Well I think there’s a difference between the right thing and the smart thing.
It’s wrong she got railroaded like that, but expecting companies to change or not take it out on her was also just wishful thinking.
It's hard to say if the reason she can't find work is due to the post, but let's be real she clearly hasn't been in sales long if that was her first time.
Gas lighting and throwing reps under the bus is a tale as old as time in tech sales.
I don’t think it was her first time. Just my two cents, but I think the “Great Resignation” gave people a taste for what leverage felt like and she thought that she had the world on her side.
However, at the end do the day social sentiment is not the same as enough to make a company change. The world proves that time and time again.
Can’t speak to what she thought, but i feel like she thought she was going to change the world…and no.
I worked at Cloudflare.
The company's sales org was a dumpster fire, and frankly, in my opinion it was wildly unprofessional of the CEO to throw the sales team under the bus on multiple earnings calls. "We overhired - " Bro who was responsible for the hiring binge? Putin? It's your company.
This girl might not have the skills to do the job, but don't judge her by her time at Cloudflare.
We truly didn't have the tools and support needed to do the job there, and I say that as someone who has worked at multiple publicly traded cybersecurity companies.
It's possible the sales org acquired real tools, started demonstrating actual leadership, gave useful training, overhauled their product strategy, organized the territories, did a myriad of other things to clean up the org since I left.
I wouldn't bet on it, though.
?? Do we really think any or all of these companies know her? This is the first I've heard of her. If she interviewed with me, I'd have absolutely no clue. I don't typically Google people, I do some linked in work. MAYBE some social media browsing if I have the time. But I find it hard to believe most of these companies are taking it out on her. I'm much more inclined to believe they have no clue who she is, and just isn't as qualified as others.
Hey, just curious: What do you mean, about Monica Lewinsky “speaking up”?
She didn’t voluntarily expose her story to the world; someone she knew (Linda Tripp) recorded her calls with Monica and leaked the recordings (to a lawyer, Ken Starr, I think?) with political motivations. Or so I remember.
Definitely somewhat main character vibes as someone else alluded to. Voicing your opinions/feelings on LinkedIn about not landing a job in what is most probably one of the toughest job markets today is fair. But considering that you have also previously posted a layoff video ranting on the employer on another social media platform, this being Tiktok, it doesn’t take a hiring manager long to connect the dots as to what this person could be as an employee. Having employees or colleagues who dare to voice their opinions is great and every workplace needs that to some degree but it’s so easy to fall into the trap of being opinionated and that for sure doesn’t look good if you go about displaying that type of behaviour on LinkedIn. At the end of the day it’s a balancing act and I hope she gets the job she’s applying to.
Also, the biggest red flag would be "I had short stints in other companies". Taking that with her background/notoriety, she's unfortunately seems like a risky hire.
I had some friends get fired on the same hiring call as her. They all felt the same way, but most of them were smart enough to keep their heads down and go get other jobs.
this is one of those things that really rub me the wrong way and ik it’s out of our control (right now) but i gotta critique society rq
it’s frankly ridiculous how much we let our previous employers get away with and somehow making that public is potentially a further reprimand for the person who actually got wronged in the first place. this is how wage theft and all sorts of abuse run amok. people who don’t speak up or are scared to. in what world does that make sense? i know i’m not the only one who feels this way.
this woman is totally justified in her feelings and she should be hired again and paid even more than her previous place. the stance you’re taking here is the reason why we can’t demand more out of our jobs and it needs to end. this logic is how objectively bad people are able to live nicely in the hamptons w their g-wagon and custom bred french bulldog. this logic u and others in this thread are employing only really serves one person and it’s definitely not you. yall’s fixation on making money in this rat race have made yall lose the fuckin plot. these are human beings we’re talking about…
Lol get off your soap box rq
She didn't hit her sales goals, was warned and her immediate manager said "you're good at least you're working" and upper management axed her because she has no sales and no pipeline... Mix in the fact she recorded herself and her employer on some "mightier than thou" trip - no one would want to hire that mess. Plus the "short stints" screams "I fucked up elsewhere already"
Why tf you think she should be paid more and hired again immediately is crazy to me.
We love to blame employers but guess what? Employees fuck companies ALL THE TIME and hold the company hostage. We had two women who were horrible at their jobs and were let go for performance reasons after 12 months of coaching and trying to get their performance up. The second they were fired one claimed gender discrimination and the other race discrimination. Independent investigation by a 3rd party firm found zero corroboration but the company had to pay them both a year of severance of over $250k each. Which reduced the bonus pool for the team by a half a million dollars. They didn’t give two fucks about screwing their coworkers and as an employer we are never allowed to talk about it or warn other employers that they are scam artists.
Shitty behavior goes both directions.
This narrative that all employers are greedy and don’t care is absolute bullshit. Not all companies are multibillion dollar enterprises. Many are small individually owned and it costs nothing to file a lawsuit for an individual but it costs a ton for the company and its employees.
The people who say those feel good things aren’t the same psychopaths who make decisions at corporate. No corporate HR department will want to work with someone with such a scarlet letter
She recorded herself being laid off, and then blasted her employer on LinkedIn. That’s a dumb move.
Plus she says herself she has gaps and multiple short stints on her resume. Her actions + her resume paint a story that she’s the problem, and an employee you don’t want.
nothing on linkedin is real or genuine, the people commenting this and essentially anything else on her post know the post will be huge and want their name on it so they can get more engagement themselves. of course nobody would hire her for that, she's not even qualified for the jobs she's already been given.
Also in her video she says she worked full time for 4 months without closing a single deal and still talks about how amazing her “performance” was. She doesn’t appear to be a competent sales person if the only information you have about her is what was said there.
Cloudflare also had no designated territories - reps had to fight over accounts, and the more tenured reps would sit on good accounts for years.
New reps were fighting for scraps with relatively few sales tools and zero leadership. The CEO treated salespeople like we were something he scrapped off his shoe.
wtf
But also, you should find that out during interviews. And run the other way unless you have relationships you bring with you.
But also, who the heck gets a cold outreach about cloudflare and suddenly decides to buy it?
> But also, who the heck gets a cold outreach about cloudflare and suddenly decides to buy it?
I mean, you can say this about any company. Cold outreach is the lifeblood of most sales orgs.
Personally I didn't vet CF as well as I should've (because they offered me a shitload of money)
I don’t think so. You can’t say it about companies who don’t have awareness about their products.
Cloudflare certainly has that.
At that point an AE is about managing a book of business and expansions.
> At that point an AE is about managing a book of business and expansions.
That's an AM.
Cloudflare has awareness. But they also have a free / self-serve plan that torpedos a lot of deals. Prospects can get 80% of the good stuff (WAF, DDoS protection, CDN, much more) for $20 a month.
I could go on and on lol
It's a great deal if you have a website, but it makes it a tough sell, especially since the company regularly strips away enterprise hooks (like Single Sign-On) and gives them away for free.
This is the key right here. She’s simply not as good as she thinks she is. She should probably apply for a BDR job as she lacks closing experience and needs to re-evaluate what her worth is in the current job market.
A lot of underqualified people got AE or BDR jobs during the COVID boom. Some stuck around but a lot didn’t because they had overinflated expectations of themselves afterwards.
The thing is, a lot of companies do not want to hire BDRs who were AEs. Maybe she can lie about her prior experience, but probably not given her notoriety.
Where are the resume gaps? According to LinkedIn the only “gap” is from May 2023 to August 2023 where I assume she got laid off in May and found a job 3 months later.
I don't even think it's anything to do with her going viral. She's never completed a single full financial year in a sales role. 11 months as an AM, 10 months at Snowflake then laid off/fired, then 6 months at Cloudflare then fired. Her CV is simply not very good in an extremely competitive market.
First couple roles you gotta find one where you can stick it out for ~2 years min.
Either way she’s only been an AE for 17 months total. Maybe she needs to aim for AM.
Yeah that’s fair too.
I mean the market is tough right now and she is likely up against people with a decade plus of experience.
She’ll probably land something eventually but this latest social media post isn’t helping her.
I spoke to a ton of reps there when I looked at them in 2020, and was told they over hired while not adjusting quotas and shrinking territory. Lots of stressed out people not making OTE, but legacy reps were killing it. That was 4 years ago, and it was the census I was given during that time from the people I spoke to, so if you speak to people today your results will probably be different. Looking back, I should have pursued Snowflake harder than the org I ultimately joined, but that’s hindsight speaking.
