{"id":22943,"date":"2022-03-11T09:30:35","date_gmt":"2022-03-11T09:30:35","guid":{"rendered":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/?p=22943"},"modified":"2022-03-11T11:57:19","modified_gmt":"2022-03-11T11:57:19","slug":"interview-with-solenne-thomas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/interview-with-solenne-thomas\/","title":{"rendered":"Women\u2019s History Month: Interview with Solenne Thomas"},"content":{"rendered":"

To help #BreakTheBias this year during Women’s History Month<\/a>, we\u2019re raising awareness of some incredible causes like The Global Fund for Women and The Girls Network. We are also inviting inspiring women to talk about topics that need more attention.<\/p>\n

This interview features Solenne Thomas, Solutions Engineer at RingCentral.<\/p>\n

Can you describe what it was like to work your way up to your position and what has been driving you in your career?<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

I didn’t know much about solutions or sales engineering when I left university. I started in a customer support role at a company called WCN. After that, I went to IBM and finally moved onto Box. <\/span>During my time at Box, I encountered solution and sales engineering. The team was so lovely to work with and always full of good advice. While talking to them about their jobs<\/a> in engineering, I quickly understood that this was actually what I wanted to do. But it turned out there weren’t really any junior solution engineer roles at that time, and there weren’t really any women in these sorts of roles.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So I went to the solutions engineering director, and I said that I want to be part of their team. He explained everything about a solution engineer role and asked me to think about it and come back to him. I thought about it for a while but was nervous about the transition during that time. A couple of years afterwards, I had that same discussion with my manager again, and I told them I wanted to move into engineering. He was hugely encouraging and told me to go for it.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It was a long journey where I had to be very tenacious and not give up. But I also really valued someone mentoring me through it all. The advice I would pass on here is to be proactive and ask people for their feedback and points of view no matter what stage of your career.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I went to the director of that team, and he set me up with a mentor that I shadowed. I worked closely with my mentor. He let me listen to his meetings and ask questions. After a few months, there was an opening for a role. But unfortunately, it wasn’t an opening for the sales engineering role they had been pushing me for. I made it to the last round of interviews, but unfortunately, I didn’t make it through to the last round of interviews, mainly because the other candidate had more experience.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A year or so later, I applied for a new role in the sales engineering team. I went to the person I felt could give me some advice on what I needed to do to succeed in this role. He was one of the people I found hardest to deal with, so I thought it would be a good challenge for me to approach him. I asked for his advice. He told me that there are no reasons that I would not deserve my place at the table as a solutions engineer. I only needed to project confidence and believe I deserved that place.<\/span><\/p>\n

The second piece of advice he gave me was to practise presenting to a couple of people. So, when I got my brief, I put my presentation and demo together and asked people for advice. That helped me as I had guidance and feedback from a few different people.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n