Remotely Su

FlexJobs

Lately, a lot of posts on LinkedIn have been giving tips on Job listing sites. And one that is ALWAYS mentioned, is FlexJobs.

On the downside, it’s a paid. It costed 75 USD for a year subscription. Just an one time payment. Converting to BR$ it did cost a bit much.

But… It offers a lot, so I decided to tale advantage of what it got.

Networking

It doesn’t really offer much for networking, like LinkedIn. You have more access to the job descriptions. And some information (not much) about the company… After that is up to you to go after what you want to know.

Profile

You can set up your profile with every course, work experience you have. And you don’t have to attain to just one. You can create several resumes, and choose with which one you want to apply for the position. But that, seemed to me not much of a positive point, because…

Job Application

It’s not possible to apply to any position directly from the platform. They have a button for you to apply, but this button just takes you to the Company Website where you can apply directly.

Interaction with the post

Above you can see some of the interactions you can have with the Job post. The Apply Button as I said before. The Save, so you can apply later. You can leave your personal notes (only for you, your notes are not public), and last but not least… You can report the Job if there’s something wrong with this posting. Bellow there are the reasons you can report a job posting:

Webinars

This is one of the coolest features FlexJobs has! They have several Webinars about a variety of subjects touching aspects like Resume Building, Transferable Skills, Remote Working… And in this webinars, in my opinion, are your stronger possibility of networking. Because they are open for comments and you can leave questions that might be answered in the Q&A part of the Webinar. And a lot of people (like myself) use the chat during the webinar to share your LinkedIn, website, what they are looking for. It’s a great connection opportunity.

My conclusions

FlexJobs is a great Job posting site. But knowing what I know now, I would not get the yearly subscription. Maybe 3 months. There are a lot of other sites where you can find several positions, you don’t have to fill out your information because they leave quite clear that they will redirect you to the Company’s website… And they are free. Of course, I will enjoy my best the current subscription attending to webinars and making the best of Networking I can. But other sites are just as good, for example Remotive.

Sincerely remote,

The Lookalike

By looking at my background (Bachelor in Chemical Engineering, Years in Energy industry, Selling Chemicals…) You might wonder… What this person can bring to a Tech Company? And I’m here to tell you: There are much more similarities than you might think.

Chemicals are not the all the same

When you think about Chemical products, you might consider those lab reagents, Acids, base, some weird type of salt… And you are not wrong. But you are looking at the wrong side. You are looking at the Commodity type of chemicals. Chemicals that are all the same. The concentration might vary, but at the core, a sodium hydroxide is a sodium hydroxide. But that is not the kind of Chemicals I’ve spent a long time working with.

Specialty Chemicals

Specialty Chemicals are compounds or a mix of compounds tailor made to attend the customer needs in the customer environment.

To understand what is the best for them, we need to best understand what the customer needs to be solved, how it must be solved, what are the surrounding concerns. Build a trust relationship with the customer where not only they trust us to ease them into a solution, but they trust we will give them the necessary support.

I need to be in touch with the The Lab (Developers Team), to understand exactly what we can offer with the technology we have so far. And most important, what are the advances we can hope to see in the future. I need to know the time line of new features they are working with, so I can prepare the customer, or the prospects on what can be our next steps!

I’m in touch with the Marketing team, to give them my view of the customer side and what they want to see from us. Giving feedback in what were their responses to other campaigns and what are the changes we can do going further.

Getting the subscription

Getting a sale is great, getting a contract is better, getting a customer is perfect!

We also need to sign contracts with our customer where they “subscribe” to our chemicals. But the work doesn’t end there. I also need to onboard the customer in the new Chemical they are using. Usually going to their facilities or simply following up from afar to troubleshoot any problem they might have and how to best navigate this new addition to their work environment.

Customer Success

After the onboarding is done… We need to assure the customer is happy with our service. Regular meetings to check on the health of our Supplier/Customer relationship, an open communication channel so they can ask for help, someone who can be the focal point and bridge between their needs and our solutions! Those are all me!

Skill set

All of those are just within my work directly with customer. I also have to hunt new prospects, update my CRM with all my interactions new opportunities, negotiate ALL THE TIME, keep a clear and open communication with all the teams I have interface, Manage multidisciplinary projects within the Company… All in a days worth of work in strategic sales

Now tell me… Did you knew so much of Saas looked like working with Chemicals?

Chemically remote, ¹

This post was supposed to be up on Monday, but I had a last minute doctor’s appointment. But now everything is ok, and we’re back to the normal schedule! ↩︎

Weekly Updates #2

If I knew that looking for a job in tech would be this much excitement, maybe I would have started before!