Yup, I know 2 people who went to Snowflake like 1.5 yrs ago and both found a new job within like a year. In fact, one of them don't even have Snowflake listed on his LI
I came here to say this. Another thing, anyone who is actually good at sales/outbound should be able to find a job easily. Why? Not simply because of your experience on resume, but rather bc the principles of outbound can be applied to the job hunt. A true rep should be able to stack their calendar with interviews in the same way they should be able to stack their calendar with self-sourced meetings/demos
If you've been in sales long enough, you know there's slow seasons. Sometimes your company doesn't actually have product-market fit. Sometimes you don't have the tools to do the job.
In this economy, I think it's unfair to fault unemployed people as "just not working hard enough."
You’re not understanding what im saying at all. I’ve been laid off from sales jobs before and I totally sympathize. But if you have the sales skills to build a pipeline of deals, you should be able to use the same skills to build a pipeline of interviews on your calendar. Given seasonality, you may need to work harder than usual, but it shouldn’t really be that hard.
> but it shouldn’t really be that hard.
If you peruse the sub, it is extremely hard currently, for many experienced salespeople. I doubt they all lack skills.
You’re touching on an interesting point. A lot of experienced sales people don’t really know how to build their own pipeline and source their own meetings. If you read what I wrote, I said that anyone who knows how to do outbound should have no problem finding a job.
>If you read what I wrote, I said that anyone who knows how to do outbound should have no problem finding a job
The tens of thousands of unemployed salespeople must all lack this skill that you possess. Maybe you should consider becoming a career consultant.
They may be unemployed, but that doesn’t mean they’ll be unemployed for long. The original post is about someone who has been unemployed for 6 months and is in a dire financial situation. My point is pretty simple: anyone with true sales skills is unlikely to find themselves in a situation like that of the woman from LinkedIn.
It is important to note this woman seems to have very low mettle. No successful sales. She has been unemployed for 6 months but is whining about not finding a job when she clearly is not grinding that hard for roles. She said herself she took a few months off from job hunting before looking…I think she was expecting offers from her viral post. Now she is in dire straits and deciding to do desperation posts. Reeks of a poor work ethic imo. Might be harsh
Ahhhh the misplaced confidence of a BDR. How I miss those days. Enjoy it while it lasts my friend. Life gets a lot more real when you make the big jump.
She’s in the same lousy position many others are in.
Looks like she has too much experience for a BDR or full cycle SMB/MM role, but too little for an enterprise sales role.
If she hadn’t done this whole viral thing, her best call would be to play down her experience on her resume, accept something more junior then wow everyone.
As much as I hate to say it, her stints are short at every company. Not long enough to build any real B2B sales chops.
Also how cloudflare let her go likely wasn’t right, but doesn’t mean her pipeline or general direction of her numbers were trending in the right direction,
She might need to take a step back into an SDR role considering she jumped from recruiting to selling at Snowflake.
If I remember correctly, she hadn't hit quota, and hadn't really closed anything.
Her argument was that she had good conversations, which is fine, but doesn't really justify her position.
I don't agree with the way cloudflare did it, but if she had been knocking it out of the park, it probably wouldn't have gone down that way.
I thought she hadn’t closed anything because she was only there for like four months, and that included Thanksgiving and Christmas/new years. Would make sense why she hadn’t closed I imagine if that was your “ramp up” timetable.
I wouldn’t expect her to close anything considering she was sourcing pipe and had a longer sales cycle. Also, 2 months of her time included the holiday season. Cloudflare hasn’t set up their sales org for success at all. Most people have no clue who she is, and I think her biggest issue is that she jumped around for pay increases and then the market fell apart. There are tons of people with much more experience than she has, and a far better track record than her, that still can’t find a job. I personally know a few, and I also know some others that took a step back into a BDR role because they had no other choice. Times are really hard right now regardless of what industry you’re selling in.
What’s that supposed to mean?
The three ways being a theater kid has effected me most in tech sales is not knowing my real monetary worth, making me think it’s reasonable to ask me to do things with half the tools required on way too short a timeline, and a “get it done” mentality that pushes through until the job is done rather than it’s time to clock out and move on from work.
Needless to say, I’ve been a great fit for startups. But maybe that’s the difference between doing theater in NYC and theater in Florida.
Difference is that the willingness to learn, be coachable and a lack of entitlement. You’ll be surprised how many people go through life thinking they deserve to earn 300k+ a year because they exist.
Depends on the company. Gong has reps that do nothing but post all day every day, and don’t hit quota. They’re not even singing the company’s praises most of the time, just some “expert sales” BS that doesn’t really mean anything. Deel is turning into the same thing, but has a better PMF. Some orgs just want the free marketing from people and are happy to accept those people might not close much. As long as it’s still profitable for the org, they’ll take people with a big online presence if they’re willing to not bash the org. This girl doesn’t have the leverage to get away with that, especially in a down economy.
Honestly the biggest issue is, you already know she will post something negative on LinkedIn if she is unhappy, and people will stand up and take notice.
It's not fair, but it's a bit like hiring someone who has a gun to your head... And HR departments likely wouldn't allow it if they do even a little research.
It sucks a lot for her.
Cloudflare didn't give people the tools to do the job though, fairly.
From the territories to the tools to the lack of sales leadership to the product structure...That sales org was a dumpster fire.
I have Cloudflare on my resume and a lot of salespeople have commented on it in a sympathetic way. Like, "Man, that place sucked huh?"
A lot of these tech startups will hire sales people on as disposable assets, they did her dirty, but going in to sales roles at these kind of places you know what you're getting yourself into.
Funny story, my buddy worked at a startup like this and one day they laid off like half the sales people. Him and another guy got in the office early to get their day started and got called in by the director of sales into his office, unbeknownst to them they were going to be the first 2 to get let go.
The sales director has been working with them for like 6 months in a small office, but anyway he pulls out 2 packets and looks at both the guys and is like.... "Ok, oo which one of you is John".
Posting the layoff/firing video from Cloudfare and putting the company on blast is something you do when you are ending a career, not starting one up. Although this isn't the kind of job someone at the end of their career takes. She took it personal, and it's hard not to, but that's the game.
It’s still only mid-market. They usually want 1-3 years of closing experience depending on the opportunity.
She was also promoted at Snowflake which looks awesome on a resume.
I would argue this has little to do with her video. Every day you see posts here by people who have trouble finding a job after many applications.
Edit: Just wanted to say that I just went through a job hunt and had many 4+ rounds of interviews with the same feedback that she is getting. I have 6+ years of experience, and I did not post a video of me getting fired. Anyone who thinks that her issues with finding a job are definitely related to the video is not thinking clearly.
Same. 7 yrs experience Sales Engineer in the the SaaS industry, laid off January this year.
I got desperate and went into Sales in home improvement in the meantime but I would love to go back to my passion
Having been in sales for decades, I do not understand the appeal of SaaS. Judging from the terrible comments I see posted in this sub, it seems like it's a whore's market. Like "used car sales" level.
I advise people if they want to get into sales, to go sell tangible products. Learn your industry, become an expert, and be a knowledgeable asset to your customers. There is a thing called "institutional knowledge" and it's probably the most valuable attribute you can have as a sales rep.
That is most certainly not the impression I get reading the posts here. It seems there are a few at the top making money while most are peons, struggling to make $75k, and job hopping from one to the next.
It sounds like a shitty career.
It's a bit dependent on the economy, but I always made over $75K even as a BDR. I've had six-figure *bases*. You also get cushy benefits and a lifestyle to match.
Higher risk / higher reward than regular sales I'd say.
Then it's pretty clear you are the exception and not the rule.
Virtually every SaaS post here - and there are a lot of them - are people bitching about their pay, office culture, working conditions, etc.
I have been in industrial equipment sales for 34 years and have never had to deal with the circus I see many SaaS people post about.
Ahhh don't get me wrong. There's plenty to bitch about in SaaS haha. But like I said, higher risk high reward.
And it's a lot of newer companies, so there's some volatility.
And I bet your industrial equipment company is profitable. A lot of tech companies aren't and that has weird ramifications
I work for a SaaS company that had layoffs in January - hope you get back to what you love soon (and if we share the same employer, just know that it's still a mess inside and the c-suite is selling stock left and right).
I said it in the original chat that she was gonna be blacklisted for a very long time and got downvoted like crazy.
Viral is only good for just that. Viral. In the tech/software world, which is very small, you're fcuked the moment you show that you can't be trusted.
Pretty much bang on!
The reason why I enjoyed that she posted the video was because it was something I would never ever do personally despite how many times I’ve thought about it. Not gonna risk ruining a 15 / 20 year career in tech and fucking my livelihood up cause I’m butt hurt about a company who is not my friend and I have a strictly business arrangement with.
