We’re back for the next installment in Bandalier’s Alumni Series with an exciting guest – Renee Barmada, our first-ever employee! She recently caught up with Jeremy to discuss her experiences and how they’ve influenced her career path.

Renee came to Bandalier with a ton of hospitality experience and a dash of in-person sales experience. She came across the role on Indeed (where we still advertise!) and realized the role would be a great option to use her existing skills and continue her professional development. After interviewing with Matt and Jeremy, she became the first member of Bandalier’s team. Though she had sales experience, Bandalier’s structure was an entirely new experience:

“In hospitality and retail, you have to physically do something all the time. There’s a big difference between that and working only on your computer. You have to learn how to set your own standards, outline the day, and determine what success is going to look like. Ultimately, you make the choice of whether you’re going to win or lose that day, and it’s a matter of how hard you work.”

Renee loved her new role, but she knew that the transition would be a tough one. As she explains,

“Hospitality gives fast money, but there’s no opportunity to grow past that. Now, I’m in much better shape – career-wise. Every sacrifice I made to work at Bandalier has paid off tremendously.”

After working with Bandalier for a little over two years, Renee moved to another opportunity with a local tech company. She wanted to grow further and found her current role in Enterprise Business Development shortly thereafter. Renee has crushed her sales quotas every quarter, and she credits her training at Bandalier for getting her on the right track:

“Matt’s Sales 101 training was the foundation for my success. At higher levels, companies just want to train you on the product and let you make the sales – they don’t want to teach you how to make sales. I’m reaching out to companies with hundreds of thousands of employees, and it’s tough to reach folks directly, but I still use a lot of the tactics that I learned at Bandalier.”

We’re so proud of Renee’s growth and success, and we’re looking forward to giving more folks opportunities to develop professionally as she did. If you’re interested in joining Bandalier’s team, head over to our careers page!