This week I applied to a few Udemy courses that talk a bit more about SaaS sales. And also started actually seen some of the videos that I saved in a Youtube list about remote work in general and Tech Sales.

On Monday I started organizing my job application on Notion. It still have space for improvement, but let me tell you… Looks great! Not only the The company name and Job description are there. But the version of my resume I used, who I contacted from the company, details of the process, interview notes! It’s all there!

If Tuesday was the day I had my first interview, Wednesday I received my first rejection. It was a position I though I was aiming a bit too high. But was still a great opportunity, because is a Startup that’s just starting in Brazil. And I responded to the email highlighting my skills and my interest, creating a channel of communication for them to look for me when they need more people.

I finally found the AngelList, which now is WellFound. Apparently is a job posting every one that looks for a job in Startups knows. I applied to one where I felt like was a better fit, and one where I just shoot my shot with a ready resume… Guess which one answered later that same day? Yeah…

So many Artificial Intelligence startups…

They sent me an email, explaining further about the Company, and how the work would be. And I realized I wasn’t really excited about the job how they presented. So I declined. Thursday another Startup got in touch, and I answered, this time setting up a meeting.

Statistics

Meetings: 6 (slow week)
Applications: 7 (5 I applied and 2 startups came talk to me over Wellfound)
Personal meetings: 0 (home all week)
New Connections: 4 new connections over LinkedIn
Interviews: 1 (there was a request for a Try on in Wellfound but I declined)
LinkedIn SSI (Social Selling Index); 45

Another aspect of looking for a Job outside Brazil is the difference in replying. So many people reply when I reach for a connection outside Brazil! I have several brazilians that left me on read during this week.

This week started fast paced and slowed down after Wednesday… Or maybe I got hyped up and thought it slowed down.

Updating remotely

My first interview – SDR

That’s exactly what you read! I got my first interview since I’ve started looking for a remote position on Tech Sales.

It took me by surprise when I got contacted by the recruiter of a position I applied during the past weekend.

It wasn’t exactly what I had my eyes on when I was thinking of a tech role, but I wouldn’t say no. Specially because it could be a great practice.

The recruiter was really nice in assuring me that this was an Entry position. Since I have a lot of experience in a different field, she wanted to be sure I knew it.

This company wasn’t exactly a SaaS company, but is a company of Outsourcing of Software Development and Consulting. They provide teams for other companies to work on their Software necessities, without the need for the Company to build an entire Devs Team.

Following there’s a list of Highlights (with things I did that worked) and a list of What I need to improve

Highlights

Tailoring the resume for the position, attention to using the same terms of the Job Description (ex: if the job description says customer centric, you don’t say customer focused)
Understand not only the Company, but the competitors
I applied through LinkedIn and got in touch not only with the recruiter but also with the Sales Manager. Personalized messages to both of them.
Use the STAR method to answer questions (Situation, task, action, results)
She gave me some tips on Lead Generating! I appreciated a lot!

Needs to improve

Give at least a day between the contact and the interview (more time to prepare)
When she asked for my intended salary I should have said: I’ve been interviewing for other positions around and stated the salary I was looking for
Should have focused more on the KPI’s I’m evaluated now

Over all was a good experience and practice! I was so nervous, like it was my first interview ever!

One thing that I noticed, was that the mood of the whole process was much more informal than I’m used to in Energy Industry interviews. The responsible for the role set up the schedule on LinkedIn messages, she told me to think about my intent salary and get back at her until the next day… Something like that would not cut in an Oil and Gas Company!

Also she laid out the entire interviewing process for me. Which I’m also not used to…

Over all a great experience! 10/10 would do it again!

Interviewing remotely,

Self fulfilling prophecy…

Sometimes, I wonder how I ended up here in a Sales and Business Development job. And them I remember, “Oh yeah… That day”

I was working in my first job after College, and I was not happy! You see, I was a recent Bachelor in Chemical Engineering. And there I was, buying machine parts and circular saw.

So obviously, I was sending my resume around, and interviewing quite regularly. To be honest, I’m always up for an interview. I like to train my people skills and check how’s the Market.

One of this interviews was for a sales position. I didn’t knew that beforehand. I was talking to the hiring manager, and we were having a good conversation, up until he told me it was a sales position.

I probably let it show in my face that I was not happy, because he promptly asked “that was not what you were expecting, right?”

I was honest. I was happy I was considered for the role… But wasn’t exactly what I was looking for. And then he said something that stuck with me:

You don’t know yet, but you have a future in sales! I can tell by the way you speak

And that guy could have a future as fortune teller

I laughed and said “I think you might be hearing me wrong”

That was 2013, and would you look at that! He was right!