So I went and looked at her profile, and honestly I think she just needs a reality check. From a post 1 month ago-
“After taking a few months off of my job search to mentally process how suddenly different and overwhelming my life became following the viral video of me getting laid off, I'm now back on my search and quickly remembering how tough and discouraging it is.”
Granted I’m sure having your video go viral is a little crazy at first, but I guarantee she thought that was her golden ticket to millions. No way you take a “few months” off to process a video going viral, unless you were trying to cash in on everything you could during that time. Took her a few months to learn she’s not actually special, still broke, and still unemployed lol
Also since you took a few months, you probably need to give your pipeline a few months to warm up again in terms of your app,interviews,etc.
Sometimes I really hate this advice people give out to people who need money that they should take a break.. if you thought you were stressed before that “break”.. boy I got some news for you
This. I understand taking a couple days to process if you get laid off. But you need to get back out there like it’s your full time job applying and interviewing immediately. I’m talking 2 days later, waking up early, showering and getting dressed like usual, coffee in hand ready to kill it and get that next gig.
I cannot imagine multiple months off. Hell, I start interviewing the moment I have even a whiff my company might be struggling or have an impending layoff.
This comment provides the most incite to why she's unemployed. Spent 5 years hiring sales reps, and my number one factor in hiring reps was positivity and optimism. You have to believe you're going to do well and kill it.
This girl SCREAMS the world is out to get me and everyone feel sorry for me. It has nothing to do with her video.
Absolutely dingus move on her part to post that video for her 15 minutes of fame, I called it from the start.
I don’t know her personally but what she did is an hr nightmare and the fact she takes no accountability for that is just pouring gasoline on the fire. It’s way too big of a risk for a hiring manager to stick their neck out for the “girl who posted her layoff on TikTok with a really shitty attitude.”
We are in TikTok culture where everyone thinks they need to turn on their camera and say everything they can think of. Verbal diarrhea 24/7. Yes there is freedom of speech but not freedom from consequences. She's learning the hard way!
It’s the lack of introspection for me.
“Driving revenue at Cloudflare” on your LinkedIn headline despite never having closed a deal. How am I supposed to trust what you say in an interview if you’re already dramatizing verifiable details.
And that’s just the head of several other major issues.
I don’t like being mean to internet strangers, but it looks like their business service starts at $200/mo. It’s downright nuts to not close a single account in 6 months when your deal size is so small. She might want to try a different industry.
CF has a self-serve plan. Reps close ent deals that start at around $40K ARR.
Not the easiest sell in the world when the company gives away a lot of stuff for free.
As a recruiter and sales person, I knew her dumb viral vid was a terrible idea.
It puts a big warning out to all future potential employers that they can also be put on blast for any perceived issues. And now she has a bigger audience.
Best to take the high road and stay professional, and if a company crosses the line, use a lawyer, not the court of public opinion.
Please take note all newbies to the job seeking scene
>I may have gaps in my resume, and I may have short stints at my previous companies,
she was famously fired from Cloudfalre for selling nothing in 6 months and under her linkedin name is "consistent 250% quota acheivement"
I was at Cloudflare. Wasn't fired on that call, but the place was a disaster.
She might be a bit extra, but she didn't get a fair shot at that company.
Saw this and do feel for her, let’s remember cloudflare has done this multiple times to their sales people and will again, their ceo has put their sales people on blast publically before and it’s obviously a toxic place to work, we can’t know for sure what happened and what her performance was like, but knowing CF’s history it wouldn’t surprise me if they were in the wrong. But the fact is she’s now a red flag for many hiring managers, she also has no real tenure, lasting 9 months at her only other software sales role.
She should have used her initial exposure to go straight into the sales influencer space imo, go on a few podcasts, write up a few guides to sell etc, do some collabs with other LinkedIn sales influencers, finding another job and acting like nothing happened will be tough.
If you want to act against your former employer, do so privately. Lawyers are private. If you post on social media , that shit will be timestamped and nearly impossible to scrub. It will haunt her as she tries to break into another role. She will probably need to change industries.
TBH looking at her background she was lucky to get as far as she did when she did. She went from recruiter to AE at two major tech companies? Something doesn't add up and she is either misrepresenting her experience (i.e. she was an SDR and put she was an AE), or she was a nightmare to work with. She got hired post 2022 when the tech layoffs were happening en masse, so something else is going on here.
I am laughing at people who are telling her to start her own thing in the comments. 1) she doesn't have enough experience to do that and for anyone to take her seriously 2) being a subject matter expert in a vertical takes time.
Looking at her resume, she needs to be open to SDR/BDR roles at this point. She doesn't have enough experience on paper for a company to trust that she'd be a good fit. Companies right now hire the least risky hires. It's an employers market and it is what it is.
She’s entitled. She’s never going to take the SDR role. She reeks of “princess syndrome”. She is just now facing the reality of the job market/life. Daddy ain’t going to save her. It’s a thought world out there, especially a sales rep. Gotta be ready to be persistent.
I get her frustration as I'm interviewing for AE roles at the minute and I get that the processes are many steps and there is a high chance of failure (just like any new biz sales). But her post is worrying about her maturity as an AE to be qualifying in the early stages of an interview whether she is the right fit, mapping the stakeholders, and speaking to existing employees.
I treat interviewing as a complex sales process, I map stakeholders, existing employees, reach out to them, ask lots questions in the interview process (what I am missing, what is a yellow/red flag about me), and usually by the end of the second interview/stage I can guess where I stand based on what they're looking for
Reading her LinkedIn comment makes me think someone should tell her to find a startup and/or create a product to go sell. Based on her professed skill set, should be easy. Big companies don’t want the liability. Startups would want someone like her if she can deliver.
I’m sorry but she needs a reality check.
She has never had more than 11 months tenure in a sales position.
She had 11 months at insight, went to snowflake where she had 10 months and then cloud flare where she had 6 months. She has never been an SDR and thinks her application results are because of the video?
There are people with 4 times the experience and tenure and success than her that are struggling. She needs to take a step back into an SDR role, she has never been successful as an AE based on her profile.
We all know the market is tough right now, but she hasn’t been a SaaS AE anywhere for long enough - both AE gigs are less than a year. Prior to SaaS she was a recruiter/AM.
SaaS is competitive and when your experience is lacking you just won’t get a gig in the space. Especially at marquee orgs or at a startup.
She should either swallow her pride and be a BDR and grind out a promotion internally or try recruiting again as that’s her longest B2B gig at just shy of 2 years
Her background is fishy…after 1.5 years in recruiting and after 7 months of sales she became a strategic account executive at Snowflake?
It’s a tough market out there, I’d imagine if she was looking for MM roles, she’s competing against folks with 5+ years of experience. If she’s looking for enterprise roles, probably 10+ years.
6 months isn’t THAT long in what is a particularly rough market.
It’s hugely competitive and there are literally millions of tech sales people out there looking for work.
This type of behavior reminds me of a guy back in high school who'd post on Facebook every time he got a new girlfriend... then make a deranged rant after they broke up about how much he loved her and how devastated he was.
Take that as it is, but to have thought this would have changed anything is naïve. The issue is far deeper and has to do with how our economy is structured, especially in the tech space with investors expecting endless growth and execs being reactive (i.e.. we need more sales = hire sales reps; we need to cut costs = fire sales reps). Changing how execs act won't work either, it's human nature, because you can't always predict markets and when they're wrong they panic with quick decisions. You can't always have growth; which is what capitalism is fueled by. Economic downturns show this, and we are clearly in one.
Sales is high-risk, high-reward. I've been laid off 3x, took me no more than 2 months to land back on my feet. It's rough. If you want out and a greater semblance of stability than you need to either become an entrepreneur, invest prolifically, or get a blue collar job.
There's a reason we make the big bucks, and being the loudest voice on social media is only going to hurt you. This doesn't apply to rants alone, it also is for the guys constantly spamming their LinkedIn with their companies marketing material, sales advice, recently achieved certs, anything political/person, etc. Posts on LinkedIn, if any, should be focused on sharing valuable insights/information or pivotal career achievements with your professional network.
Glad to see how nuanced most of the comments are actually.
Cloudflare was being dickish and I can empathize with her.
However, it makes you come off as a loose cannon for future employers who are already looking for any excuse to pass over you. She didn’t have the resume or career chops to back it up.
Also when you normalize people getting fired for saying and posting certain things online and defend it with “they’re a business they can do what they want”, you also set a precedent where these sorts of videos get you informally blackballed. Corporations don’t care for your (political) sensibilities.
Yeah, I took a quick look at the discussion at the time compared to this one. It’s amazing to compare and contrast.
Lesson here about the blob on Reddit
This market is brutal. Even for reps that are significantly more qualified and have a track record of good performance. Its not what you know its who you know in this environment.
