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Name: Emily Niemiec
Class Year: 2018
Major: Marketing
Position: Sales Representative
Company: Liberty Mutual
I started thinking about my marketing career when I started out in my first job during the summer of 2013 as a lifeguard back home in Connecticut. From there I moved throughout a few different lifeguard/swim instructor positions during summers only from summer 2013-2015. In the summer of 2016 I did the summer abroad internship program and was placed in a nonprofit called Team Hope as a Marketing Intern. In the summer of 2017 I worked as a Demand Generation Intern at Iron Mountain. In the spring of 2018 I was a Marketing Intern at ZoomInfo in Waltham and then I graduated and started as a Sales Rep for Liberty Mutual. I also maintained a lifeguarding job throughout college as well and was a First-Year Seminar Facilitator and Orientation Leader.
I became interested in sales from coursework at Bentley. I had taken a few sales classes since we can do that to fulfill Marketing major classes. I liked the element of persistence required to succeed in sales as well as the communication aspect. For a lot of my marketing jobs, surprisingly enough, they weren’t that collaborative throughout the days at work and I did a lot of excel focused tasks and things that didn’t excite me too much. The uncertainty of sales also interested me – I mean this in a sense of every day being different and it not being a 9-5 desk job.
I find the most rewarding aspect of my position is serving as an resource for others. In a less superficial manner, a really rewarding part of my job is being educational and consultative. Not only am I helping people protect their assets from unexpected events, but I am also educating them about their coverages in regards to what is included and what is not included, and how different coverages are more preferably tailored to them based at where they are in their life and where their life has taken them. A lot of people think they are in a good spot with their insurance and I love having the knowledge to be able to show them why they may not be right and how I can help them. On the more superficial side, one of the most rewarding aspects of this position is the compensation structure, especially in insurance. The ability to achieve bonuses and see your hard work reflect in your paycheck is definitely an awesome part of the job.
I find the most challenging aspect of my position is the nature of sales positions. Any sales job is challenging, especially in the beginning. It’s difficult to build a book of business. You need to be well educated, confident, and driven. You get rejected and you have to pick yourself up. Days are long so it can be difficult to do that, to pick yourself back up and keep going. Luckily I have a really great team and have enjoyed my experienced thus far and it’s a long-term-goal kind of job so knowing my hard work now will pay off in the future is really motivating too.
The most helpful advice I have for someone preparing for this career is to go into it with an open mind and don’t take anything too personally. Patience is a virtue and not everything goes as planned, but set goals, keep working hard, and you will see your success.
The Bentley specific resources I would recommend to someone pursuing this career are the unique and relevant courses we have offer to us at Bentley. I strongly suggest taking Effective Speaking (COM210) for those who aren’t really confident with their speaking, along with Sales Management (PRS 343), and also any marketing classes that implement HubSpot specific learning courses, as the HubSpot tools helped me understand consumers and how to market to them appropriately, which is actually a part of my everyday job.
The person that was most helpful in getting me where I am today was Jim Pouliopolis!!! I can’t say enough good things about that man. Colleen Murphy, the Professional Sales Career Coach, was also very helpful throughout my senior year and Alyssa Hammond, the Director of Undergraduate Career Services, taught me how to perfect my cover letter in CDI, which gave me an edge when applying for jobs.
If you’re interested in pursuing a career with Liberty Mutual, or you’d like to learn more about the company click here. More specifically, if you are interested in their internship opportunities, here is some additional information. Also, be sure to connect with Emily on LinkedIn if you want to learn more from her!
