Sold on a Career Path: My Internal Mobility Experience
By Niamh McLarnon, Major Account Sales Representative
When I enrolled at the University of Manchester, I was like a lot of new college students, in that I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do for a career. I knew I was interested in business and how organizations developed and executed strategies, but in terms of where I might fit into that world, I wasn’t sure. I decided to pursue studies in business management as well as Spanish, which would open up the world of international business for me.
I spent a year abroad working in Barcelona as an intern at a local real estate firm, which was my first introduction to sales, and I discovered that I really enjoyed it. Part of my job was to show flats to people who were looking for rentals. I found I really liked the experience of matching the right client or renter with the right property. When someone found the perfect flat for them, it was pretty fulfilling. I realized that forming relationships was a strength and a source of enjoyment and motivation for me.
After my year in Barcelona, I enrolled in a graduate scheme, or training program, in management with an infrastructure services provider for the UK government. This not only enabled me to develop my sales skills, but also helped me to realize that I wanted to work in technology, which I knew would surely provide career growth and opportunity and also allow me to work alongside bright, talented people. I had my eye on a business role with a technology company, and I was fortunate that a former colleague of mine from Barcelona had gone on to work as a Business Development Representative (BDR) with Palo Alto Networks. He let me know about an open position with his team in Amsterdam, and I knew it was just the position I’d been looking for.
I was fortunate to be hired and began working as a BDR in December 2019, and I immediately began learning a tremendous amount, not only about cybersecurity but also about sales and sales enablement. I became fascinated with the concept of channel business sales, and I loved the aspect of building a relationship with a partner and enabling that partner to go out and sell our solutions successfully.
My manager actually joined the team the same day I did, which you can imagine meant that many systems and processes needed to be put into place and territories assigned. I was aligned to the regional team handling the UK and Ireland, and I was working with that team on its outbound strategies — in other words, its cold-calling efforts. While BDRs typically only handle leads that are brought to them, I now was more deeply involved in the sales process. Additionally, I was asked to be a team lead to assist with the day-to-day operational management within the team as it grew and began onboarding new BDRs. This was key in providing me with an internal mobility opportunity.
I learned that a Major Account Sales Representative (MSR) position had become available. This was a step up from the BDR role I’d had. While the BDR books a meeting with a potential customer, that’s where the involvement in the sale ends. The goal is to book meetings, but that involvement in the sale, the development of the relationship and meeting the customer’s needs isn’t really part of that. However, an MSR provides support further along in the sales cycle, helping to put a deal together that aligns with both the customer’s needs and the sales team’s. Thanks to my involvement in the operational aspects of sales and the additional responsibilities I had taken on, I was in an excellent position to move into the MSR role.
My manager brought the opportunity to me, thinking it a good fit, and I met with him for about a half hour to discuss the details of the role. It sounded like just what I was looking for, so I applied, went through a rigorous interview process, and was officially offered the position.
Though I’ve only held the position for a short while, I’m excited about the potential to learn more about putting together deals and closing them successfully.
One of the things I really like about this company is that there’s a strong emphasis on individual development plans to help employees determine where they want to be and what steps they ought to take to get there. This is an environment where we are truly encouraged to figure out where our interests lie and explore them.
While I can’t speak for everyone at the company, I can say that I always have felt very comfortable bouncing ideas off my manager, and I had a good enough relationship with her that I could express my interest in new positions as they arose. Especially for someone like me who is early in her career, it’s okay not to know exactly what you want to do right away. It’s okay not to know everything. The leaders here recognize that, and they encourage us to speak with other people and solicit their opinions and advice. I look forward to continuing to learn more as I develop in my own career.
Trailblazing Your Path
Yumei Peterson, Strategic Program Manager (WW Shared Services)
Plano Office next to a wall mural painted by employees during a Women’s Network Connections event.
In December of 2017, I moved my family from New Mexico to Texas to start a new chapter of my career at Palo Alto Networks for many reasons: best-in-class technology & solutions that customers loved; hyper-growth company & industry; and let’s be real, an amazing compensation plan & benefits.
4+ years and three promotions later, I can honestly say that I am on a career journey of a lifetime. A journey that led me to be first the person in three brand new roles for the company.
Being in a brand new role has its challenges as I ventured into the great wide unknown, but I’ve found there are also invaluable learnings and priceless “first” moments where you get to be a part of the company’s history. Above it all, one of the most rewarding aspects of trailblazing a career path is creating new possibilities for others who will follow behind . It’s an immense joy and blessing to set a firm foundation for this newly forged path for others to join in with their unique contributions to unlock all the potentials of this path and forge new ones.
I am sharing a few of my learnings along my career journey to give hope and encouragement to those who are on their own career journeys!