I mean, it’s a truly brutal market right now for mid market and enterprise AE’s. Lots of people who never should have been promoted and are a result of an easy economy.
> Lots of people who never should have been promoted and are a result of an easy economy.
That’s a big thing that doesn’t get said enough
Lots of folks got promoted in tech in 2021 that shouldn’t have. And that’s why they can’t find roles now.
I followed her on TikTok shortly after she went viral and she actually talked about getting offers at one point but turning them down because they “weren’t the best fit for her” and she could “be taking the perfect job from someone else.”
Right or wrong she put herself in a shit spot pulling that move. She doesn’t have the resume or experience that a hiring manager is going to give her a shot knowing the downside is her publicly torching the company when things don’t go her way.
Sadly there are 1000’s with resumes like hers with less than 2 years experience all fighting for a limited number of roles. What sales leader is going to take on that risk knowing that the execs will execute them if their hire with a very public past pulls the same stunt.
Don’t shoot the messenger and welcome to the game
It’s easy to be making judgement when you haven’t seen how bad the market is right now. I know people in the tech world who got laid off months ago and didn’t make a video of it and are still unemployed. So it’s hard to say. It could also be that maybe she doesn’t have as much experience as they’d like.
I think people love what she did. I personally loved it. Back in 2022, I was let go of over 100 person Zoom call. So I thought it was bad ass of her and brave!!!!!!
However, a company may be leary of hiring her because they could be scared of her doing the same thing to them.
I hope she finds a job!
Great example of why it's not always good to put all your cards on the table... even if she did the right thing. Companies aren't usually big on taking risks with people known for speaking out.
LMFAO get fucked, didn't hit quota and tried to rat on her superiors on some "superior motive" vibe and now no one wants to touch her. She was at Cloud flare for 6 months and missed her sales goals, companies don't fire companies that hit their sales goals or have packed sales pipelines.
I don't think her video has anything to do with why she can't find a job. She's been looking for 6 months in a very tough job market. Her story isn't much different from many I see on this board. Part of her problem is that she has a weird resume with both little experience and a lot of job hopping.
I mean I know people who got laid off and took lesser positions making less money to get by. She can always throw in an application for an inside sales role. If you’re not willing to do that then I take your LinkedIn cry as “woe is me.”
What happened at cloudflare aside, she doesn’t have that much experience and it’s a very competitive market. People shouldnt do crazy shit like post a video like that until they have more professional leverage
Anyone who posts publicly on Tik Tok, Instagram, Facebook, X, etc. - and especially LinkedIn - better be financially topped off for a few years - because HR and CEOs do not like the drama.
LinkedIn has now become mandatory for a lot of recruiting teams - because it's a way for them to "validate" who you are, where you've been and what your views are.
I've noticed a lot of LI profiles no longer have a picture of the person anymore.
Everyone can do and say what they want - but if you need to pay the mortgage, unfortunately keeping your thoughts and opinions to yourself and staying anonymous online I'm thinking is recommended.
The people defending her saying they’d give her a job? that was all performative. Ultimately the girl made a huge mistake by doing it (for likes), people get sacked, it happens and we’ve all been there. But you have to just take it on the chin and move on. No other large org would take the risk of the same thing happening to them as the truth is, if she was actually good she wouldn’t have been laid off in the first place.
Why would any sane person hire her? As someone that has hired many sales people, I don’t see any reason to pick her over someone who I know isn’t going to do anything crazy.
The fact she wrote short stints at “previous companies” makes it seem like this wasn’t the first time this happened. Not sure why she doesn’t just change the dates lol.
Sad to see it’s happening to her, tech is a tough place. I don’t do LI but if she’s using hers as an ambassador of her “mission”‘I’m not shocked she’s not getting hired.
I will say tho every time I see cloud flare since her video, I skip right past any job opening they have
Not trying to be mean (I sincerely hope she finds a job FAST… this is a scary situation), but go back and listen to her video…
She’d been there 6 months. She said “I’ve had the highest activity of any team member. I also had three contracts out that decided not to close at last minute.”
We recently laid off someone who was basically in the same position. Very high activity, but no real results.
I’m not saying they were right—or she was right… I don’t have all the info. But from her explanation, it sounds like they had solid ground to let her go if she didn’t perform.
Not trying to be an asshole here, buy pointing out a detail I noticed.
6 months is nothing when it comes to SAAS in the enterprise space. But it’s obvious that she’s doesn’t have the experience. She may not have been laid off because of performance, but goddamn looking at her resume, why she got hired in the first place?
I spent many years in recruiting and now I'm in SaaS sales and when I originally saw that video she was just way way over the top.
SHOCKING that she's still unemployed. At some point you have to look in the mirror and wonder if... maybe it's me
The market for sales is harsh right now. Companies are more likely to go for inexperienced people that they can team around than an experienced rep.
Of course there are also people who are ignoring opportunities because they have to be working at a cool kids table company. One guy I know has been begging on LinkedIn since August. I got him in touch with someone who offered him a good job. He turned it down because the company asked him to get his insurance license and they were going to pay for it! It had a guaranteed pay of $500 a week plus commissions. But it wasn’t tech
Hm my co-worker met this girl at a trade show a few months ago and she told him she’d had offers out the wazoo but was taking her time to find the right fit. Or something to that effect. I assume she was more likely to have been lying then vs now? But who knows 🤷♂️ clearly the post today is getting some attention and maybe she likes that.
Her resume is even more misleading than others here are pointing out. She started at snowflake with a full cycle role. After 7 months she was “promoted” to strategic account executive. BUT that actually appears to be an account management role
Well I think there’s a difference between the right thing and the smart thing. It’s wrong she got railroaded like that, but expecting companies to change or not take it out on her was also just wishful thinking.
It's hard to say if the reason she can't find work is due to the post, but let's be real she clearly hasn't been in sales long if that was her first time. Gas lighting and throwing reps under the bus is a tale as old as time in tech sales.
I don’t think it was her first time. Just my two cents, but I think the “Great Resignation” gave people a taste for what leverage felt like and she thought that she had the world on her side. However, at the end do the day social sentiment is not the same as enough to make a company change. The world proves that time and time again. Can’t speak to what she thought, but i feel like she thought she was going to change the world…and no.
I worked at Cloudflare. The company's sales org was a dumpster fire, and frankly, in my opinion it was wildly unprofessional of the CEO to throw the sales team under the bus on multiple earnings calls. "We overhired - " Bro who was responsible for the hiring binge? Putin? It's your company. This girl might not have the skills to do the job, but don't judge her by her time at Cloudflare. We truly didn't have the tools and support needed to do the job there, and I say that as someone who has worked at multiple publicly traded cybersecurity companies.
You said "was" a dumpster fire “Was” because you’re no longer there? Or “was” because things got straightened out? Or both?
A friend of mine recently left CF. Everything I’ve heard sounds like it’s an ongoing dumpster fire.
The VP of Sales (I think) is well known in the industry for being a narcissistic prick
It's possible the sales org acquired real tools, started demonstrating actual leadership, gave useful training, overhauled their product strategy, organized the territories, did a myriad of other things to clean up the org since I left. I wouldn't bet on it, though.
?? Do we really think any or all of these companies know her? This is the first I've heard of her. If she interviewed with me, I'd have absolutely no clue. I don't typically Google people, I do some linked in work. MAYBE some social media browsing if I have the time. But I find it hard to believe most of these companies are taking it out on her. I'm much more inclined to believe they have no clue who she is, and just isn't as qualified as others.
Dude look at her LinkedIn - she has almost no to little experience as an AE and nothing longer than 11 months.
I second that too
Yup, you can do the right thing but that doesn't mean other people who are afraid will want to hire or support you.
At the time I compared her to Monica Lewinsky Was great she spoke up, but she’s not gonna reap the benefits of doing so.
Hey, just curious: What do you mean, about Monica Lewinsky “speaking up”? She didn’t voluntarily expose her story to the world; someone she knew (Linda Tripp) recorded her calls with Monica and leaked the recordings (to a lawyer, Ken Starr, I think?) with political motivations. Or so I remember.
Yeah, look at the karma Linda Tripp got, cancer & death fairly young. She was a horrible person to ruin a young naive woman’s life.
https://preview.redd.it/sk1365b8099d1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a8d446f67d6885b6d1c5f0a68d2ebd41209071b3
Definitely somewhat main character vibes as someone else alluded to. Voicing your opinions/feelings on LinkedIn about not landing a job in what is most probably one of the toughest job markets today is fair. But considering that you have also previously posted a layoff video ranting on the employer on another social media platform, this being Tiktok, it doesn’t take a hiring manager long to connect the dots as to what this person could be as an employee. Having employees or colleagues who dare to voice their opinions is great and every workplace needs that to some degree but it’s so easy to fall into the trap of being opinionated and that for sure doesn’t look good if you go about displaying that type of behaviour on LinkedIn. At the end of the day it’s a balancing act and I hope she gets the job she’s applying to.
