Paige Rathod started at Appian in 2020 as the Workplace Experience Coordinator, leading events in Sydney while adapting to the changing rules of the pandemic. A year and a half later she was looking for a new challenge so moved to join the Sales team in the APJ region (Asia-Pacific and Japan).
In her first year after moving to the Sales team, Paige won the Senior Sales Development Representative of the Year Award. At our annual Sales kickoff in Orlando, she was recognized for her ambition, leadership, and work that impacts our customers.
We asked Paige about her career journey in Sales, what she finds most rewarding about her work, and what it’s like being part of the growing Appian office in Sydney, Australia.
What sparked your interest to move from Workplace Experience Coordinator to Sales Development Representative (SDR)?
In the workplace role, I coordinated team events and meetings and I loved working with the Sales team. We coordinated one trip to Hunter Valley, a wine region outside of Sydney, and over a bonfire one night, I got to know my Sales team colleagues and their work sparked my curiosity.
I wanted to make a bigger impact at Appian. I wanted to help our company grow and have more visibility globally. I joined the AppianWomen mentorship program and was paired with Luke Thomas, our Area VP in the APJ region. Having him as my mentor gave me really good insight into the sales organization and how it worked. That started to spark my inner competitiveness. I talked to other Sales colleagues and found I shared similar ambitions to make a global impact at Appian and the career growth intrigued me.
There are many paths to grow your career as a Sales Development Representative at Appian. I love mentoring others and the management route to a SDR Manager is most exciting to me. Our team in Australia is small right now, and our Sales team reports to Europe. As the APJ region grows, there will be even more opportunities to grow and that’s something that really excites me!
How did your team support you during your transition to the Sales team?
It’s hard having that first conversation with your manager that you want to move on, especially when there’s no negativity to the role. I just wanted more of a challenge and felt ready to try something new that would be internally rewarding for me.
My manager and team were happy for me and helpful during my move to the Sales team. I went through a four-week virtual training where I had a daily morning meeting with a US colleague to ask questions and go through some sales role play activities. I didn’t have any proven sales experience on my resume so I’m very appreciative that they saw how my skills could translate and provided lots of ways to learn.
Appian recognizes that employee interests can evolve over time, and is committed to fostering internal mobility within the organization. If an employee expresses a desire to explore other areas of the business, we are open and willing to collaborate with them to identify potential internal opportunities for professional growth and advancement. It’s great that it’s so common at Appian which makes these conversations easier.
What impact have you seen in your sales work over the past year?
Growing our pipeline and focusing on revenue generation in APJ is the simple answer. That's what Appian needs to succeed and grow, and it feels fulfilling to have my work so clearly tied to our business growth.
I work a lot with public sector customers. The way I see it, the work that we're doing is not just helping a company's bottom line, it's helping the citizens that use the services that the government is providing. I love that way to think about the impact I’m making in my role through our Appian product.
Congrats on being The Appian SDR Of The Year Award winner! How did it feel to win the award?
It was overwhelming, I had to hold back the emotions! Recognition is something important to me at work. So to have that recognition on a global level in front of 800 of my peers was incredible. I’m proud of what I’ve achieved in my first year and it was an ambitious goal I set out for myself when I moved to the Sales team but didn’t think I’d actually get it. Hitting numbers is one thing, but my manager talked about how the awards are also about the Appian values, being there to help people, working to impact, and stepping up as a leader.
I'm also so happy that our APJ region is being recognized on such a large global stage like that. A Solutions Consultant colleague of mine was also recognized as well as a few others. So it's just really exciting that our region is growing in such an incredible way and getting noticed and celebrated for the talent that we have.
What do you find most rewarding about your work?
I really enjoy the challenge and then seeing the direct impact of my success with our customers. I'm an internally competitive person, so when I’m surrounded by ambitious people doing well like I am at Appian, it makes me want to as well.
When I think back to a few years ago, it’s incredible seeing how far I’ve come. I almost didn’t apply for the job at Appian because I’d never worked in the tech industry before and doubted whether I would be successful. Now, I have such a different mindset where I see where I can go with Appian and see the future growth knowing it’s up to me as long as I put in the work.
The growth in our region is incredible since I started and that’s really rewarding to be part of. I work with Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore and we’re bringing on new team members to focus on building out Japan.
As you said, our APJ team is growing! For people interested in joining the team, what would they find at the Sydney Appian office on a typical day?
We have a really fun atmosphere that you can hear over lunch with the back and forth of ping pong balls and lots of people together chatting in the kitchen. We’re a close-knit group in Australia that works hard, but when we have some downtime, we take the time to relax. Everyone comes into the office three days a week and every few weeks we meet for a game night and you’ll find people shooting hoops in our new basketball arcade.
Our affinity groups are amazing, and we host social events with groups like AppianPride and AppianWomen with everyone on the team. They’re about mentorship, helping people get the most out of their time at Appian, and making new connections in our region and globally.