An Internship to Remember
At first, I was a little hesitant to fly 2500 miles away from home to start an internship that I was unsure of. Sure, the company had a cool name – BigPanda, but IT software? I didn’t know much about it, so how would I be able to manage? And would this just be a boring desk job, maybe even a waste of time? But then I watched Bryan Dell’s (BigPanda’s CRO) pitch at the Evolve Trace3 conference and my interest peaked. Suddenly, I was excited to get started.
Within the first 3 days under Guy Opochinski’s (Senior Director of Business Development) guidance, I quickly realized that I was actually going to learn quite a lot in my month of internship and that it was going to be exciting.
Studying the ins and outs of the sales team, I learned more about real life sales in those few weeks than I could in any class or textbook. One of the key takeaways was how BigPanda differs from its competitors in the amount of effort and care they put into their customers, in some ways becoming their partners in their battle to prevent outages and reduce operational costs. It was amazing to see how much effort and creativity was being put into the sales process on a daily basis. I was witnessing some of the most talented people I have ever met, working together in an adrenaline-filled battle to win over prospects, in a long and complicated cycle where each had to be the best at his or her game. Not at all similar to what I had imagined sales would be. And I had the honor of being part of all that.
On a personal level, I was given nothing but support and guidance, and I quickly felt part of the team – taking part in the PG-aimed research and participating in all the general sales activities as a full fledged member. The atmosphere at BigPanda is very energetic, and people come in each morning with a very positive can-do attitude to tackle the day’s challenges as a team. It was very easy to blend in and feel a part of everything, and I never felt an outsider – even though I was an intern and only there for a month.
On the business level – I got a look behind the scenes of some of the most well known big-brand service outages. I never could understand how those happened, with all the resources these companies had at their disposal. Now I do… and the glimpses I got into the complexity of IT Operations and the solution BigPanda has to offer to deal with it, made me realize just how much potential there is in the market and what a bright future the company has.
Taking part in real-life sales activities, in a dynamic space with an amazing team – made this one of the best experiences in my college years. And if you’re interested in IT Software and looking for a dynamic, supportive workplace – BigPanda should be your choice without a doubt.
