When you are in the fleet, you know a military transition will come one day but it seems so far away and unreal. It’s easy to push these thoughts out of your mind when you’re getting flung off the front of an aircraft carrier on a dark night…but eventually those days and nights come to an end.
Making the transition out of the military and into the civilian workforce was a whirlwind, and without Tech Qualled’s program, I would not be blessed with the job at Tektronix that I have today.
After having my first child, I decided that long deployments and work-up cycles were not for me anymore, especially because my husband was also an active duty military officer. So I did what many
military officers do – I got an MBA. I finished up my MBA as I began my transition out of the Navy, had another baby, and my husband also made the transition out of the Marine Corp. Lots of change, and all the while, trying to figure out how to land a job that is dynamic, challenging, well-paying, satisfying and flexible. Not long after, I received an email from the Tech Qualled team explaining a little bit about the high-tech sales industry as well as the Tech Qualled Launch Pad Academy.
Turns out, a few of my husband’s former squadron mates were a part of the first cohorts at TQ – they both said they loved it! I applied to the program and started toward the end of August 2018 – at this point, I had had my third baby (I think that’s it for me!). Tech Qualled Launchpad Academy is challenging and definitely took me out of my comfort zone several times. I feel it truly prepared me with invaluable skills like how to anticipate customer interactions, negotiations, sales cycles, business acumen, prospecting and more. I also found a little piece of comradery that you tend to lose when you leave the military. It was down-right fun training with other people that you know share a similar background in serving our country.
The mentors and staff are also world-class people. As I was going through training, my eldest child had medical issues and I was in and out of medical appointments. Surprisingly, I received and accepted a job offer before the end of the 7-week training. While I was very excited, this meant I had to sell a house, rent a new house, move a family and start a job (with three kids – a sick four-year-old, a clingy two-year-old, and a newborn). It was a lot but the team at TQ did everything possible to help me make this transition into my new job smooth and seamless.
Fast forward three months later, and I’m getting a grasp on the firehose that consumes your workday when you start a new job in tech sales!
The job is exactly what I was looking for: dynamic, challenging, fun, flexible and well-paying. Things are settling with family and work life – and it would not have been possible without Tech Qualled. Sincerely, Tech Qualled helped propel the course of my career, and I can’t say enough good things about this program or the team all around.
Today, Julia resides in Los Angeles, CA with her husband and three children. She joined Tech Qualled for Cohort 13, and is currently a Strategic Account Manager with Tektronix.
