Kicking off our Alumni Guest Post series for the Spring Semester, Ty Shaw ’09 discusses how his post grad life led to his current role as a Business Development Consultant at Oracle!
Job prospects were few and far between when I left “The Cross” in 2009. America was in the midst of the modern day great depression. I soon learned the importance of humility, perseverance and strong networking–or as I say, making new friends and embracing old ones.
During my senior year I had one solid job prospect in an industry and location I didn’t want to be in after college, so instead of taking the job, I chose to go back home to Denver, CO. At the time I was so wrapped up in my own ego and my sense of entitlement that I could not truly understand how tough the economy was. I was fixed on the thought that I had a great degree from Holy Cross (which I did), and that was all I needed to land a good job. I was sadly awakened when I spent almost my first year after graduation working with a staffing firm (temp. agency) to keep my resume/skills current.
During that year with the staffing firm, I was humbled. I could not find permanent work, and I had sent in around one hundred applications and hadn’t landed any interviews. My dad soon came to me and said “Son, you have to get around the movers and the shakers.” So that’s what I did, networking became a part of my daily routine. And I can’t stress enough how important it is to meet people doing things that you think you may be interested in because most companies don’t waste their time looking at resumes where there is no referral with it. I began to connect with Holy Cross alumni in Colorado that I found off the Holy Cross alumni website, and I joined meetup groups (meetup.com) so that I could mingle with people that were doing the work I wanted to do. Each networking experience helped me to realize that the best networkers are those that make genuine friends. In this world we can never have too many genuine people in our lives that want to help and are open to being helped.
After networking in Colorado (and a few jobs later), I thought getting back to HC for a spring football game would be a good idea for me to reunite with old friends and teammates. And I was right! Going back to HC is what led to my current opportunity at Oracle. A Holy Cross teammate and friend told me about openings at Oracle and how he was recently hired—and this connection helped lead to my current job.
In my role, I am working as a Business Development Consultant (BDC) for Oracle. I am responsible for prospecting into companies that have technology issues. On a day to day basis, I perform in-depth research on these companies to gain a deep understanding of their business. Also, I am researching to see how Oracle can add value to what they do. Most of the companies I work with are public so I am able to read their 10k reports to understand their business and see if we can help.
Once I’m done researching companies online that I want to call into, I find people within the company to speak with. There are a plethora of prospecting tools Oracle has available to BDC’s to use in order to find the right person in a company to speak business with. The number one goal is to first build rapport with the prospect, and after connecting on a humanly level, I go on to better understand that person’s role inside the company they work for. Then we get down to business, I ask questions to see if we can add value, and if there is a business pain I proceed to set up a next call to help facilitate the sales process. My main job is pre-sales, so I do the research, find the business problem and build the relationship before facilitating the rest of the sales process with my sales team. I also provide advice to my sales team on how we can drive business in their territory based off of the research I find. Ultimately, I am in the business of helping the customer first and driving revenue second.
My opportunity at Oracle wouldn’t have been possible without my new-found sense of humility, perseverance, and the Holy Cross Alumni community. The lessons that I have learned are things that I hope that you all can take with you before graduating. Think long and hard about what you want to do, what will fulfill you, where you want to live, and what kind of work you will be proud of. In nearly being out of college four years, I’m just now feeling like I’m heading down a path to fulfillment. A Chu! Chu! Rah! Rah! For Holy Cross!
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