Gabriel Katzeff

What's your job about?

CrowdStrike is a leading provider of cloud-native cybersecurity software and services. The recent increase in cyber-crime has led to more breaches and a greater need for CrowStrike’s products both internationally and in Australia. In the sales team, we speak with businesses who are most at risk of a cyber breach and who could most afford to fortify their security with CrowdStrike’s products. As a sales excellence intern, we’ve been provided a list of contacts and our role is to qualify them as sales prospects. If we decide that they are valid prospects, we book a meeting for them with one of our account executives. Typically when a business is looking for a new cybersecurity software they will be comparing multiple options, the account executive’s job is to ensure that the prospect purchases the best product to meet their needs, regardless of vendor, although we hope that it will be CrowdStrike.

What's your background?

I am 23 years old, born and raised in Sydney, Australia. When I finished high school I had a wide range of interests from technology to psychology. I’m thankful that Macquarie allows the combination of most bachelor degrees as a double degree, which enabled me to pursue two degrees to capture all of my interests and provide me a series of career options. I’ve previously interned at one of the big 4 consulting companies, was a research assistant at the university, and worked at a not for profit. Throughout my studies I’ve developed my interest in technology through the understanding that technology progress seems to predict increases across most quality of life metrics. Through my cognitive neuroscience studies, I came to understand the hardwired importance of working towards a meaningful goal. To me, cybersecurity represents the meaningful pursuit of preventing immense suffering for the people behind the breached businesses, and all those impacted through the economic ripples that a breach results in. Given this, CrowdStrike seemed to be in one of the best positions to help prevent this suffering. Speaking to prospects who had recently been breached and being able to say “I think we can help” is highly rewarding.

Could someone with a different background do your job?

Yes, most have a background in marketing or cybersecurity, with cognitive sciences being less common. That being said, there were multiple salespeople with both commerce and psychology backgrounds. Regardless, I believe what is essential for the role is communication and critical thinking. Critical thinking will help prevent spending time speaking with the wrong contacts, and communication will help ensure the contact feels comfortable and eager to work with the salesperson. The internship program is designed to train interns on CrowdStrike’s solutions, the cybersecurity landscape, and sales techniques and methodologies. So I believe that as long as you possess those traits you can excel with the training. The most successful salespeople are diligent workers with a deep understanding of cybersecurity.

What's the coolest thing about your job?

The feeling that we are making a difference, most customers are not actively thinking about purchasing a CrowdStrike solution, so being able to speak with them and come to the understanding that our solution would do a lot of good for them is awesome.

What are the limitations of your job?

Typically a salesperson is assigned a territory and a list that others cannot work on because of the commission based compensation structure. As an intern, we’ve not been assigned a territory and it would be unfair for us to assist any individual salesperson given that this would like result in more commission for the individual. This has limited the amount we can contribute as interns.

The 3 pieces of advice:

1. In ambiguous situations, always assume that others mean well. The average person usually wants the best for you, so unless it’s very obvious, don’t assume that they mean harm.
2. Balance, good nutrition and sleep, strong interpersonal connections, intellectually stimulating leisure activities, and the pursuit of a sufficiently meaningful and ambitious goal is a good recipe for wellbeing (money is also very helpful, if interested check out the findings behind the Easterlin paradox).
3. Be self-determined in your career (this is strongly evidence-backed). All else being equal, try to seek out: autonomy, relatedness, and competence in your role.

What is your team like?

The team is awesome, everyone is kind and eager to help. We all enjoy a good balance between getting important work done and enjoying a game of table tennis.

How do you feel your job plays an important role in society/to the clients?

We reach out to prospects and put in the work to try and ensure we speak to the right people at the right time. From that clients perspective, if they’re really the right person, they are usually very thankful and eager to speak with us because they are in the process of looking for an upgrade in their cybersecurity posture, and CrowdStrike would make a great option. As a result, we help provide one of the top solutions in the industry and give these businesses the best chance of preventing and remediating cyber attacks. On average the total cost of a cyber breach is in the 100s of millions, so to provide CrowdStrike is to prevent massive suffering.

How do you network and interact with other people at CrowdStrike?

I’ve really enjoyed networking while being an intern at CrowdStrike. In the APJ region I’ve become familiar with the sales ops, marketing ops, campaigns, field marketing, channels and alliances and the sales organisation. I’ve come to a much better understanding of how sales fits into the broader revenue structure, and the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration.