Career Path of an Account Executive at Asana
Sara's career path began with hands-on experience at a family IT staffing business during college, including "sourcing" resumes and later marketing work, followed by marketing internships at Portfolio and Sharewell, the latter revealing a dislike for event marketing despite a valuable team experience. After realizing a desire to work in tech in the Bay Area, Sara transitioned into sales, starting with inbound sales at Udemy and progressing through outbound sales and account executive roles at Udemy, Calm, and BetterUp before landing at Asana, where Sara is currently a mid-market account executive, showcasing a career progression driven by personal passions and strategic career moves.
Sales, Marketing, Account Management, Tech Industry, Career Progression
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Sara Kramer
Account Executive
Asana
University of San Diego
n/a
Business Management & Admin
Manufacturing, Operations & Supply Chain, Technology
Sales and Client Management
Honors Student, Scholarship Recipient, Pell Grant Recipient, Took Out Loans
Video Highlights
1. Early exposure to an office environment and sourcing experience through her dad's IT staffing company during college summers and breaks.
2. Internship experiences in marketing at Portfolio and Sharewell, the latter revealing a dislike for event marketing but providing valuable teamwork and event planning skills.
3. Transition from marketing internships to sales roles at Udemy (inbound and outbound), Calm, and BetterUp, driven by a desire to work in tech in the Bay Area and a passion for mental health.
Transcript
Could you walk me through your career path, starting with your experiences in college? Did you have any internships or jobs before your current role?
Absolutely. I was fortunate that throughout college my dad owned his own business. During summers or winter breaks, I helped around his work quite a bit.
This was really my first introduction to working in an office environment. He owned an IT staffing company, so I helped his recruiters with sourcing. I would spend all day looking through resumes to find good candidates for the roles they needed to fill.
As I went through college, I started doing more marketing and social media work for him. I was fortunate to have that constant project to work on.
Between my sophomore and junior year, I interned at a company called Portfolio. They helped college students and young professionals showcase their portfolio work to help them get entry-level jobs. It was a marketing internship.
I found that role through a startup incubator in San Diego and had a lot of fun working with them. They were a very small team at the time.
When I was between my junior and senior year, I got an event marketing internship at a company called Sharewell, which does IT software. I learned that event marketing was not for me, though it was a cool experience. I worked with an amazing team and was fortunate they allowed me to attend an event I helped plan even after the internship was over.
Overall, I had amazing experiences and did a lot of work in college to build my portfolio and talk about real experiences. All of those were in marketing, but I ended up in sales because I wanted to live in the Bay Area and work in tech.
I took one of the first entry-level sales roles at an EdTech company called Udemy, where I was an inbound sales representative. My job was to field questions from people interested in learning more about our platform.
After about six months, I was promoted into an outbound sales development role. I did cold calling and cold emailing, identifying people within organizations who would be a good fit for our platform. After a year, I was promoted to full-cycle account executive for very small businesses.
I did that for about nine months before moving into a mid-market account executive role at the company Calm. I moved there because I am passionate about mental health and supporting organizations and their employees in living happier, healthier lives.
I was there for about two and a half years, then followed my head of sales to another mental health company called BetterUp. We provided leadership development and mental health coaching to organizations. After about a year and a half there, I ended up here at Asana in the same role, mid-market account executive, helping organizations find project management software that fits their needs.