3 reasons I joined IBM

The last 12-15 months have been very challenging.

Like many of my former Return Path colleagues, lots of things changed when the company was acquired in May 2019, sparking an unforeseen and unwanted job search for many.

Return Path was special, there are no two ways about it, and having not planned a career move I wasn't sure what I wanted to do or what type of organisation I was searching for, but working for a giant corporation wasn't really at the top of that list.

I'd worked for big companies previously and the culture and overall experience wasn't positive, so my main priority was applying to smaller businesses with high levels of transparency where I could have a broader impact.

At the same time, I was intrigued to see if I could make it into a top-tier technology company.

On reflection, it was probably a mixture of pride and hurt that drove me to explore this route. 

As a university dropout, my career has not been straightforward. I have interviewed for and been overlooked many roles purely because I started, and then subsequently failed to complete, a degree. (A personal favourite interview rejection was for a truly dreadful auditing role with a budget frozen food distributor in the West Midlands - it's a good story....). As a result, I was interested to see if, at the very least, it was possible to secure an interview with a major brand. 

As I wasn't entirely convinced about working for a big company, I applied to just three: Microsoft, Google and IBM.

Like many individuals early (ish) in their careers, I didn't have a magical blue-chip network to draw upon, so I simply went onto each website, flung my CV into cyber space, and hoped for the best.

There wasn't really any criteria used to select just those three companies, my gut just told me they would be the toughest to get an offer from. This was predominantly because my background as a marketing/CRM software salesperson wasn't particularly relevant, but also because I was a university dropout (although I was studying for a sales management degree at the time), and these types of companies don't generally hire dropouts (or many individuals without a degree).

From both Google and Microsoft I heard nothing, even after reaching out several times to the internal recruitment teams directly, but out of nowhere I received an email from a HR Manager at IBM inviting me to an interview the following day.

In truth, I had barely understood the IBM job description, which I think was part of the allure.

The job title sounded like a sales role (all good so far), and then included talk of 'cyber resiliency', 'network transformation', and something called a 'journey to cloud'.

If you speak to my friends and colleagues they will tell you I enjoy both journeys and clouds, and overall it sounded interesting, but it was also far more technically challenging than anything I'd come across before.

Two weeks later, after a surprisingly swift interview process, I accepted the role. Hurrah!

I didn't accept the role because it was IBM, a giant corporation and global brand, but for these 3 reasons:

1) Humility - there are many intangible aspects that you get a 'feel' for when you interview at a company that you can't quite put your finger on. At IBM, unlike many other technology or consulting companies that I have worked for or interviewed with, I had a strong feeling the people at IBM were humble.

To me, IBM felt understated, more mature than my previous workplaces, and this was unexpected. Maybe it was the interview process, maybe it was watching and listening to colleagues chatting in reception or in the canteen over a coffee, I'm not sure. But I liked it, and knew I'd enjoy working with people with a similar mindset.

2) Management - I thought my manager was intelligent, certainly someone I could learn from, but more importantly a good human being that wanted me to do well. That last element may sound like a small thing, but as I'm sure many of you can relate to, finding a manager who really wants the best for you is hard. In sales, it's even harder, as you can often be seen as 'just a number', however harsh that might sound.

On top of this, although my background was unorthodox (I had zero experience in the area I was being hired for) this was actually viewed as a positive, bringing fresh impetus and new skills to the team. My feedback would be valuable, and as someone who wants to make an impact at work, this was a huge plus.

3) Learning - as mentioned, the job role made very little sense to me at the time. I even ran it past several colleagues and managers at Return Path before the interview to prepare more effectively (I still remember the quizzical looks as if to say 'How can you do this job if you can't even understand the job description?'). Whilst I managed to get a lot of clarity throughout the interview process, it was an eye opening experience.

With several years of sales experience under my belt plus 3 years specifically selling software, I thought I had a pretty good grasp on the IT landscape. The interview process showed me how little I knew, that I had barely scraped the surface of enterprise IT, and would have a huge amount to learn. It was the learning opportunity in the end that was just too good to pass up!

That's the end of this article - I hope you enjoyed it! I'd love to hear your feedback, comments, weird and wonderful interview stories, or why you took your last role! :)

Next week I'll be examining the 3 things I've learnt since joining IBM 12 months ago, followed by a bi-weekly series of sales-specific insights from my sales management studies last year.

Cheers!

Paul