Hack Reactor graduate Eve Lyons recently landed a job that allows her to focus on two of her biggest passions: “talking to people and working with tech.”
As a Digital Sales Specialist at IBM, she uses her past entrepreneurial experience, along with her software engineering training, to sell IBM software and hardware. We caught up with Eve to ask about rekindling her passion for coding, navigating the job search with a targeted approach, and what she’s up to now at IBM. She also offers advice on making the most of your job search and why investing in yourself always pays off.
What got you interested in software engineering to begin with?
I’ve always liked math and physics. I was really good at precise disciplines like STEM subjects. I also like solving puzzles and figuring out the most efficient way to get from point A to point B, which is basically what engineering is all about. That’s what initially got me interested.
I went to college in Russia, where I earned a degree in coding, but the process of getting that degree actually killed my passion for coding at the time. After I graduated, I stepped away from it for a while. Recently, I made some career changes and decided to revisit coding because I do enjoy it, especially the architectural side of it. I wanted to brush up on my skills, so I enrolled in the Hack Reactor bootcamp.
And what led you to Hack Reactor specifically?
I had a friend who had taken the program before and highly recommended it. He told me about your referral program; the word of mouth is strong. Plus, I needed a refresher. When I first studied coding, Visual Studio wasn’t even around yet. It had been almost 20 years, so I wanted to make sure I was up-to-date with current trends.
When I decided to enroll in Hack Reactor, I knew I wanted to work in tech sales, specifically. Getting the engineering certification was something that I knew would improve my chances of landing a tech job because companies prefer salespeople with technical knowledge. Very few people can do both well, and I can. I can bridge both worlds, and I saw the value in strengthening my technical background to complement my sales expertise.
Congrats on your new role at IBM! Can you tell me about it, and the kinds of projects you typically work on?
My role is in storage technical sales, so I’ll be selling IBM’s flash storage systems, along with the software that helps them run efficiently. It’s essentially a hybrid role involving both software and hardware sales.
What do you like about the role so far?
I’m still very new. So far, I’m just going through training. I haven’t really gotten into the day-to-day work yet, but the training is pretty intense, kind of like the bootcamp.
Overall, I’m loving the challenge. I love that this role is combining both of my passions: talking to people and working with tech. When you think about tech work, you might picture people sitting in a room coding all day, but this role is a hybrid of two worlds I love, sales and engineering.
That sounds like a great mix. I imagine that to sell the software, you have to understand it and be able to talk about it in depth.
Yes, that’s right. I won’t actually be engineering or coding anything in this role, but I’m required to study and understand it well enough to answer questions. There’s a technical specialist I can bring with me if I’m lacking certain knowledge, but as my manager says, and I strongly agree, the more you understand the whole process, the faster your sales will go. So my goal is to fully understand the technology so I can rely less on technical specialists and be able to answer as many questions as possible on my own.
How was the process of looking for a job after the bootcamp?
For me, the job search was very strategic. I come from a sales background, so I approached it like selling myself. I asked myself, “What do I have to offer? Who would want what I have?” Then I narrowed down my target companies and focused on those.
I didn’t submit that many applications, but every single one was highly targeted, and all of them came through referrals. I spoke with employees on LinkedIn, got warm introductions, and made sure I was approaching the process strategically.
My timeline for getting a job was by the end of February, maybe May at the latest, and I landed my job right on schedule in February. It wasn’t easy, but it went as expected because I put in daily work with a lot of discipline. I posted on LinkedIn, messaged a lot of people, and attended networking events. In the end, it worked out.
That’s an interesting idea to treat the job search like a sales project.
Yes, looking for a job is just like sales. You’re selling yourself. I know many engineers don’t have sales experience, so this perspective doesn’t always click. That’s why I often compare it to dating, too. When you’re dating, you need to know who you’re looking for and what they’re looking for, so you can find a good match.
The same applies to job searching. If you take the time to figure out what you want, who you want to work for, and then go after it with a focused approach, the whole process becomes much more satisfying because you have a clear direction.
Other than your sales experience, is there anything else you’ve learned from other roles that adds value to your work in tech?
This job with IBM will be my first corporate job. I’ve always worked in more entrepreneurial roles. I’m excited to bring my entrepreneurial knowledge to IBM. In small businesses, you have to be creative, you have to win every single client. Now, I’ll have to navigate corporate policies, which will be interesting, but I’m looking forward to seeing how my approach meshes.
Do you have any advice for someone who’s on the fence about enrolling in a bootcamp? Maybe they’re unsure if they should do it or not. What would you tell them?
It’s always worth investing in yourself, no matter what you do. Even when I first got my coding degree in Russia, I didn’t actually use it. But any time I mentioned it in conversations at networking events or when talking to engineers, it only added to my credibility. So if you’re on the fence about whether to invest in yourself, always do it.
In my experience, when you have to take a risk and stretch yourself a little, it pays off if it’s an investment in yourself and your future. That’s what I’ve seen time and time again.
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