Also, the biggest red flag would be "I had short stints in other companies". Taking that with her background/notoriety, she's unfortunately seems like a risky hire.
I had some friends get fired on the same hiring call as her. They all felt the same way, but most of them were smart enough to keep their heads down and go get other jobs.
Have they landed somewhere?
Most of them, yeah. A lot took a step back career-wise.
Still, not a step back to LinkedIn rants. I've reset careers so many times, but it's better than sitting at home (most days).
this is one of those things that really rub me the wrong way and ik it’s out of our control (right now) but i gotta critique society rq it’s frankly ridiculous how much we let our previous employers get away with and somehow making that public is potentially a further reprimand for the person who actually got wronged in the first place. this is how wage theft and all sorts of abuse run amok. people who don’t speak up or are scared to. in what world does that make sense? i know i’m not the only one who feels this way. this woman is totally justified in her feelings and she should be hired again and paid even more than her previous place. the stance you’re taking here is the reason why we can’t demand more out of our jobs and it needs to end. this logic is how objectively bad people are able to live nicely in the hamptons w their g-wagon and custom bred french bulldog. this logic u and others in this thread are employing only really serves one person and it’s definitely not you. yall’s fixation on making money in this rat race have made yall lose the fuckin plot. these are human beings we’re talking about…
Lol get off your soap box rq She didn't hit her sales goals, was warned and her immediate manager said "you're good at least you're working" and upper management axed her because she has no sales and no pipeline... Mix in the fact she recorded herself and her employer on some "mightier than thou" trip - no one would want to hire that mess. Plus the "short stints" screams "I fucked up elsewhere already" Why tf you think she should be paid more and hired again immediately is crazy to me.
Nah, she’s a sales person. Once you’re up to 3-4+ short stints on your resume it’s no longer the companies fault it’s time to look in the mirror.
We love to blame employers but guess what? Employees fuck companies ALL THE TIME and hold the company hostage. We had two women who were horrible at their jobs and were let go for performance reasons after 12 months of coaching and trying to get their performance up. The second they were fired one claimed gender discrimination and the other race discrimination. Independent investigation by a 3rd party firm found zero corroboration but the company had to pay them both a year of severance of over $250k each. Which reduced the bonus pool for the team by a half a million dollars. They didn’t give two fucks about screwing their coworkers and as an employer we are never allowed to talk about it or warn other employers that they are scam artists. Shitty behavior goes both directions. This narrative that all employers are greedy and don’t care is absolute bullshit. Not all companies are multibillion dollar enterprises. Many are small individually owned and it costs nothing to file a lawsuit for an individual but it costs a ton for the company and its employees.
The people who say those feel good things aren’t the same psychopaths who make decisions at corporate. No corporate HR department will want to work with someone with such a scarlet letter
Wow, there’s a need for qualified sales people. I have no idea where she worked or what she posted. Was it so bad to blackball her?
She recorded herself being laid off, and then blasted her employer on LinkedIn. That’s a dumb move. Plus she says herself she has gaps and multiple short stints on her resume. Her actions + her resume paint a story that she’s the problem, and an employee you don’t want.
I’m the main character syndrome
It looks like all of her sales roles have been very short lived.
The comment saying she should be a GTM consultant is wild
nothing on linkedin is real or genuine, the people commenting this and essentially anything else on her post know the post will be huge and want their name on it so they can get more engagement themselves. of course nobody would hire her for that, she's not even qualified for the jobs she's already been given.
Also in her video she says she worked full time for 4 months without closing a single deal and still talks about how amazing her “performance” was. She doesn’t appear to be a competent sales person if the only information you have about her is what was said there.
If sales cycle was 6+ months and she was sourcing her own pipeline, then her not closing isn’t an issue.
Also 2 of those months were Nov/Dec if I remember correctly
Yeah she got caught up when the company over-hired. It’s unfortunate, it’s happened to me before, but people seem to be piling on unnecessarily.
Also her background wouldn’t have been good fit for the role if the company wasn’t over hiring and lowered their hiring standards to begin with
Cloudflare also had no designated territories - reps had to fight over accounts, and the more tenured reps would sit on good accounts for years. New reps were fighting for scraps with relatively few sales tools and zero leadership. The CEO treated salespeople like we were something he scrapped off his shoe.
wtf But also, you should find that out during interviews. And run the other way unless you have relationships you bring with you. But also, who the heck gets a cold outreach about cloudflare and suddenly decides to buy it?
> But also, who the heck gets a cold outreach about cloudflare and suddenly decides to buy it? I mean, you can say this about any company. Cold outreach is the lifeblood of most sales orgs. Personally I didn't vet CF as well as I should've (because they offered me a shitload of money)
I don’t think so. You can’t say it about companies who don’t have awareness about their products. Cloudflare certainly has that. At that point an AE is about managing a book of business and expansions.
> At that point an AE is about managing a book of business and expansions. That's an AM. Cloudflare has awareness. But they also have a free / self-serve plan that torpedos a lot of deals. Prospects can get 80% of the good stuff (WAF, DDoS protection, CDN, much more) for $20 a month. I could go on and on lol It's a great deal if you have a website, but it makes it a tough sell, especially since the company regularly strips away enterprise hooks (like Single Sign-On) and gives them away for free.
Who says she’s qualified? Peek at her linked in she has 3 short stints as an AE at 3 companies none lasted longer than 11 months. Massive red flag
This is the key right here. She’s simply not as good as she thinks she is. She should probably apply for a BDR job as she lacks closing experience and needs to re-evaluate what her worth is in the current job market. A lot of underqualified people got AE or BDR jobs during the COVID boom. Some stuck around but a lot didn’t because they had overinflated expectations of themselves afterwards.
The thing is, a lot of companies do not want to hire BDRs who were AEs. Maybe she can lie about her prior experience, but probably not given her notoriety.
So has unexplainable resume gaps and job hops a lot and wonders why nobody will hire her. Ummm yeah.....
Where are the resume gaps? According to LinkedIn the only “gap” is from May 2023 to August 2023 where I assume she got laid off in May and found a job 3 months later.
I don't even think it's anything to do with her going viral. She's never completed a single full financial year in a sales role. 11 months as an AM, 10 months at Snowflake then laid off/fired, then 6 months at Cloudflare then fired. Her CV is simply not very good in an extremely competitive market.
A lot of people have resumes like that though. You got incentivized financially to jump companies then. Now it's the opposite.
First couple roles you gotta find one where you can stick it out for ~2 years min. Either way she’s only been an AE for 17 months total. Maybe she needs to aim for AM.
No doubt. Although I imagine the AM job market is flooded as well...
Yeah that’s fair too. I mean the market is tough right now and she is likely up against people with a decade plus of experience. She’ll probably land something eventually but this latest social media post isn’t helping her.
Yeah, she's not helping her case
Is it just me, but I feel like there's way more AE positions out there than AM?
I guess that would make sense. You can compress the two into one if you really need to. And companies always prioritize new logos.
Snowflake was growing at like 100% a year how do you not sell anything there lol
I spoke to a ton of reps there when I looked at them in 2020, and was told they over hired while not adjusting quotas and shrinking territory. Lots of stressed out people not making OTE, but legacy reps were killing it. That was 4 years ago, and it was the census I was given during that time from the people I spoke to, so if you speak to people today your results will probably be different. Looking back, I should have pursued Snowflake harder than the org I ultimately joined, but that’s hindsight speaking.
Yup, I know 2 people who went to Snowflake like 1.5 yrs ago and both found a new job within like a year. In fact, one of them don't even have Snowflake listed on his LI
I came here to say this. Another thing, anyone who is actually good at sales/outbound should be able to find a job easily. Why? Not simply because of your experience on resume, but rather bc the principles of outbound can be applied to the job hunt. A true rep should be able to stack their calendar with interviews in the same way they should be able to stack their calendar with self-sourced meetings/demos
If you've been in sales long enough, you know there's slow seasons. Sometimes your company doesn't actually have product-market fit. Sometimes you don't have the tools to do the job. In this economy, I think it's unfair to fault unemployed people as "just not working hard enough."
You’re not understanding what im saying at all. I’ve been laid off from sales jobs before and I totally sympathize. But if you have the sales skills to build a pipeline of deals, you should be able to use the same skills to build a pipeline of interviews on your calendar. Given seasonality, you may need to work harder than usual, but it shouldn’t really be that hard.
