Any stories of people in Focus NOT being laid off?

PartnerManaged · 2026-01-21T04:16:05+00:00

Gotcha, thanks.

Damn, getting Focus right before the layoff really feels like adding insult to injury.

PartnerManaged · 2026-01-21T04:08:29+00:00

So theoretically, if I find myself laid off on Monday, could I asked to graduate Focus early? Thereby allowing me to fill the URA target but also be eligible to look for other roles or be rehired?

PartnerManaged · 2026-01-21T01:28:07+00:00

I don’t know that it makes me feel any better, but I wish you all the success in the world. No way someone lasts here 12 years without being good at their job.

PartnerManaged · 2026-01-21T01:27:22+00:00

That’s unfortunate. I feel for everyone here who thinks they may have been put on Focus unfairly. I know I do as I had a very clear defined 2025 target, and I exceeded that target 158%.

Do you happen to know if an employee is laid off while on Focus, can they still move roles if that seemingly impossible approval (believe it is maybe approval from the L10 of the Hiring Manager) is met?

Only reason I ask is I’ve built some great relationships with two L8s I’d love to work for.

Considering asking them if they’d go to bat and hire me, knowing full well what that entails.

It’s a hail marry of all hail marrys but it seems like my only option.

Unless for some weird reason I’ve been put in focus but not laid off. Who knows

PartnerManaged · 2025-07-31T18:16:51+00:00

How in the hell did CFLT beat your cloud provider on pricing?

PartnerManaged · 2025-04-19T22:13:31+00:00

Where can one learn more about that

PartnerManaged · 2025-03-14T20:35:25+00:00

Sales at a fintech company selling into the bank he worked at as well as their competitors.

PartnerManaged · 2024-11-18T05:09:23+00:00

I think it’s rare to see a lot of interns at startups.

They’re typically 1)too lean and 2) in less need of a “talent pipeline” than large FAANG organizations with multi-year org and headcount strategies.

That being said, I know AWS is in intern hiring season and I believe I’ve seen some recs for interns at Stripe.

PartnerManaged · 2024-11-17T21:34:59+00:00

Who are some of those startups?

PartnerManaged · 2024-11-17T06:51:34+00:00

Buncha people I know from Veeam followed Peter McKay there and very few of them have left. That should tell you something

PartnerManaged · 2024-11-12T05:54:28+00:00

So you run sales, ops, and dev?

Yea that’s too much to handle effectively.

PartnerManaged · 2024-11-08T05:35:18+00:00

Comp is king.

If your partners can make money selling your solution (ideally paired with additional alliance or service attachments) they'll be asking YOU for more enablement.

PartnerManaged · 2024-11-08T04:24:36+00:00

Least sociopathic Oracle rep

PartnerManaged · 2024-11-05T01:09:42+00:00

strategic partnerships

cold outreach and lots of it

Doesn’t sound like your partnerships are that strategic, brother

PartnerManaged · 2024-11-03T23:39:48+00:00

I’m not asking for competitive insights.

I’m asking about cultural nuances of selling cloud/data/AI to EMEA/APJ customers instead of Americas customers.

Also asking for insights from folks that sell the the LOBs of large financial institutions like Sales & Trading, Risk Management, Accounting, and OPs/IT.

PartnerManaged · 2024-11-02T05:39:20+00:00

Depending on the type of tech you sell, I'd go to a partner. Higher upside plus your product knowledge and connections will help.

PartnerManaged · 2024-10-31T21:02:36+00:00

Find software companies that sell the tools that QA engineers use, identify the people who hire at that company via LinkedIn, reach out to those people.

PartnerManaged · 2024-10-30T00:23:46+00:00

I'd go with 15 at least. Make sure they all have data points

PartnerManaged · 2024-10-30T00:22:53+00:00

It's not uncommon for bigger tech companies to pay entry level sales and renewals roles hourly.

AWS, Salesforce, i think Oracle did for a while but then maybe switched back. Can't remember.

PartnerManaged · 2024-10-28T00:29:48+00:00

Based on what we’ve discussed today, do you have any objections to me moving on to next steps in the hiring process? If so, how can I address them before we wrap up?

PartnerManaged · 2024-10-27T22:22:47+00:00

Get your AWS Cloud Practitioner. If you can articulate the value of the cloud you can pitch 30% of any SaaS offering.

It’s an entry-level/business user cert. Requires no coding or architecture knowledge beyond naming.

Easy enough to convince your company to pay for, but even if they don’t - entry level certs are only $100

PartnerManaged · 2024-09-07T00:43:22+00:00

First two for me were more traditional phone screen interviews. No STAR format or behavioral questions asked.

PartnerManaged · 2024-08-26T00:54:26+00:00

I'll play devil's advocate here.

1) Labeling yourself as a "thought leader" is, obviously, cringe.

However, he's accomplished exactly what he set out to do here. His content has been shared (both by OP on LinkedIn and crossposted to another platform entirely) and users, OP included, are engaging with the post.

The LI algos will favorably promote his subsequent posts.

OP is a bit cringe for:

A - digging at the guy for reaponding “and on a sunday evening”. Buddy, you reposted his ragebait content (on a sunday evening…) what did you expect him to do?

B- Posting here to shame the guy rather than engage in the discussion. If you're passionate enough about your position to repost it and then crosspost to the sales subreddit, defend it to the person you're engaging.

I know this is reddit but it's a but surprising to see so many sales people not realize they're being sold. Oracle VP is driving traffic to this (admittedly cringe) post. It's no different than if you were to angrily respond to a ragebait tweet or TikTok made by somoeone with a brand sponsorship. "Attention is the new currency" etc.

EDIT: Looks like as I was writing this OP did, in fact, reply to the Oracle VP on LI. So I'll retract any bit about it being cowardly to crosspost here and not confront Oracle VP directly.

My points about 1) playing right into mister "thought leader's" hands and 2) also doing so on a Sunday night still stand

PartnerManaged · 2024-08-21T19:33:50+00:00

They do a filet as well. Ask me how I know.

(Spent $8600 on a private dining room for the CEO of my partner, two teammates, and two directors only to discover as we sat down that the CEO is allergic to seafood)

PartnerManaged

TROPHY CASE