{"id":50844,"date":"2019-09-13T18:47:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-18T18:47:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/?p=50844"},"modified":"2022-11-07T20:00:15","modified_gmt":"2022-11-08T04:00:15","slug":"meet-rebecca-summerhayes-dog-lover-adventurer-account-executive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/au\/blog\/meet-rebecca-summerhayes-dog-lover-adventurer-account-executive\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Rebecca Summerhayes \u2013 Dog Lover, Adventurer, Account Executive"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As the media regularly disparages her generation for being too fickle in their employment choices, too keen to hop between jobs and too impatient to work their way up the corporate ladder, Rebecca Summerhayes has been busily and quietly proving them wrong. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In her very first job, as an \u2018animal attendant\u2019 at a pet store, she had to be at work at 5am every day to feed the animals, clean out their pens and wash the puppies. She was just 14 years old and earned $6 an hour before heading off to school each day. But even as her friends slept in, she saw the positive side of working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt not only gave me the opportunity to spend heaps of time with animals and take dogs home each weekend, but I also got to know a lot of people working in the Westfield centre,\u201d she says. \u201cI got jobs at other stores, including Boost Juice, Jeanswest, Aldo Shoes and General Pants \u2013 it kept me in work all through school and university.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After graduating from a Bachelor of Business Studies degree in 2012 and taking a small break to travel, Rebecca jumped straight back into employment with major occupational rehabilitation firm Injury Treatment (now called Acumen Health). Her first taste of corporate life taught her a lot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI had to mature quite quickly,\u201d she admits. \u201cI got to work with a lot of different people of all ages and from different backgrounds. I was able to establish a really good work ethic and the CEO trusted that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So much so, that she took on extra responsibilities quite quickly and grew her role \u2013 at one point Rebecca was doing the work that had previously been done by three people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI realised I just had to be a bit resilient, earn my stripes and make sure I was always adding value to the business.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After two-and-a-half years of rapid progression, Rebecca\u2019s career couldn\u2019t grow further at Acumen Health without a clinical background. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI started thinking about what kind of industry I’d be interested in and where I would find a lot of opportunity,\u201d Rebecca says. \u201cI was keen to get into sales as I enjoy speaking to people and businesses, and thrive as an individual contributor. I work well to KPIs and metrics too, as I can be a bit competitive and I want to constantly improve.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having already seen the positive aspects of staying with a particular business, Rebecca wanted to find a role to commit to for multiple years, so finding work that would be rewarding and remain interesting was an important consideration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI saw that the technology industry was never going to stop changing and evolving, and saw that I could do really meaningful work, helping businesses with their current and future challenges,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rebecca was introduced to Salesforce, and spoke with a lot of family and friends in different industries to find out what people thought of the company and whether she was likely to find opportunities to grow her career. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe role was to be the first Business Development Associate (BDA) locally,\u201d Rebecca recalls of that period when she was considering her options. \u201cThere were BDA teams globally, but not here in Sydney. Knowing that I would be one of the first people on the local BDA team, I thought the chance to build my way up from there was very interesting\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What skills from previous experience did you feel you could apply at Salesforce?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m pretty personable and I work well in a team environment. I thought that would set me up well here and teamwork has turned out to be one of the biggest contributors to success in my current role.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Customers, internal and external, come to us expecting solutions, so we need to work together really well, to be really solution-focused and think about the end goal to find the best solutions. We need to be authentic and confident in dealing with people, and to be adaptable and flexible in dealing with change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019ve been with Salesforce almost three years, and there are already five Salesforce roles listed on your LinkedIn profile. How did that happen?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve met some of the brightest people here, who I\u2019ve been able to learn so much from to help me develop new skill sets, make quite good money and progress my career \u2013 so I\u2019ve done that as quickly as I can!. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Within sales development, we have three roles \u2013 Business Development Associate (BDA), Sales Development Representative (SDR) and Business Development Representative (BDR) \u2013 with the pathway through each mapped out. My standard day in any of these roles began with a big breakfast, then a team huddle to go through the focus for the day or week. We\u2019d build out our email templates for target industries or accounts, and I\u2019d attend internal meetings with my account executives or other teams I was working with.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n