Change Brings Opportunity
Change is the only constant in life and it rings particularly true in the workplace. Yes, change can be uncomfortable and overwhelming with many uncertainties to consider. What is also true is that change always brings a gift in the form of opportunity. Don’t be a bystander waiting for the wave of change to settle down, instead look for new gaps and needs in the business caused by this change where YOU can be the solution.
As I look back at all three of my promotions, one common thread is that they were all during times of change in the business: we had a new VP join the organization, the company created a new program, and an unexpected leadership change. These were moments in time where my hustle met opportunities, which resulted in dream jobs for me. Expect and embrace change to seize the opportunities at hand.
Collect Skills, Not Titles
Consider these 2 statements, and see if you can tell the difference:
- In 5 years, I want to be a ______________.
- In 5 years, I want to be able to do _____________.
When I first entered the Corporate world, I was set on becoming a sales manager and that was my goal. Through the guidance of all my incredible mentors, I was able to change my outlook on my career path and decided to seek opportunities based on a new goal of learning new skills. The way this played out in my career journey was:
Started in a sales role -> transitioned into a sales operations role -> then got back into sales -> ventured into a sales enablement role -> built programs from the ground up -> now I am in a strategic program management role in sales.
Through all of these dynamic experiences, I developed new “muscles”, gained new knowledge, widened my worldview, expanded my network, and became a jack of many trades. What’s next? I don’t know what it is yet but I know it will be something that stretches me to be the best version of myself.
What Are You Waiting For? Dive In!
The best way to demonstrate that you can do something is to do it. You don’t need the title of a manager to be a leader. I am a leader because that’s who I am, not because someone told me to be. Don’t wait for an invitation to show the world who you are, just dive in and be you!
Not sure where to start? I have a hint for you.This is a place overflowing with opportunities to lead, be creative, make a difference, meet like-minded people, and have fun. Did you guess it? It’s the Employee Resource Group! Get started by joining or volunteering to serve as a leader of an employee resource group that best aligns with your passion & interests.
When I first entered the Corporate world, I didn’t know a thing about professional skills such as networking, mentorships, or personal brand. I am grateful for the opportunity to learn these skills through various programs provided by the employee resource groups. Until one day, I decided it’s time for me to dive in deeper and give back by serving as a leader in various groups. Beyond the “cube”:
- Led the first Career Development Program for early-in-career sales professionals at the Plano office
- Serve as the Plano site leader and advisory committee for the Women’s Networks Group
- Co-founded the Toastmaster chapter at the Plano office, served as the President of the past 2 years, now starting a new role as an Area Director
- Mentor to local university students and early-in-career professionals
I know, this is a classic MO of an overachiever. I just can’t help it though; this is who I am and these “beyond the cube” engagements fill me with inspiration, motivation and joy! When you do what you love, it’s not work anymore, it’s fuel that keeps you going.
It’s All About the People
Most importantly, none of this is possible without the resilient support of my family members, friends, mentors, sponsors, peers, and amazing leaders. Your career journey is not meant to be traveled alone. Good company along the way who can point you in the right direction, keep you accountable to your goals, encourage you when you want to throw the towel in, or just “seat” with you as you regain your strength is the most important part of your journey. I am sincerely grateful for the countless individuals who joined my journey along the way. I know I wouldn’t be here without all of you and I will give back to help others.
The key to beginning and maintaining fruitful relationships is for you to be authentically you. Not who you wish you could be, not who someone wants you to be, but just you being unapologetically you. When you put your true self out there, the most amazing humans will emerge onto your path. When you find these kindred spirits, hang on to them and cherish them. Life is more fun when you can share with the humans who accept you just the way you are because my friend, you are enough.
Today, I choose to continue my career journey at Palo Alto Networks for the same reasons I joined the company plus one more; our company culture that thrives on the passion, creativity & dedication of the people. I am proud to be a part of the Palo Alto Networks family where anything is possible together!
Positioned for Growth
As a person who has both experienced internal mobility within Palo Alto Networks and helped facilitate such mobility for others, I can certainly speak to the incredible career opportunities and potential for growth within this company.
I joined Palo Alto Networks in 2012, which, considering our explosive growth in recent years, it was a very different organization. I was recruited from a prior sales rep that I worked with at a prior organization. I joined as a Channel Account Manager in NYC. The role of the Channel Manager is to work with our partner community to drive the alignment, enablement, and demand generation so that we drive 2 critical business drivers, pipeline and bookings.
