You’re probably wondering, what does football have to do with veterans in tech sales roles?

This past weekend was marked by an event I have come to look forward to annually: the Army-Navy Football game. Although this year’s outcome left me on a “high,” it wasn’t the same type of joy experienced as a Cadet; it was neither the final score nor the game itself that I appreciated most. As the lead-in video preceding the opening kickoff highlighted, the best part of the Army/Navy rivalry is the community off the field. Rivalry Weekend has become a special event to me because, for one weekend, college freshman and corporate CEOs, stay-at-home moms and others who are Senior Military Officers, people who have gone on to lead very unique lives, all unite in one simple, passionate desire. Come Monday, each of these distinct people continues to pursue their own unique ambitions.

There is a wealth of information written about the common characteristics of Veterans that correlate well to professional sales. However, I have noticed that even in a group of individuals with similar professional backgrounds, our Candidates’ interest in the tech sales roles with our Partner companies can seem as varied as the paths Academy graduates take in life. Specifically, three key differentiators in opportunities tend to influence preferences and play a key role in the employment opportunity each graduate accepts as they begin their career.

1. Corporate Structure: Graduates of our Launchpad Academy have chosen to accept roles as the first Account Executive for a company with less than 30 employees. Others decided to join a sales team of 100s within a company with over 20,000 employees. These different corporate structures and sizes offer distinct roles with varying training and development opportunities.
2. Technical Resources: Some understand and are excited by the challenge of working remotely, while others look forward to learning and developing client solutions in an office-based environment alongside their engineers and product developers.
3. Portfolio of Offerings: Some Tech Qualled Partners are vendors of a single, proprietary hardware or software product, while others offer a wealth of solutions of varying complexity to solve different business problems. Our graduates understand the distinct difference between hardware and software sales, and one or the other tends to more closely align with each candidate’s interests.

Just as the Academy Football teams meet each year to “Beat Them!,” our Tech Qualled Partners and Veteran Candidates each come to Tech Qualled exploring for a long-term, mutual fit. As a high-touch firm on both sides, we pride ourselves in the ability to parse through the apparent similarities between all “Veterans” and tech sales roles in order to truly understand the uniqueness of each opportunity so that we can successfully accomplish our mission: to bridge the gap between capable candidates and technology companies in need of specific talent.

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Jennifer served as a US Army Medical Service Corps Officer. She brings a unique perspective and passion to the mission of helping veterans transition into the high-tech industry as a former dual-military service member. Jennifer is responsible for ensuring and enabling the success of Tech Qualled’s partnered companies from the point of onboarding through the hiring process. Jennifer graduated near the top of her class at the United States Military Academy at West Point with a BS in both Business Management and Spanish.