For Kirthana Iyer, enterprise account executive at Snowflake, a career in technology wasn’t always a part of her plan.

“I didn’t think there was a place for me in the technology industry. I definitely knew I wanted to do a job that allowed me to collaborate with different personalities but as a non-technical person, I didn’t know what that could look like in tech,” she said.

When searching for a summer internship during the COVID pandemic, Kirthana would end up finding an interesting role at Snowflake—working with the Partner Marketing team to build effective ways to communicate with our partner ecosystem.

With her three-month internship winding to a close at the end of the summer, Kirthana talked about her future with her mentor at the time, Saqib Mustafa, senior director of Alliances Marketing, and was introduced to the sales development representative (SDR) role. Curious about the role after her internship, she joined another company as an SDR but stayed top of mind for leaders at Snowflake.

“I actually had a [Sales] director reach out to me a few months after my internship while I was exploring Sales at another company and not really enjoying it. I was actually thinking of leaving Sales altogether,” she said.

Judging by her title, it’s clear that Kirthana leaned into the opportunities available to her and it paid off.

With the right amount of grit, determination, and support, Kirthana has not only fully embraced a career path she hadn’t considered but is quickly rising to the top. We would know, she was just awarded fiscal year 2024’s Most Valuable Player at this year’s Snowflake Sales Kickoff (SKO).

You never saw yourself in technology, yet both of your parents have careers in STEM. How did that impact your perception of the industry and influence your initial career path in journalism?

Growing up in a STEM-heavy household, there’s an expectation on where you’re going to go. As a first-generation American, there was a real push to go into engineering, become a doctor or a lawyer. If you didn’t explore one of those buckets, you knew you had more to prove to be considered successful. I didn’t feel that was always fair. Competing on my high school debate team, I learned the importance of looking at an issue from different perspectives and a journalism major allowed me to nurture that curiosity. That’s why I went to Boston University for Journalism and where I first heard about data journalism.

Once at Boston University, you had an academic advisor who encouraged you to take a data journalism course. Is that when you fell in love with data?

When I took that class, we leveraged SQL to scrape through large documents, tables and webpages. I focused mainly on writing about the judicial system in Massachusetts, as I was focused on joining the “lawyer” bucket at the time. I would look through and find trends within the data that could help me develop a story. I learned the power of data then, and I could see the world through a completely different lens. And I got to do some coding that, you know, I’m sure my parents wished I had done from the get-go.

So, how did you end up in Sales?

I was actually hoping to stay within the journalism-legal realm upon graduation. I planned to have a summer internship in Washington, DC, applying both my newfound skills in data and communications. Then, April 2020 came and launched everyone into the COVID pandemic. It was a really scary time as a 2020 graduate. A lot of programs were shut down, and I was back to square one with no plan for what was next. I went by volume and applied to 90 internships in completely different industries, ultimately landing on a Partner Marketing internship at Snowflake.

Following that internship and after being introduced to sales as a career, I joined Snowflake in December 2020 as an SDR. I kept an open mind after almost leaving Sales altogether and worked hard. I told myself, “I’m going to at least try it. If I don’t like it, that’s okay, but at least I can say, I gave it an honest go.”

You definitely gave it an “honest go” seeing as you were awarded FY24 MVP at this year’s SKO. What did it take to get there?

It takes a village. Yes, ask for help, but also ask for sponsors, too. I really don’t think I would be in this position, or have the opportunities I had, without some of the amazing people who believed in me like Marc Wendling, vice president of Worldwide Data Cloud Sales & Alliances, Lisa Yu, regional vice president of Corporate Sales, and Jordan Vandenberg, senior District Manager. They saw the work I did and saw my potential. “Growing up” at Snowflake and basically starting the first phase of my adult life, there was a lot to learn. And what’s great is that so many people here have been willing to teach me and have made me feel like I’m not alone. That is something I never thought I would get out of my professional career. I very much separated my personal and professional lives but I’ve been so lucky to learn that your uniqueness makes you special.

What advice would you give to women looking to make a similar transition into a male-dominated industry?

Make sure you’re at a company you care about and that you’re working at a company where you believe in the product. If you believe in the product, your job becomes a lot easier because you’re selling from your own passion. Don’t just look at the title, “Sales,” and make a perception on what the job might be like. If you’re interested in what the job is about, apply. Really take a chance on yourself because you might find that the job is so different from what you think. Always let them be the one to say “no” to you, not the other way around. You can always bring such a unique perspective to a situation and there’s so much value in the diversity of thought in a job like this when you’re working with new people all the time. Sales is all about the details, it’s all about nuance. Take in what you know, believe that you can do it, and walk into it knowing you’re going to give it everything you’ve got.

Another contributor to Kirthana’s success? Kindness.

“I very much go by the philosophy that kindness is free. No one has to pay for that, and respect and kindness go hand-in-hand. That’s what makes my sales voice so unique–I care about my customers. If they’re not winning, I’m not winning.”

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A passion for data can stem (get it?) from anywhere and your next career opportunity may arise in the most unexpected place. Whether you’re a recent graduate, like Kirthana was, or a bonafide expert in your field, like Kirthana is today, check out our openings on the Career site.