When I first started in that role, Palo Alto Networks was a fairly young company without a highly developed business strategy for working with strategic partners. With my 10 years of professional experience in sales and marketing, specifically in channel account development, I was able to contribute. I aligned and collaborated with many but my focus was to align and understand how I can partner with the District Sales Manager and Systems Engineering Manager. We built out a shortlist of partners that we would focus our efforts on and build out a strategic plan. We aligned on what our goals would be and how we would drive the business and understood what cadence would be required. We had many ideas over time and sales plays that worked and some that didn’t not but we quickly pivoted and drove the focus partner bookings to a point where it was 80% of our overall bookings.
Fortunately, as the company grew and expanded its channel business, I was well-positioned and understood how to drive an effective operating rhythm, having done this already on a smaller scale, to expand my role and bring that expertise to the entire East Coast region while also leading a team of Channel Business Managers, as the new Manager for Channel Sales East.
Then in 2019, the business had grown to another critical point where my responsibilities grew as well and I moved once again — in my new position of Director of Americas Regional Channel Business, the scope of my work extends throughout the U.S., as well as Canada and LATAM.
I have always aspired to get to a point in my career where I could make more strategic decisions and develop and structure my own team, and now I’m fortunate to be in that position. People are what matter and building a solid team is critical to anyone’s success. We have been extremely fortunate to hire the best of the best Channel players. My team has helped me grow into the person I am today. I have learned a number of skills on how to continue to remove obstacles so that our teams can win at the point of attack. Those skills include continued collaboration, decision-making, conflict-resolution, and delegation skills.
I credit that in part to luck, as well as to my enthusiasm for the work and for contributing ideas and energy to help grow the business, which I think positioned me well for promotions when new opportunities arose. Also crucial in my success, though, have been my managers, who have offered me the chance to contribute ideas, trusted my experience, and presented me with opportunities to advance. Rather than reinforcing a hierarchical structure and insisting I remained in a position where I was doing predictably well, the leaders at this company wanted me — and all employees — to experience career growth, to continue learning and advancing my knowledge, responsibilities, and earning power. That’s a benefit not often found at other companies.
Now that I’m overseeing a large team of people, I’m in a position to do that for others. While I do hire new employees into our Channel Business organization, I also am constantly looking for opportunities to advance existing employees into new positions of responsibility, if they are talented and eager to learn. With the amount of growth happening at this company right now, if someone really wanted to move into a different role, even a management position, it’s absolutely possible.
A while back, one of our VPs told me that before a role is even open, you should be looking for ways to promote yourself and act as if you’re already interviewing for the job. You do that in how you carry yourself, how you respond to challenges and seek out learning opportunities. Then when the role does open up, like what happened with me, it becomes a no-brainer that the person to fill that job is you. You are essentially writing your own RFP.
So my advice — to anyone either within Palo Alto Networks who might be looking to move into a new position or to someone who might be wondering whether this company is for them and is looking for a place with advancement opportunities — is to stay persistent. Once you figure out what you want to do or where you want to be, put yourself out there, and embrace the challenges. Challenge is what changes us and you as a person. Reach out to people in the organization and ask if you can pick their brains or even shadow them. Seek opportunities to take on new responsibilities and projects just so you can learn from them. Get involved in groups that get you interacting with new people. Put yourself in the driver’s seat of your own career, and you just might wind up exactly where you want to be.
Career Elevation Starts with a Conversation
In my role as Project Manager for Palo Alto Networks’ People Team, I assist with guiding a number of employee initiatives, including corporate responsibility and rollout of Reflektive, but I’m chiefly responsible for our Performance Elevation initiative. Through this program, I am deeply involved in helping our employees chart their own career paths, by overseeing a program that encourages them to set and achieve goals and take advantage of personal and professional development opportunities.
Additionally, as an employee who joined Palo Alto Networks as an intern and has experienced my own considerable career growth since joining this company, I have seen firsthand the opportunities available here to learn and grow in your career. In my case, my internal mobility into my current position began with a simple conversation.
I joined Palo Alto Networks as an intern in our Talent Acquisition department, which deals with new employee recruitment. I was fortunate that the company was incredibly flexible and willing to let me work part-time as I completed my college classes. And when I graduated in 2018, my enthusiasm for this company, the work, and learning all I could about the business helped me to earn a full-time position in Talent Acquisition Operations.
After about a year, I got to thinking about what next step I might like to take in my career. Project management appealed to me. Rather than being task-oriented, it would enable me to see the big picture, work with different people and teams to accomplish milestones, and enjoy the fact that every day would bring something new. It was a skill set I knew would be valuable throughout my career and give me great visibility among high-level executives.
So I took the first step and contacted someone on our People Team and expressed my interest in project management and in developing skills such as public speaking and leadership. Then I asked if I might have the opportunity, pending my manager’s approval, to shadow one of the People Team’s project managers to see whether this was a role I really wanted to pursue.