My next job was in an Production Chemicals company. Supplying for an Interntional Oil Company. So you can imagine how happy I was to fulfill my dream of working with Chemicals!

I actually worked Offshore from 2014 until 2018

But the actual true is, that since the beginning I had a string of jobs in which I was the face of my company to the customer.

I was responsible for the management of the customer contract with us, and for finding and developing new Opportunities. I managed the team that worked in the customers facilities. I assured the delivery of our products and build the relationship with the customer.

That means that even when I was disguised as a Chemist and as an Engineer… I was always sales! That guy was right!

Maybe I should have pried more in his precognition…

Predictably remote,

Weekly Updates #1

Even though my work is remote, This week I went personally to visit a client. I feel like at this time where a lot, if not all, of my work can be done from home, a personal 1:1 goes a long way!

On Monday I joined the remote Job platform FlexJobs. Their postings are behind a paywall but they have a lot of positions. I intent to have a more in depth opinion when I bring you my article on FlexJobs. This week I even participated in a seminar about building a Remote Work reume. I’ll tell more in my post about this Job Platform.

Besides Flexjobs, I spent some time looking up another job boards! Let me know if you guys want an overview of them!

Wednesday I had a friendly banter with my boss… That means I sent a 3 pages message about how the process were working against us and it was becoming impossible to defend this dragging. People… I was heard! Few better feelings in a work environment than feeling yourself being understood!

This week apparently was “Legal Week” here! I had so many meetings with Legal, that I’m almost getting my Lawyers Certification! Wanna know more about the Love/Hate relationship between Legal and Sales? Leave a comment!

I object to the amount of Legal meetings

Statistics

Meetings: 7 (2 of them could have been an email)
Applications: 5 (every application tailored to the position)
Personal meetings: 1
New Connections: 5 (LinkedIn Networking)

These numbers might not seem big, but we have to consider I’m doing this while having my full time job, and updating this blog! And I’m still adjusting into this routine of including applications and blogging in my day.

As far as plans for the weekend goes, I have no idea what to do… But you guys can tell me something:

Pink & Explosively remote,

Structure is important

I started working at home, in the chaotic World of Pandemics. Ergonomic was a new “animal” people were trying to decipher.

Brings me back memories of me and my husband sharing the dinner table as a communal office desk, and our then 3yo crawling from his lap top to mine during meetings.

Now we both have office chairs, each one with it’s own desk in separated rooms of the house. And although I still take my lap top and work sitting on the bed in the guest room (where his office is), when I need to have a chat or need to update my co(husband)worker of some news… We do have a better structure!

And that’s why I’m here to present…

Structure of the blog

In case of any change, please proceed to MOC (Management of Change), to understand what steps you should take next (absolutely none, you’re fine).

Posts will be three (3) times a week: Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Monday: Dedicated to my acting area. Sales, Account Management, BDM. Including, training, studies, software, books, important information, Opinions (I give myself the right to give my opinion on any of the previous subjects)

Wednesday: Dedicated to Remote Working. Tools, Software, Organization, Articles, Job listings, Courses, Opinions (I give myself the right to give my opinion on any of the previous subjects)… And we wear pink. Dress accordingly.

Friday: Weekly Updates. I’ll do an overview on what was important during the week, lessons learned, important steps, contacts, interviews, highlights, lowlights… And occasionally plans for the Weekend and personal stuff!

Follow up

I trust you all to circle back to this post on case of any doubts about our schedule and to keep track of our thrice weekly meetings.

All corporate jokes aside, I would be very happy if anyone could participate in this “experiment” by commenting and following the blog. I’ll do my best to answer any questions and comments, and suggestions are also welcome!

Orderly regards,

Thanks for reaching out!

Hello everyone!

You can call me Su.

As a lot of people out there, I started working remotely in 2020. And now at 2023, I realized I never been so happy working than after I started being able to work from home.

I’m currently a Business Development Manager in the Oil and Gas field and have been sailing the internet looking for remote opportunities in Tech and in many different areas.

A lot of sites, when you are applying for a job ask for a site where they can access your work. I, of course, have my Linkedin updated! But I realized I had no where else to showcase my communication skills! And as an Elder Millennial, what better place than a blog?

If there’s no coffee, are you really working?

In this Blog, I’ll talk about Sales, Marketing, Business Development and remote working. Not only reuniting information, but also giving my opinion. And I hope I can count on your opinion here as well!

Let’s get started!

Permanently Remote,