prior experience in SaaS or in the specific role that you're looking for, like product or implementation. If somebody's asking how they could get into SaaS, I would say break in wherever you can. Usually it's a sales development role, and really just put your all into it there and move up from there. Because once you have that background in software as a service, it really just opens up so many more doors into different opportunities and career pathing within software that you'd want to go.

I think some of the biggest challenges right now are around finding roles and the job market. I had a change in role recently, and before that, I was looking into different positions at other locations. I know a lot of people who have been let go or there have been layoffs, and they've applied to 80 different places, who knows how many different places, and they're not getting responses back. I think that's been a big challenge for people - the resume seems to fit perfectly, but no one ever gets a call back. When you do get the opportunity or you do get a call back, you really need to do what you can to make sure you're shining and standing out. Make sure you're honing in on what makes you stand out, and make sure you're preparing as much as possible in whatever interview or whatever chance you do get. Networking and things like that can help so much when it comes to job hunting. It's a pretty competitive market - everything that I've heard, it is pretty competitive and hard to find another role.

I think that I genuinely care a lot. I genuinely care about my employees, my individual contributors that I have, and I think that they can feel that. I ask them questions about their life, their kids, how their weekend was. I care about them, their personal life, and their professional life as well. I'm someone who's always looking for the next role, I'm always looking for ways to improve and get to the next level - I'm senior manager now, my next goal will be director. I think that not everybody wants to climb the ladder, and that's fine, but if you do, it's like being able to have someone above you to be able to speak to and mentor you through it. I think it's so important, so that's something that I do for all of my ICs. Personally, those are my goals, but if they have them, I want to help them achieve it as well.