Without hesitation, they agreed, and my manager was completely supportive of this idea. So when the department was later reorganized and the Project Manager role on the People Team became open, I was fortunately positioned to take it on, which I did in 2019.
I suppose you could say I was lucky to be in the right place at the right time. But I’d also carved out that path for myself, and with the incredible support I received from both my original and new managers, I landed right where I wanted to be.
In my role as Project Manager, I primarily oversee Performance Elevation, which involves leading weekly meetings of a cross-functional core team of about 20-25 people. My job is to manage the project plan, obtain status updates, ensure we’re meeting deliverables, determine our resources, and communicate with the executive team or stakeholders about how the project is going.
Since taking on this role, my leadership and confidence have grown so much. I used to be so nervous, I would never have been able to lead a meeting without sweating, but now I do this every week! I’m able to voice my opinions with confidence, work with a wide range of people, and steer them in the right direction. My overall comfort with leadership and my ability to accept new challenges are certainly due to my project management position.
I’m able to say, both from my own personal experience and from leading Performance Elevation, that Palo Alto Networks is a company where career growth is completely employee driven. I know it can feel intimidating to approach a manager about wanting to move into a new role, and in some businesses, a manager might even treat such a conversation with contempt. But here, there’s an overwhelming amount of support for employees to grow and take on the positions that best suit their talents and interests.
My advice to anyone who’s interested in taking the next step in their career or who is concerned about whether this company offers growth opportunities is to be clear and transparent. I’m so glad I spoke up and expressed my desire to move into project management — that conversation led me to where I am today. I think the key is focusing on where you want to be, enthusiastically taking on learning opportunities and new responsibilities, and talking to people. At this company, I’ve seen that people are more than willing to sit down and talk to you about what they do, so reach out and ask questions! Pick people’s brains. Ask about job shadowing or whether you can do informational interviews. Focus on where you want to go, not what you want to leave behind. Ultimately, when you’re doing the work you want to do, you’re more likely to give it your all and bring value, which benefits both yourself and the company too.
Drawn to the Data: My Internal Mobility Story
When I began attending Xavier University in Ohio, my interest in math prompted me to earn a bachelor’s degree in finance. I had no idea when I began the program that I would end up actively seeking out a data analytics role at a cybersecurity firm, but it’s a position I’m really happy to have.
About halfway through my degree program, I discovered that “analytics” was becoming an important buzzword among businesses, who were discovering the usefulness of collecting numerical data about customers (or potential customers). I realized this was something that interested me. I was fortunate enough to be offered a Sales Operations internship and began to really see glimpses of how analytical data could offer insights into customer behavior and help with developing sales strategies.
I interned for two summers with Palo Alto Networks while I was still in college, and I thoroughly enjoyed my time. I made it clear that I was interested in a full-time position with Palo Alto Networks upon graduation, and I was really glad to be offered a position as an Associate Sales Operations Analyst role. After a little more than a year, I transitioned to a Sales Intelligence Analyst position.
When I was performing analytical work for the Sales team, I was able to do a small amount of work with Einstein Analytics, a cloud-based analytical tool from Salesforce that helps teams visualize data and gain insights for business. I became extremely interested in how Einstein users could strategically incorporate this data into their decision-making about how a company operates. I realized that of all tasks I was responsible for in my Sales Intelligence role, what I enjoyed most was the reporting and analytics using Einstein, and I was ready to do it full time, in a more strategic role with the company’s security services organization.
Fortunately, Palo Alto Networks is a company that supports internal mobility — employees are encouraged to pursue roles they’re interested in because its leaders understand that people do their best work when they’re passionate about what they do. When the Business Operations Analyst position became available, I approached my manager to let him know I was interested. Rather than responding in a negative way about my leaving his team, he was nothing but supportive of my goal and the opportunity to expand my knowledge of analytics, so I applied for the job. It turned out that the hiring manager for the available position was also enthusiastic about my moving to his team, so I was offered the position and officially began this job in December 2019.
Now, a year and a half later, I couldn’t be happier. I now get to be involved in the inner workings of the Strata network security suite. Rather than doing general analytics for the global business, I’m getting more hands-on with this specific aspect of the business, which I really love.
I also enjoy that this company offers lots of opportunities to expand my career, whether it’s learning a new tool or taking on a project that may not necessarily have been my scope previously, all to give me the chance to learn new things and broaden my knowledge of the business. Looking ahead, I hope to continue growing in my understanding of data and how to present it so that others can formulate recommendations and make strategic decisions.
One important factor that has led to my sticking with this company for five years is the company culture — every team I’ve worked with has included coworkers who are not only supportive colleagues but also friends. There is a culture here of wanting others to succeed and stepping in to offer insights or even just a pat on the back, and that’s been really meaningful to me as someone who’s still in the beginning stages of his career.