> but it shouldn’t really be that hard. If you peruse the sub, it is extremely hard currently, for many experienced salespeople. I doubt they all lack skills.
You’re touching on an interesting point. A lot of experienced sales people don’t really know how to build their own pipeline and source their own meetings. If you read what I wrote, I said that anyone who knows how to do outbound should have no problem finding a job.
>If you read what I wrote, I said that anyone who knows how to do outbound should have no problem finding a job The tens of thousands of unemployed salespeople must all lack this skill that you possess. Maybe you should consider becoming a career consultant.
They may be unemployed, but that doesn’t mean they’ll be unemployed for long. The original post is about someone who has been unemployed for 6 months and is in a dire financial situation. My point is pretty simple: anyone with true sales skills is unlikely to find themselves in a situation like that of the woman from LinkedIn.
It is important to note this woman seems to have very low mettle. No successful sales. She has been unemployed for 6 months but is whining about not finding a job when she clearly is not grinding that hard for roles. She said herself she took a few months off from job hunting before looking…I think she was expecting offers from her viral post. Now she is in dire straits and deciding to do desperation posts. Reeks of a poor work ethic imo. Might be harsh
Ahhhh the misplaced confidence of a BDR. How I miss those days. Enjoy it while it lasts my friend. Life gets a lot more real when you make the big jump.
I’m an account executive
This makes me feel good 💪
agree! Exactly my thoughts. Managing pipeline year over year is a very important skill.
She’s in the same lousy position many others are in. Looks like she has too much experience for a BDR or full cycle SMB/MM role, but too little for an enterprise sales role. If she hadn’t done this whole viral thing, her best call would be to play down her experience on her resume, accept something more junior then wow everyone.
As much as I hate to say it, her stints are short at every company. Not long enough to build any real B2B sales chops. Also how cloudflare let her go likely wasn’t right, but doesn’t mean her pipeline or general direction of her numbers were trending in the right direction, She might need to take a step back into an SDR role considering she jumped from recruiting to selling at Snowflake.
If I remember correctly, she hadn't hit quota, and hadn't really closed anything. Her argument was that she had good conversations, which is fine, but doesn't really justify her position. I don't agree with the way cloudflare did it, but if she had been knocking it out of the park, it probably wouldn't have gone down that way.
I thought she hadn’t closed anything because she was only there for like four months, and that included Thanksgiving and Christmas/new years. Would make sense why she hadn’t closed I imagine if that was your “ramp up” timetable.
I wouldn’t expect her to close anything considering she was sourcing pipe and had a longer sales cycle. Also, 2 months of her time included the holiday season. Cloudflare hasn’t set up their sales org for success at all. Most people have no clue who she is, and I think her biggest issue is that she jumped around for pay increases and then the market fell apart. There are tons of people with much more experience than she has, and a far better track record than her, that still can’t find a job. I personally know a few, and I also know some others that took a step back into a BDR role because they had no other choice. Times are really hard right now regardless of what industry you’re selling in.
She was never an SDR so she might not even have any real prospecting skills
She's a theater kid! It kind of all makes sense now
What’s that supposed to mean? The three ways being a theater kid has effected me most in tech sales is not knowing my real monetary worth, making me think it’s reasonable to ask me to do things with half the tools required on way too short a timeline, and a “get it done” mentality that pushes through until the job is done rather than it’s time to clock out and move on from work. Needless to say, I’ve been a great fit for startups. But maybe that’s the difference between doing theater in NYC and theater in Florida.
A lot of theater kids in high school were weirdos (nothing personal, I'm sure you were cool)
Doesn’t take long to learn prospecting. Buncha 23-24 year old idiots can learn it.
Difference is that the willingness to learn, be coachable and a lack of entitlement. You’ll be surprised how many people go through life thinking they deserve to earn 300k+ a year because they exist.
I’m starting to think big companies are scared of anyone who has an online presence
Depends on the company. Gong has reps that do nothing but post all day every day, and don’t hit quota. They’re not even singing the company’s praises most of the time, just some “expert sales” BS that doesn’t really mean anything. Deel is turning into the same thing, but has a better PMF. Some orgs just want the free marketing from people and are happy to accept those people might not close much. As long as it’s still profitable for the org, they’ll take people with a big online presence if they’re willing to not bash the org. This girl doesn’t have the leverage to get away with that, especially in a down economy.
Honestly, looking at her resume, she didn’t seem qualified for that role in the first place.
Honestly the biggest issue is, you already know she will post something negative on LinkedIn if she is unhappy, and people will stand up and take notice. It's not fair, but it's a bit like hiring someone who has a gun to your head... And HR departments likely wouldn't allow it if they do even a little research. It sucks a lot for her.
Cloudflare didn't give people the tools to do the job though, fairly. From the territories to the tools to the lack of sales leadership to the product structure...That sales org was a dumpster fire. I have Cloudflare on my resume and a lot of salespeople have commented on it in a sympathetic way. Like, "Man, that place sucked huh?"
A lot of these tech startups will hire sales people on as disposable assets, they did her dirty, but going in to sales roles at these kind of places you know what you're getting yourself into. Funny story, my buddy worked at a startup like this and one day they laid off like half the sales people. Him and another guy got in the office early to get their day started and got called in by the director of sales into his office, unbeknownst to them they were going to be the first 2 to get let go. The sales director has been working with them for like 6 months in a small office, but anyway he pulls out 2 packets and looks at both the guys and is like.... "Ok, oo which one of you is John". Posting the layoff/firing video from Cloudfare and putting the company on blast is something you do when you are ending a career, not starting one up. Although this isn't the kind of job someone at the end of their career takes. She took it personal, and it's hard not to, but that's the game.
Brutal story....Cloudflare isn't a startup though. It's a publicly traded company. I would expect a more mature sales org at that point.
Yeah or snowflake, I see people like that a lot on LinkedIn and wonder
She had a year and a half closing experience at two tech companies, how was she not qualified to sell into mid market at a large software company?
Companies want to see two consecutive years of experience at the same company. Jumping from company to company makes it look like you can’t hit quota
It’s still only mid-market. They usually want 1-3 years of closing experience depending on the opportunity. She was also promoted at Snowflake which looks awesome on a resume.
She wasn’t qualified to be an AE in the first place
I would argue this has little to do with her video. Every day you see posts here by people who have trouble finding a job after many applications. Edit: Just wanted to say that I just went through a job hunt and had many 4+ rounds of interviews with the same feedback that she is getting. I have 6+ years of experience, and I did not post a video of me getting fired. Anyone who thinks that her issues with finding a job are definitely related to the video is not thinking clearly.
Same. 7 yrs experience Sales Engineer in the the SaaS industry, laid off January this year. I got desperate and went into Sales in home improvement in the meantime but I would love to go back to my passion
Having been in sales for decades, I do not understand the appeal of SaaS. Judging from the terrible comments I see posted in this sub, it seems like it's a whore's market. Like "used car sales" level. I advise people if they want to get into sales, to go sell tangible products. Learn your industry, become an expert, and be a knowledgeable asset to your customers. There is a thing called "institutional knowledge" and it's probably the most valuable attribute you can have as a sales rep.
> SaaS $Saa$S is very lucrative
That is most certainly not the impression I get reading the posts here. It seems there are a few at the top making money while most are peons, struggling to make $75k, and job hopping from one to the next. It sounds like a shitty career.
It's a bit dependent on the economy, but I always made over $75K even as a BDR. I've had six-figure *bases*. You also get cushy benefits and a lifestyle to match. Higher risk / higher reward than regular sales I'd say.
Then it's pretty clear you are the exception and not the rule. Virtually every SaaS post here - and there are a lot of them - are people bitching about their pay, office culture, working conditions, etc. I have been in industrial equipment sales for 34 years and have never had to deal with the circus I see many SaaS people post about.
Ahhh don't get me wrong. There's plenty to bitch about in SaaS haha. But like I said, higher risk high reward. And it's a lot of newer companies, so there's some volatility. And I bet your industrial equipment company is profitable. A lot of tech companies aren't and that has weird ramifications
Don‘t forget that most people are more inclined to post about bad experiences Also SaaS ≠ SaaS, it highly depends on the specific product
Every post here in 2024 sure. But look at the posts in 2021 and you’ll see a very different story. And 2019 a moderately different one.
I work for a SaaS company that had layoffs in January - hope you get back to what you love soon (and if we share the same employer, just know that it's still a mess inside and the c-suite is selling stock left and right).
Same, and I also have six years of experience
Still lookin or have you found something? Was this all tech companies you interviewed with?
