Does anyone work for Olo, or another restaurant/F&B/hospitality-focused company? Would a hiring manager see any value in luxury serving experience?

[myriamdo78]

I have two degrees, and previous corporate experience in sales, biz dev, partnerships/account management, and digital marketing - where I became proficient in several SaaS platforms - Pardot, google AdWords/analytics, lead forensics, and utilized WordPress and drupal.

But in 2018 I got back into waiting tables (long story). I’m trying to package all of my experience together but I feel my current role as a server is like a death sentence level red flag.

I was trying to get a role in account management or customer success at a SaaS/tech company. Or anything customer-facing.

Is this reasonable or delusional?

 

[przemek]

@myriamdo78 You mentioned you have experience in sales, biz dev, partnerships/account management, and digital marketing. Why not help other SaaS businesses get/convert more leads.

That way it'd be a win-win situation for both of you.

Don't you think that's a more practical way of approaching the issue?

 

[myriamdo78]

@przemek That’s definitely something I’ve been trying for!!

 

[przemek]

@myriamdo78 How are you doing that at the moment? Care to share your strategy?

May be I could give you some pointers on the strategy.

 

[myriamdo78]

@przemek Here’s something I posed on another thread regarding my experience, goals, and challenges

I appreciate you asking!

33m.

BS, business (finance)

BA, international relations (German language)

Trade show/ conference company:

-6 months sales/biz dev(BDR/SDR-esque) intern

-2 years digital marketing/ automation manager (helped transition company to Pardot(salesforce) from legacy marketing solutions. Managed google adwords and analytics, developed html emails/managed campaigns, managed backlog for website updates, some front end development, WordPress, drupal.

-2 years as a partnership, account manager (no $ quota though)

In 2018 I quit to go to a coding bootcamp but had to bail due to unexpected financial reasons, then got a job waiting tables since I had a decade experience already in fine dining (through high school and college). This is a luxury hotel and I clear 80k, work with C suite executives, lead private dining for boards of directors, hedge funds, etc.

My plan was to continue with self study on software/web dev, but the job became brutal (6 days + doubles, extremely toxic, took a toll on my mental health), then I got furloughed due to Covid.

Income dropped dramatically and I tried my ass off to get a customer-facing remote role in tech. Failed. More depression. Got very sick from Covid with lasting effects but fully recovered now.

Now I’m back at work doing well financially but have no upward career mobility (management in food & beverage gets abused and maxes out mid 100k usually.

I had the thought that I can leverage my soft, relationship-building skills gained through a decade+ experience in high-profile, luxury fine dining, and combine that with my self taught coding skills, experience managing extremely diverse accounts in the trade show/conference space (government, NGO, associations, traditional and digital media, cryptocurrency), and proven abilities learning and utilizing various SaaS platforms.

I thought I could holistically bundle my experience and history together, not take a step back, and get a job as a customer success manager or account manager in the tech/SaaS space. From there, I could use the aforementioned soft skills while diving into the technical stuff and having many ways to pivot and progress career-wise.

I am essentially in denial that I have to start over. I really do think I would be a good customer success manager. I think I’m very adaptable and can speak comfortably with the client to distill what it is that I can solve myself, who I may need to reach out to to ask for the right information, and what i need to pass off completely to another team to help solve their problem. Equally happy and comfortable talking tech as I am marketing, sales, etc. I truly LIKE to be able to at least talk to people on a high-level on EXTREMELY diverse topics- it’s how I connect with hotel/restaurant guests and provide them the best experience. I have to know WHY they’re there and what their pain-points are, just as any account manager would need to have a persona for their clients/prospects. I like to think of all my tables as mini-accounts.

I’m comfortable taking the blame for things outside of my control, being a face for the organization, and the main point of contact for people who may be having a bad experience. I make my living turning those bad experiences into good ones. This is what I do for a living now. These are mayors, billionaires I’m providing service for.

I have also considered starting as an SDR, with the goal of making enterprise AE one day, but I think initially I would be better as a customer success manager, and I think I would enjoy it more. I would potentially be interested in pure sales, sales engineering, and solutions architecture, though.

The biggest challenge is how I can leverage what is often viewed as throwaway experience: serving. I think this is sometimes viewed as a red flag on my resume. “Why did he leave a company after continual promotions to wAiT tAbLes?”

I’ve applied online through LinkedIn easyapply (spray n pray), tailored apps directly through company websites, messaged hiring managers and recruiters, and also cold called. I kinda like cold calling places to try and get in touch with hiring decision makers, but it’s super tough to get past gatekeepers. I also can’t get an account with Zoominfo without a corporate email address (do you have any tips here)?

 

[przemek]

@myriamdo78 What if you could show the world how much value you could bring on the table?

Don't you think that way it would be easier for you to build a career in the coming days?

I'm 32m. This year, I got betrayed 2 times by my business partners while trying to start a business and escape my 9-5.

I left my full-time job with hopes that I'd break free from the chain.

I took a 4 hour part-time job and started putting focus on the business.

But I came across grave financial turmoil due to those betrayal.

I started to do things in a different way and started fresh. This time I decided to depend only on myself and no one else.

I've started doing this for only 2 months now. I've had 10 clients so far. Made $200 so far.

Yesterday, I got a job offer for $2000/month salary.

I'm not sure if it's enough for you, but for me, it's a very good start.

All I did was showcase how much value I can bring on the table. I primarily used Reddit and LinkedIn to get attention and gain customers.

The job offer came as a spill over effect.

If you're interested and have enough patience, I can show you how I did what I did.

I hope you get things right in the coming days. All the best.

 

[ghaynes]

@myriamdo78 This sub is for people trying to build SaaS companies themselves. Well, that plus spam, bots and naked self-promotion. There are probably other places where you'd get more helpful responses!