Whether or not you already work for Palo Alto Networks, I can wholeheartedly say that this company is like a big family where everyone has your back. The leaders here really want you to succeed, even if that means you eventually move into a new job or department. As long as you have the best interests of the company in mind and are ready to work hard, you can find opportunities to learn and grow here.
Changing Lanes: How I transitioned unexpectedly from one career path toward another.
By Luiza Klaus, Corporate Systems Engineer II
With my bachelor’s degree in marketing and a couple years’ worth of professional experience in marketing and consumer relations, a position in sales seemed like a great fit. But for me, that all changed after one phone call.
When I joined Palo Alto Networks in 2018, it was as a Business Development Representative (BDR). As part of this job, I needed to cold-call customers to talk about how our solutions could address their needs and bring value to their businesses. It’s a competitive role, which is a situation I thrive in, and I really enjoyed that job. In fact, I got so caught up in getting ahead and doing so well that within just a few months I was ready for the next challenge.
I started thinking about career advancement, and the next logical step from BDR was a Corporate Sales Representative (CSR) position. Typically, if I encountered a potential corporate customer, I would then turn the business over to a CSR. So I decided that if I wanted to move ahead career-wise, it would be a good idea to start listening in on those calls. And one day I did.
On this particular call, the CSR worked with a Systems Engineer (SE) to talk to the customer. The CSR addressed the business aspects of the conversation, whereas the SE dealt in more technical terms. That SE would demonstrate the products and talk specifics about the technology involved in our products and how they could address the customer’s needs. During that call, the SE was explaining the details of a product I’d never heard about before. I grew excited about the product and the interactions they were having — the customer fully relied on the SE to explain its nuances. Unexpectedly, I felt more drawn to what the SE was doing.
I decided I wanted to figure out a way to transition into an SE position. How could I make this happen? I remembered a prior experience with my previous employer, when I’d expressed interest in moving into a different role within the company. I was instantly met with negativity from my manager – I hadn’t been there long enough, I was needed in his department and not elsewhere, I had to earn my stripes before I moved to another department, etc. But I also believed that things happen for a reason, and I knew I had to at least try. Plus, if I was going to invest the time and effort into becoming an engineer, I should start as soon as possible.
Fortunately, my manager at the time had always been helpful and approachable, and the culture has been one that is supportive of internal mobility. So I went for it! I explained to him that I was really interested in a Systems Engineer position, but that I’d earned a degree in marketing and had no real technical background. I asked for his thoughts on what it would take for me to make that transition.
He responded just as I’d hoped. He was not only positive and supportive, but he encouraged me to talk to the SE manager about it.
I reached out to the SE manager to ask what steps I should take to become an SE. He was happy to help by putting together a list of steps. That list, which he emailed me several weeks later, became my unofficial SE training program. I was becoming a guinea pig by trying something that had never been done before at Palo Alto Networks!
I completed all the steps in about seven months because I was so interested in what I was doing. I loved every bit of the process. When I wasn’t working in my BDR role or when I had any downtime at all, I was studying my SE materials or accomplishing a new phase of training. Every week, I met with the SE manager to update him on my progress and address any questions I had about the content.
When I was finished, an SE role became available. I threw my hat in the ring, interviewed, and was thrilled to be offered the job in February 2019! Additionally, because of the success of the training program my former manager had developed for me, I was given the opportunity to share my feedback and work with him to create a standardized two-year Systems Engineering Academy, which recently became an official part of LEAP, the company’s early-in-career training program.
Now that I’m in my current SE role, I know I absolutely made the right decision to pursue this career. This doesn’t even feel like work to me — I’m having so much fun with my customers and my team. This is everything I could have ever wanted, and although I am always looking forward to new challenges and ways to advance my skills, I know that I want to remain in the Systems Engineering realm no matter what. There’s truly nowhere else I could see myself than right here with Palo Alto Networks.
What this experience has shown me is that it’s important to take that first step and ask for what you want. The worst that can happen is that someone tells you no — but at Palo Alto Networks, that’s unlikely to happen. I’ve seen other colleagues of mine make moves to other positions within the company in similar ways. As long as you are honest and have good intentions for your team and the company, the best approach is a direct one. I would also recommend really talking to people about what you’re interested in and asking lots of questions. Do your research to be sure this is really what you want, and to demonstrate that you’re willing to put in the work. If you do that, chances are great that you’ll end up where you’re meant to be.
LEAP of Faith: Palo Alto Networks offers a just-right place for early-in-career talent to get started.