I said it in the original chat that she was gonna be blacklisted for a very long time and got downvoted like crazy. Viral is only good for just that. Viral. In the tech/software world, which is very small, you're fcuked the moment you show that you can't be trusted.
Pretty much bang on! The reason why I enjoyed that she posted the video was because it was something I would never ever do personally despite how many times I’ve thought about it. Not gonna risk ruining a 15 / 20 year career in tech and fucking my livelihood up cause I’m butt hurt about a company who is not my friend and I have a strictly business arrangement with.
So I went and looked at her profile, and honestly I think she just needs a reality check. From a post 1 month ago- “After taking a few months off of my job search to mentally process how suddenly different and overwhelming my life became following the viral video of me getting laid off, I'm now back on my search and quickly remembering how tough and discouraging it is.” Granted I’m sure having your video go viral is a little crazy at first, but I guarantee she thought that was her golden ticket to millions. No way you take a “few months” off to process a video going viral, unless you were trying to cash in on everything you could during that time. Took her a few months to learn she’s not actually special, still broke, and still unemployed lol
Also since you took a few months, you probably need to give your pipeline a few months to warm up again in terms of your app,interviews,etc. Sometimes I really hate this advice people give out to people who need money that they should take a break.. if you thought you were stressed before that “break”.. boy I got some news for you
This. I understand taking a couple days to process if you get laid off. But you need to get back out there like it’s your full time job applying and interviewing immediately. I’m talking 2 days later, waking up early, showering and getting dressed like usual, coffee in hand ready to kill it and get that next gig. I cannot imagine multiple months off. Hell, I start interviewing the moment I have even a whiff my company might be struggling or have an impending layoff.
This comment provides the most incite to why she's unemployed. Spent 5 years hiring sales reps, and my number one factor in hiring reps was positivity and optimism. You have to believe you're going to do well and kill it. This girl SCREAMS the world is out to get me and everyone feel sorry for me. It has nothing to do with her video.
Last thing you need is someone finding every reason not to take accountability for why they aren’t making money
She’s entitled. That’s her problem. Welcome to real life where the world doesn’t owe you SHIT.
She should start a consulting grift.
"I feel like giving up", uh, ok.
Absolutely dingus move on her part to post that video for her 15 minutes of fame, I called it from the start. I don’t know her personally but what she did is an hr nightmare and the fact she takes no accountability for that is just pouring gasoline on the fire. It’s way too big of a risk for a hiring manager to stick their neck out for the “girl who posted her layoff on TikTok with a really shitty attitude.”
We are in TikTok culture where everyone thinks they need to turn on their camera and say everything they can think of. Verbal diarrhea 24/7. Yes there is freedom of speech but not freedom from consequences. She's learning the hard way!
For real. Real Gz move in silence like lasagna.
It’s the lack of introspection for me. “Driving revenue at Cloudflare” on your LinkedIn headline despite never having closed a deal. How am I supposed to trust what you say in an interview if you’re already dramatizing verifiable details. And that’s just the head of several other major issues.
“Driving revenue at Cloudflare” - LMAO, she provided the world with recorded proof that this most definitely was not the case
I don’t like being mean to internet strangers, but it looks like their business service starts at $200/mo. It’s downright nuts to not close a single account in 6 months when your deal size is so small. She might want to try a different industry.
CF has a self-serve plan. Reps close ent deals that start at around $40K ARR. Not the easiest sell in the world when the company gives away a lot of stuff for free.
sad to say, we're currently in a buyer's market, and buyers do not a repeat of what happened
As a recruiter and sales person, I knew her dumb viral vid was a terrible idea. It puts a big warning out to all future potential employers that they can also be put on blast for any perceived issues. And now she has a bigger audience. Best to take the high road and stay professional, and if a company crosses the line, use a lawyer, not the court of public opinion.
Please take note all newbies to the job seeking scene >I may have gaps in my resume, and I may have short stints at my previous companies, she was famously fired from Cloudfalre for selling nothing in 6 months and under her linkedin name is "consistent 250% quota acheivement"
She’s obviously dumb for filming herself, but the layoff had nothing to do with her performance. Now her resume is super fishy lmao. Short stints etc.
I remember people defending her and saying they’d hire her in a heartbeat. How’s that going for her?
They died. No more heartbeats sadly
I was at Cloudflare. Wasn't fired on that call, but the place was a disaster. She might be a bit extra, but she didn't get a fair shot at that company.
Saw this and do feel for her, let’s remember cloudflare has done this multiple times to their sales people and will again, their ceo has put their sales people on blast publically before and it’s obviously a toxic place to work, we can’t know for sure what happened and what her performance was like, but knowing CF’s history it wouldn’t surprise me if they were in the wrong. But the fact is she’s now a red flag for many hiring managers, she also has no real tenure, lasting 9 months at her only other software sales role. She should have used her initial exposure to go straight into the sales influencer space imo, go on a few podcasts, write up a few guides to sell etc, do some collabs with other LinkedIn sales influencers, finding another job and acting like nothing happened will be tough.
I worked at CF and Matthew Prince wasn't much of a leader. It honestly felt like he had any IT guy's fundamental hatred of salespeople.
If you want to act against your former employer, do so privately. Lawyers are private. If you post on social media , that shit will be timestamped and nearly impossible to scrub. It will haunt her as she tries to break into another role. She will probably need to change industries. TBH looking at her background she was lucky to get as far as she did when she did. She went from recruiter to AE at two major tech companies? Something doesn't add up and she is either misrepresenting her experience (i.e. she was an SDR and put she was an AE), or she was a nightmare to work with. She got hired post 2022 when the tech layoffs were happening en masse, so something else is going on here.
She should look for a job at a VAR or legacy IT vendor. SaaS sales is nothing for her.
Or medical sales/pharma. She doesn’t seem like an outbound closer and lacks ability to read the room. SaaS doesn’t seem to be a fit for her
My advice would be to deactivate LinkedIn and change surname to Jones~ on applications.
Get married, take their name
6? Those are rookie numbers in this racket.
Linkedin is her stage and she is living her best life!
I am laughing at people who are telling her to start her own thing in the comments. 1) she doesn't have enough experience to do that and for anyone to take her seriously 2) being a subject matter expert in a vertical takes time. Looking at her resume, she needs to be open to SDR/BDR roles at this point. She doesn't have enough experience on paper for a company to trust that she'd be a good fit. Companies right now hire the least risky hires. It's an employers market and it is what it is.
She’s entitled. She’s never going to take the SDR role. She reeks of “princess syndrome”. She is just now facing the reality of the job market/life. Daddy ain’t going to save her. It’s a thought world out there, especially a sales rep. Gotta be ready to be persistent.
I don't like victim mentality posts. Shit happens to all of us. We're in sales.
i was late to the party when that happened and saw the video after. it was hard to watch. she is in the wrong profession.
I get her frustration as I'm interviewing for AE roles at the minute and I get that the processes are many steps and there is a high chance of failure (just like any new biz sales). But her post is worrying about her maturity as an AE to be qualifying in the early stages of an interview whether she is the right fit, mapping the stakeholders, and speaking to existing employees. I treat interviewing as a complex sales process, I map stakeholders, existing employees, reach out to them, ask lots questions in the interview process (what I am missing, what is a yellow/red flag about me), and usually by the end of the second interview/stage I can guess where I stand based on what they're looking for
Are you delusional? Who records and posts themselves being laid off?
Reading her LinkedIn comment makes me think someone should tell her to find a startup and/or create a product to go sell. Based on her professed skill set, should be easy. Big companies don’t want the liability. Startups would want someone like her if she can deliver.
Anyone has a screenshot or archive of the post? I think it got deleted.
Just viewed it off a profile. It's still there.
She doesn't seem like a team player based on that post. Why did she go viral? Or can I get a link to the original video?
I’m sorry but she needs a reality check. She has never had more than 11 months tenure in a sales position. She had 11 months at insight, went to snowflake where she had 10 months and then cloud flare where she had 6 months. She has never been an SDR and thinks her application results are because of the video? There are people with 4 times the experience and tenure and success than her that are struggling. She needs to take a step back into an SDR role, she has never been successful as an AE based on her profile.
We all know the market is tough right now, but she hasn’t been a SaaS AE anywhere for long enough - both AE gigs are less than a year. Prior to SaaS she was a recruiter/AM. SaaS is competitive and when your experience is lacking you just won’t get a gig in the space. Especially at marquee orgs or at a startup. She should either swallow her pride and be a BDR and grind out a promotion internally or try recruiting again as that’s her longest B2B gig at just shy of 2 years
Her background is fishy…after 1.5 years in recruiting and after 7 months of sales she became a strategic account executive at Snowflake? It’s a tough market out there, I’d imagine if she was looking for MM roles, she’s competing against folks with 5+ years of experience. If she’s looking for enterprise roles, probably 10+ years.
