From M.S. of Geology to Systems Trainer (SaaS Business Development)

Anne Brennan shares her story of starting her career in Business Development and System Trainer after graduating with her Masters in Geoscience. 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anne-brennan-364a64b1/

Be on the lookout for Enverus’ Seekers Program coming this summer.

Know of someone that would be a great interview for the podcast? Email Reed@ExOilfield.com

Was the podcast valuable to you? There are 2 free ways to support the show. Subscribe in Apple Podcasts or Spotify and consider rating the podcast 5 stars and writing a quick review. 

I know this is called "ExOilfield"... but it’s not because everyone in these interviews is no longer in the industry. ExOilfield alludes to many of the listeners, too. The idea is to expand your horizons and look outside of the traditional oil and gas roles. This conversation could not come at a better time. If you’re in college, a new graduate, or just looking for some inspiration, you will gain a lot from our discussion. When I graduated in 2011 and started my traditional career path at ConocoPhillips, the thought of going into Sales or Business Development in the Tech space out of school didn’t even show up on my radar… and now I’m in Business Development outside of Exploration and Production companies (E&Ps). I wish I had heard this story 9 years ago.

 

I learned so many things from Annie during our conversation. Anne's original career projection upon graduating with her Masters in Geoscience was to become an exploration geologist and help find the next great oilfields. As we all know, not everything always works out as you initially plan. And as you’ll hear, that can be a great thing! 

. Anne had several oil and gas internships learning the conventional oil and gas fields in Louisiana. She wanted to carve her own path and live in a city that fit her personality and lifestyle, ultimately targetting Austin, TX. So, she started looking for "Geologist-esque jobs” of all kinds. She never went into a traditional petrotechnical role and is extremely happy in her position as an internal trainer on the sales success team.

-----

As Anne started her career in her business development / sales role, Enverus was growing rapidly. She was involved with hiring lots of new team members. 

 

What makes the best employees that you hired? 

A balanced mix of:

• Hungry
• Humble
• Smart (IQ & EQ)
• Communication

A lot of people possess a percentage of all these things but it’s tough to find professionals with necessary levels in all of them

 

And don’t forget that in sales, you must be:

• Money-motivated

• Competitive
• Willing to learn and collaborate

---

When Anne was searching for her full-time career, she reached out to many people through her personal network. Whether it was through LinkedIn, Email, or Calls, she noticed an important and consistent trend:

"[Reaching out to people in my network while job searching] gave me the confidence that nearly everybody I talked to genuinely wanted to help. They may not have been able to help, but this gave me confidence to ask"

It’s important to see that catching up and networking with colleagues and classmates can be a small amount of work and effort for huge potential value.  

---

Additionally, we discussed some amazing tips for interviewing for a sales position... at the end of the interview be sure to ask for feedback and if this interview was good enough to get the job. The idea is that if you’re feeling confident and have made that connection with the interviewer, then you’re trying to “close the deal”. Sometimes, the interviewers will review candidates and the question is asked: “Well, did he or she close? Did they ask for the job? Did they ask if they got it?”

---

Anne gave an incredibly useful list of resources:

• Sandler Sales Training (www.sandler.com)
• “Don't paint seagulls in other people's pictures”
• General knowledge of the industry and what people are going through - upper hand if you're trying to sell a solution to people
• The Advantage by Patrick Lencioni
• The Challenger Sales by Brent Adamson and Matthew Dixon
• Good to Great by Jim Collins
• Start with Why by Simon Sinek

---

Know of someone that would be a great interview for the podcast? Email Reed@ExOilfield.com

Was the podcast valuable to you? There are 2 free ways to support the show. Subscribe in Apple Podcasts or Spotify and consider rating the podcast 5 stars and writing a quick review.