When I was in high school, I actually was aiming to go to medical school and become a pediatrician. The patient-interaction aspect of that career appealed to me, but its challenges didn’t really become clear to me until my mother and I became caretakers for my grandmother, who suffered and eventually died from ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease). It made me realize the emotional toll a career in medicine might take on me, and I had to face the fact that I just wasn’t cut out for that career path. But I couldn’t have imagined then that I would go on to become a systems engineer with Palo Alto Networks.
Having grown up in a family of tech professionals — both my parents work in IT and my sister studied computer science — it made sense for me to obtain a computer science degree, which I did, at the University of Colorado Boulder. What I would do with that degree, I didn’t yet know. In my mind, this would lead to a career as a web developer, and I wasn’t really interested in writing code all day long.
I was fortunate while in college to be accepted into CU Boulder’s BOLD (Broadening Opportunity through Leadership and Diversity) program. Among other things, BOLD supports students from diverse, underrepresented backgrounds by providing access to scholarships, internships, job opportunities, and career development. This program helped me learn more about the career options a computer science degree might lead me to, and I realized that I didn’t necessarily have to go down a development path.
In my last year of college, I found an internship in Professional Services with Palo Alto Networks. This team works with enterprises to help them deploy, configure, and manage operations of cybersecurity products and services.
Though the role, which was quite advanced for me, didn’t seem like a perfect fit, I learned a tremendous amount and felt very positive about the company. When my internship was over, I did not go on to work full time in that department, but I left having talked to several people about my interest in returning at some point if a position elsewhere within the company opened up. By the time I graduated college, I knew I wanted to work in cybersecurity in some capacity.
Before long, I discovered an opportunity with Palo Alto Networks’ Systems Engineering (SE) Academy, a division of its LEAP Academy program for early-in-career graduates. I reached out to my previous connections at the company to express my interest and find out more, and several months later, after interviewing, I was offered a position in the next SE Academy cohort in Plano, Texas beginning in August 2020!
Laying a Career Foundation
The goal of the SE Academy — and the LEAP Program in general — is to provide a sort of intermediary work experience that sits somewhere between internship and full-fledged professional. The LEAP Program is really tailored to the exact stage of life we’re in. We’re never really trained in what it’s like to start a career — that there are things we’re going to need to know. You just have to learn by doing. In a lot of ways, the SE Academy has been a godsend to me, because in this role, I get to work full time as an Associate Systems Engineer while also being granted the time and space to learn under the direction of seasoned professionals. We’re not expected to know everything, but we can build on our knowledge and gradually take on more responsibility.
LEAP participants are offered workshops on things like what a 401K is or how stock plans work … as well as some life skills that we might otherwise be too shy to ask about. We’re invited to speaker series, where we learn from others’ experiences and are offered their contact information, so we can follow up with questions and further development. My involvement in LEAP has led me to opportunities I didn’t even know existed.
Even as an intern, I was impressed by the Palo Alto Networks team — its collaborative nature and demonstrated commitment to diversity and inclusion. It’s evident throughout the company, and I’m part of many Employee Network Groups (ENGs) dedicated to groups such as women, early-in-career professionals, those of Asian descent, and many more. The steps made toward inclusion and diversity here I haven’t seen before in any other place I’ve worked.
Before the SE Academy, I really didn’t know what a Systems Engineer did, so joining was a “leap” of faith. I discovered that SEs are involved in the presales process; we work with sales representatives to talk to prospective customers, and the SE speaks from the engineering side, demonstrating the product and explaining some of the technical aspects about how it works. It’s actually perfect for me: I’m dealing with the technical details that I enjoy, but I’m interacting with customers and others across the company, which is also something I really like. This is a role I never knew existed in college, but it’s really the sweet spot I was looking for, and I hope that after my two years with the SE Academy are completed, I’ll have the chance to stay long-term and grow my career with Palo Alto Networks.
The Right Fit
In 2017, as I was heading into the last year of my bachelor’s program in computer systems engineering at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, I was given the opportunity to do a three-month summer internship with Palo Alto Networks. In my program, the curriculum actually focused on both hardware and software, providing graduates with a more well-rounded education. But my interest had mostly been in software. However, when Palo Alto Networks approached me about an internship with the Hardware Engineering team, I decided to take it. I thought this would be a great experience that would expand on my academic training. Plus, I knew this was a great company to work for and this would help me get my foot in the door.
In this role, I worked hands-on with circuit boards — testing, analyzing, and reporting signal integrity issues. It was a good experience with an amazing team, but about halfway through the internship, I realized hardware wasn’t really for me. I spoke to my managers about it and explained that I was feeling more drawn to software engineering. It couldn’t have been a better experience. They not only understood, but they worked quickly to transition the remainder of my internship from hardware testing to automating a lot of their testing platform. So I was able to write up a lot of the infrastructure for testing the circuit boards, which gave me a chance to work more with software. We began having discussions about what a full-time role might look like for me — the Hardware Engineering team seemed excited to keep me at the company, but I was also very clear that I wasn’t looking for a full-time hardware role.