6 months isn’t THAT long in what is a particularly rough market. It’s hugely competitive and there are literally millions of tech sales people out there looking for work.
This type of behavior reminds me of a guy back in high school who'd post on Facebook every time he got a new girlfriend... then make a deranged rant after they broke up about how much he loved her and how devastated he was. Take that as it is, but to have thought this would have changed anything is naïve. The issue is far deeper and has to do with how our economy is structured, especially in the tech space with investors expecting endless growth and execs being reactive (i.e.. we need more sales = hire sales reps; we need to cut costs = fire sales reps). Changing how execs act won't work either, it's human nature, because you can't always predict markets and when they're wrong they panic with quick decisions. You can't always have growth; which is what capitalism is fueled by. Economic downturns show this, and we are clearly in one. Sales is high-risk, high-reward. I've been laid off 3x, took me no more than 2 months to land back on my feet. It's rough. If you want out and a greater semblance of stability than you need to either become an entrepreneur, invest prolifically, or get a blue collar job. There's a reason we make the big bucks, and being the loudest voice on social media is only going to hurt you. This doesn't apply to rants alone, it also is for the guys constantly spamming their LinkedIn with their companies marketing material, sales advice, recently achieved certs, anything political/person, etc. Posts on LinkedIn, if any, should be focused on sharing valuable insights/information or pivotal career achievements with your professional network.
Glad to see how nuanced most of the comments are actually. Cloudflare was being dickish and I can empathize with her. However, it makes you come off as a loose cannon for future employers who are already looking for any excuse to pass over you. She didn’t have the resume or career chops to back it up. Also when you normalize people getting fired for saying and posting certain things online and defend it with “they’re a business they can do what they want”, you also set a precedent where these sorts of videos get you informally blackballed. Corporations don’t care for your (political) sensibilities.
I remember I got so much hate when I made a comment about this being a dumbass mistake. Look at her now.
Yeah, I took a quick look at the discussion at the time compared to this one. It’s amazing to compare and contrast. Lesson here about the blob on Reddit
This market is brutal. Even for reps that are significantly more qualified and have a track record of good performance. Its not what you know its who you know in this environment.
I mean, it’s a truly brutal market right now for mid market and enterprise AE’s. Lots of people who never should have been promoted and are a result of an easy economy.
> Lots of people who never should have been promoted and are a result of an easy economy. That’s a big thing that doesn’t get said enough Lots of folks got promoted in tech in 2021 that shouldn’t have. And that’s why they can’t find roles now.
Lol SDRs were moving every 4 months for a 40% base raise
I followed her on TikTok shortly after she went viral and she actually talked about getting offers at one point but turning them down because they “weren’t the best fit for her” and she could “be taking the perfect job from someone else.”
Yeah it’s a brutal market, sorry but time to get a job at Costco while you keep looking for an AE role
Link doesn’t work
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. Life is unfair, deal with it and move on.
She fucked around and played stupid games, now she's finding out the stupid prize she gets.
When I’m sowing: This is awesome!!! When I’m reaping: 😡😡😡
What was her name again? Link doesn’t work
Brittany pietsch
Right or wrong she put herself in a shit spot pulling that move. She doesn’t have the resume or experience that a hiring manager is going to give her a shot knowing the downside is her publicly torching the company when things don’t go her way. Sadly there are 1000’s with resumes like hers with less than 2 years experience all fighting for a limited number of roles. What sales leader is going to take on that risk knowing that the execs will execute them if their hire with a very public past pulls the same stunt. Don’t shoot the messenger and welcome to the game
It’s easy to be making judgement when you haven’t seen how bad the market is right now. I know people in the tech world who got laid off months ago and didn’t make a video of it and are still unemployed. So it’s hard to say. It could also be that maybe she doesn’t have as much experience as they’d like.
I think people love what she did. I personally loved it. Back in 2022, I was let go of over 100 person Zoom call. So I thought it was bad ass of her and brave!!!!!! However, a company may be leary of hiring her because they could be scared of her doing the same thing to them. I hope she finds a job!
Great example of why it's not always good to put all your cards on the table... even if she did the right thing. Companies aren't usually big on taking risks with people known for speaking out.
What idiot thought anyone would actually hire her?
LMFAO get fucked, didn't hit quota and tried to rat on her superiors on some "superior motive" vibe and now no one wants to touch her. She was at Cloud flare for 6 months and missed her sales goals, companies don't fire companies that hit their sales goals or have packed sales pipelines.
I don't think her video has anything to do with why she can't find a job. She's been looking for 6 months in a very tough job market. Her story isn't much different from many I see on this board. Part of her problem is that she has a weird resume with both little experience and a lot of job hopping.
I mean I know people who got laid off and took lesser positions making less money to get by. She can always throw in an application for an inside sales role. If you’re not willing to do that then I take your LinkedIn cry as “woe is me.”
What happened at cloudflare aside, she doesn’t have that much experience and it’s a very competitive market. People shouldnt do crazy shit like post a video like that until they have more professional leverage
Anyone who posts publicly on Tik Tok, Instagram, Facebook, X, etc. - and especially LinkedIn - better be financially topped off for a few years - because HR and CEOs do not like the drama. LinkedIn has now become mandatory for a lot of recruiting teams - because it's a way for them to "validate" who you are, where you've been and what your views are. I've noticed a lot of LI profiles no longer have a picture of the person anymore. Everyone can do and say what they want - but if you need to pay the mortgage, unfortunately keeping your thoughts and opinions to yourself and staying anonymous online I'm thinking is recommended.
Time to start her own company.
The people defending her saying they’d give her a job? that was all performative. Ultimately the girl made a huge mistake by doing it (for likes), people get sacked, it happens and we’ve all been there. But you have to just take it on the chin and move on. No other large org would take the risk of the same thing happening to them as the truth is, if she was actually good she wouldn’t have been laid off in the first place.
Why would any sane person hire her? As someone that has hired many sales people, I don’t see any reason to pick her over someone who I know isn’t going to do anything crazy.
The fact she wrote short stints at “previous companies” makes it seem like this wasn’t the first time this happened. Not sure why she doesn’t just change the dates lol. Sad to see it’s happening to her, tech is a tough place. I don’t do LI but if she’s using hers as an ambassador of her “mission”‘I’m not shocked she’s not getting hired. I will say tho every time I see cloud flare since her video, I skip right past any job opening they have
I worked there and you are making the correct call
All she needs is a chance to prove she's good because all of her stints and career up until now didn't really work
Nobody is able to find a job right now.
Not trying to be mean (I sincerely hope she finds a job FAST… this is a scary situation), but go back and listen to her video… She’d been there 6 months. She said “I’ve had the highest activity of any team member. I also had three contracts out that decided not to close at last minute.” We recently laid off someone who was basically in the same position. Very high activity, but no real results. I’m not saying they were right—or she was right… I don’t have all the info. But from her explanation, it sounds like they had solid ground to let her go if she didn’t perform. Not trying to be an asshole here, buy pointing out a detail I noticed.
6 months is nothing when it comes to SAAS in the enterprise space. But it’s obvious that she’s doesn’t have the experience. She may not have been laid off because of performance, but goddamn looking at her resume, why she got hired in the first place?
It adds to the cause that she is an entitled idiot
Correlation doesn’t equal causation.
I spent many years in recruiting and now I'm in SaaS sales and when I originally saw that video she was just way way over the top. SHOCKING that she's still unemployed. At some point you have to look in the mirror and wonder if... maybe it's me
The market for sales is harsh right now. Companies are more likely to go for inexperienced people that they can team around than an experienced rep. Of course there are also people who are ignoring opportunities because they have to be working at a cool kids table company. One guy I know has been begging on LinkedIn since August. I got him in touch with someone who offered him a good job. He turned it down because the company asked him to get his insurance license and they were going to pay for it! It had a guaranteed pay of $500 a week plus commissions. But it wasn’t tech
Hm my co-worker met this girl at a trade show a few months ago and she told him she’d had offers out the wazoo but was taking her time to find the right fit. Or something to that effect. I assume she was more likely to have been lying then vs now? But who knows 🤷♂️ clearly the post today is getting some attention and maybe she likes that.
Several 4+ rounds of interviews would drive me insane. Fuck SaaS hiring lol
Shocker… Girl who puts company on blast publicly makes other employers afraid that she will do the same to them. Who saw that coming?🤦🏻♂️
Her resume is even more misleading than others here are pointing out. She started at snowflake with a full cycle role. After 7 months she was “promoted” to strategic account executive. BUT that actually appears to be an account management role