Partner Solutions Consultant

I have recently joined the Global Partner Team in Appian. In it I am a Partner Solutions Consultant.

I started in this company (Appian) working as a Software Developer for about 1.5 years. Then I moved to Professional Services and during the next 2 years and change I participated in several very interesting client engagements in the Federal, Military, Procurement, Compliance, Healthcare and Commercial industries both in the US and Europe. I was promoted to Sr. Consultant and managed to get a nice reputation thanks to my work and contributions in and outside the company.

When the time for my next review was coming I started thinking in new ways in which to advance my career at Appian. I had a strong technical background thanks to my College education, a couple of internships and my time here at Appian. I had developed a number of "soft skills" required for consulting but I wanted more. The interaction with the customers was a big plus for me. Now I wasn't developing J2EE applications or BPM based just on a Spec, I was actually interacting with the client, understanding their needs, their business needs and coming up with ways to solve their needs using our Development Platform. What I needed now was to understand how my company worked from a Business/Strategic point of view.

I started conversations with the head of the Partner program late in the 3rd Quarter of 2009 and joined the Team in January 2010. Since then I have been very happy with my decision.

This is a position that had me worried at first. Being part of the Sales Department, I was worried that I would have to do more "sales" work than anything else, and making unsolicited calls and try and sell software is NOT my cup of tea. It's not that I cannot do it, I'm simply not interested. I didn't study or prepare for a sales career, I don't have the experience or interest to do it.

However, any good engineer worth his salt has a dream of working for or creating a very successful company. As such, this new venture gives me a unique opportunity where I'll be surrounded by great people, not only from my company, but also from other potential partners, in ways that before I couldn't. So far this has given me very interesting information as to how companies work, how they expand, how they partner with others, what motivates them, what drives their needs. This information ultimately helps me in many ways. For the one part I'll have a better understanding on how Software/consulting companies work. On the other, understanding what MY company needs allows me to contribute in ways that were just not possible before. I truly believe that in this new position I have the opportunity to be part of the change that helps us take a leap in success.

The fact that I still get to do a bunch of technical stuff in the mean time is also a plus!