The internship went so well that as I was approaching the end, my manager connected me to the Director of the VM Series team and put in a good word for me. I was invited to interview for a software engineering position, and soon after my senior year began, I was offered a position!
Perhaps it’s unusual at some companies to speak that openly about a desire to switch roles or departments, but from what I’ve heard from others and experienced myself at Palo Alto Networks, its leaders are really open to having those conversations and helping you find the right fit. It may not happen in an instant, but if you approach your manager and are open and honest about your intentions, they seem very open and willing to help make it happen.
I also believe it’s important to branch outside your team and discover what’s happening elsewhere in the company. For me, as a recent intern in the first “real” job of my career,I found the Early in Career employee network group hugely helpful because it allowed me to meet new graduates as well as longtime employees who were willing to share their insights and experiences with me. This helped me to fully understand what work the company was doing and what areas most appealed to me.
I think a lot of people come into their jobs not fully understanding what those jobs entail or where they’d like to end up. But once you have that understanding, communicate that with your manager — it benefits them and the company as a whole to have people using their strengths in areas that they love. The amount and quality of work people do correlates to the amount of passion they have for it, so there’s a benefit to encouraging people to follow their interests.
My current manager and my director are both incredible people who genuinely look out for their employees and want what’s best for us, so I’d feel very comfortable talking to them about anything — including any possible changes I might want to make in the future. I think every employee has the right to explore different career opportunities, and speaking from my experience, Palo Alto Networks does an incredible job of putting people in the right positions to succeed.
An Unexpected Detour
A lot of us go into our careers with a plan for where we want to go and how we’re going to get there. But sometimes we’re presented with opportunities we never planned for and discover we’re right where we want to be.
I started my career in the United States Marine Corps, where I held several positions, including roles that involved network and systems administration, telecommunications, network builds, upgrades, migrations, and more. I enjoyed that so much that I enrolled in an associate degree program in enterprise networking at Foothill College in California.
During that time in 2017-2018, I also participated in a program called Year Up, a nonprofit technical training and career development program that works with corporate partners to help young adults ages 18-24 get a head start on their careers. For my program year, Palo Alto Networks was the corporate sponsor. Because of my background and degree program, I was fortunate to be offered a six-month internship as a Desktop Support Specialist. As someone with no prior professional experience, I truly appreciated the learning I was able to do during my internship, and I worked with an amazing team. However, I still had a passion for routers and switches, for how networks are designed and built, so I was still focused on a career as a network engineer. During my internship, I made that desire well known to my manager.
In the last few months of the internship, I was placed in a rotation with the Corporate Systems Engineering team. SEs here are an integral part of the sales team, helping to convey technical information to potential customers and devising security solutions that address their needs. This experience helped not only to provide me with a wealth of knowledge about Palo Alto Networks’ products and sales, but also to connect me with a number of people from departments across the organization.
When I finished my internship in July 2018, I received a full-time offer to continue working as a Desktop Support Specialist. I knew this was a great opportunity I couldn’t pass up and I accepted right away, knowing I had a lot more to learn but also making it known what my ultimate career goal was. By August of that year, I was a full-time employee. I felt blessed to have been given this chance.
In this role, I was collaborating with a couple of network engineers in the company, and one of them unofficially became a sort of mentor to me. I confided to him that I was interested in eventually moving into the same sort of role, and he suggested that if that was truly my goal, I should gain a bit more knowledge in Palo Alto Networks’ firewalls, which was how the company implemented its network. I realized he was right — although I’d had a few courses on that at school but nothing substantial.
I reached out to the team lead in Corporate Systems Engineering whom I’d worked with during my internship SE rotation and learned that, coincidentally, they had an opening for a Systems Engineer. “I know you’re still interested in becoming a Network Engineer,” he told me, “but I think this would be a great way to learn more about our products on a daily basis.” I accepted his offer and in June 2019, I became a full-time Systems Engineer.
My plan was to perform this role for a while until I could eventually work my way into a Network Engineer position. But once I began working as an SE, I absolutely fell in love with it. I love sales, I love working with customers to help them find the right solutions and close those security gaps they have in their environments. Helping to steer them in the right direction to improve their security posture is so satisfying. I’m learning new concepts every day; it’s never boring, and no two days are the same. Sure, it can be stressful at times, but it’s well worth it. In this role there is immediate gratification in solving problems. I’m developing public speaking skills, strengthening my customer service abilities, and contributing to the important sales work taking place in the organization.
