“We love to learn”
“We want you to improve your skills”
”We have a culture of learning”
These are things I’ve heard over the years working at various jobs in both the Civil and Tech industry. It is something that many companies list in their job applications as a selling point and why wouldn’t they? For most people, the idea of a job where you can work and improve is ideal. No one wants to voluntarily stay stagnant, whether it be in work or personal.
But what does a Culture of Learning truly mean? I thought I knew until I started at AutoRabit where I experienced a true Culture of Learning and realized what it really meant. It means support and enablement in every aspect of your job to help you become the best employee you can become and improve your professional skillset without necessarily connecting the two.
What I mean by that last line is that some places that claim to have a Culture of Learning only help you learn to the extent of doing your job and nothing beyond that or to the extent of doing your job and possibly a specific path they want you to follow. Now this is still much better than places that have no learning and enablement. But a true Culture of Learning is a company that enables you to do your job to the best, understands your goals for the future, and helps you learn the skillset to pursue that path though it may not be exactly what they need at the moment.
At AutoRabit I finally understood what a Culture of Learning was. Let’s dive into my perspective as a Sales Development Representative onboarding for the first 30 days.
Ramp Month
The ramp period in Sales is when you are learning, onboarding, etc, and getting paid in full until your quota kicks in and you have to earn your commission. Even in positions with no commission, there is a Ramp period where it is understood that you aren’t responsible for booking anything yet and are focused on getting up to speed.
At AutoRabit there is a dedicated Enablement team that met with me in the first few days and shared a 30/60/90 day plan. The first 30 days had no sales activities but were solely focused on learning about the AutoRabit platform, its products, and selling as an SDR at AutoRabit. Every day was broken down into videos to watch, modules to complete, articles to read, who in your team to meet, and reading to do along with how long estimated for each. I was also starting at the same time as 2 other SDRs so we were put in a cohort to progress together.
Almost every day or every other day, Enablement would meet with our cohort and discuss what we had learned and help answer any questions as well as quiz us to help us practice and check our knowledge and understanding of the company and products.
In parallel to this we were given a reading list (embedded below) and every week we meet and discuss the reading assigned to us. We have progressed through Talent Code so far and are currently reading DevOps Handbook. I plan to write a review for each one and my Talent Code review will be out shortly!
Beyond the Ramp
As I am writing this post I have gone live and have started selling but the enablement doesn’t stop. As I said, the 30/60/90 plan is ongoing even though Ramp was just the first 30 and there is always learning going on. We have daily enablement sessions and I see SDRs and AEs who have worked here for months and years participate in book clubs, enablement sessions, mock calls and pitches, and training of all types. The attitude of “there’s always more to learn” is set on day one and is pervasive amongst the employees which lends to a healthy environment for anyone who wants to grow and take advantage of the opportunities available. It’s an incredibly exciting culture to experience and has helped AutoRabit grow into the amazing company it is today. I have felt the urge to start writing about my experiences at work again because of the joy I’ve had working here so far and hopefully, that continues and this blog becomes active again. Let me know if there’s anything yall wanna hear from me about and keep a lookout for my book reviews!