I’m so thankful to have worked with managers that were fully supportive of my desire to pursue my chosen career and willing to do whatever it took to help me get there, even if it meant leaving their teams. They weren’t going to let that stop me from being successful, and they never stopped encouraging my growth, wherever that happened to lead me. That openness on their part, combined with my openness to taking an unexpected detour on the road to my goal were what led me to a position I’m really happy in today.
Since starting this role, my goal has changed from becoming a Network Engineer to moving up within Systems Engineering to eventually work on named, major, or global accounts or even become a consulting engineer. If you’d asked me a year ago whether I’d even consider these fields, I would have said no. That’s why I’m a firm believer now in trying everything — new roles, new experiences, new foods. You just don’t know what you’re going to fall in love with.
Carving My Own Career Path with Internal Mobility
I’m not sure anyone wakes up and says, “I want to be a software salesperson!” But as I started thinking about what career would be a good fit for me, I looked at my strengths and interests. I had always been passionate about and good with technology. But I was also outgoing, which was different from the more introverted personality often associated with those in technology careers. Drawing on those strengths and interests, I decided to earn a dual degree in information systems and business so that I could merge the technical side of myself with my natural ability for communicating technical information to others clearly and effectively. I was fortunate to join Palo Alto Networks in 2019 as a Major Accounts Manager — a job where I could do the work I love every day to provide security solutions for our customers.
My role involved overseeing a portfolio of retail accounts while also keeping my thumb on operational technology and heavy industry. But as the months went on, I could see an opportunity presenting itself to develop a whole new aspect of the business. One multinational business that appeared on my radar was a tremendous opportunity that started to present itself in our business dealings. At that time, though my Systems Engineers and I made for a strong, effective team, we simply couldn’t put in the time and effort to cover an organization of that size and scale — yet I had a growing desire to do so.
I’m notorious for taking on far too much. I can’t help myself, I love being busy and taking on new projects and responsibilities. So when I saw an opportunity to develop this new area of business for Palo Alto Networks, I naturally dove in head first. While I continued selling our solutions to our regular retail customers, I also began trying to formulate a strategic approach to this multinational company’s business.
I never set out to become a Global Client Lead, but it began making sense as the months went on. I began getting more and more into the planning side of going into the global market and increasingly realised I really enjoyed running large, global, strategic accounts. I reflected back on my career and could see that when given those opportunities in my work, that was when I was happiest and did my best work.
I started having conversations with my leaders, suggesting that we double down on this opportunity — whether it was with me or somebody else — because the opportunities were too great to ignore. I think it was the easiest conversation I’ve had in my career. In my positions at other organisations, when I’ve wanted to move to a different role, I’ve found that, politically, it’s been quite hard to have those conversations. But first of all, this conversation was the right thing for the company, which was my approach — whether or not it was me heading up this effort, this was something I believed the company needed to be doing. Obviously, I wanted it to be me, but I would have understood if it wasn’t; it was the right thing to do, regardless. Yet our leadership was really supportive from the start.
Once those conversations began happening, I began calling out to others within the organisation, asking for resources and people to help work on that account, and we started looking to restructure and move into global accounts work. And as we solidly moved into fiscal year 2021, my new role became more formalised. It became obvious right away that this was going to be a full-time job and that juggling 15 other accounts was not going to be possible.
That meant I was leaving a gap where someone else would have to fill the role I was leaving behind, and in some organisations that’s a roadblock to internal mobility. Yet the managers at Palo Alto Network believe, wisely, that the pros outweigh the cons. Not only was this new aspect of our business going to add value, but when people are truly performing the right jobs, doing something they’re passionate about and is a strength, that’s when they do their best work, and the business benefits from that.
In addition to advocating for my new professional role, I also recently identified a gap in the corporate responsibility work in the Australia-New Zealand region, particularly around volunteer work. I saw an opportunity to structure that better and get more involvement across our countries to make a greater impact. Though it’s outside my official job duties, I followed my passion for giving back to my community by setting up a strong new Corporate Responsibility program, which helps the organisation with its recruitment efforts, a really important component in the ANZ region, and it boosts morale, which is essential to our success. It also has helped me to make many new, valuable professional connections and build skills that are useful in any role. Again, in those efforts, I have received the full support of my managers, who knew that not only was it something I felt very strongly about, but it was simply the right thing to do.
When I was young, someone gave me a great piece of advice that I’ve ever forgotten: Don’t let anyone make decisions for you about your career. You must communicate your interests, take the reins, and make purposeful decisions to get where you want to be. If you express what you want with confidence and purpose, and build the business case just as you would when selling our solutions to customers, I have found that people want to help you get there.