Adrianna Vidal on Dropping out of High School, Tech Sales, and Job Hunt Hacks

May 1, 2023·26 min·2 clips

Adriana walked into Men's Warehouse and begged the manager to hire her after months of rejections.

This episode features host Joel interviewing guest Adriana Vidal, who leads community at RevGenius and built a career after dropping out of high school. Vidal shares her personal journey and practical job-search strategies for non-traditional career paths. She left high school in 11th grade due to anxiety and health issues, obtaining her GED and taking community college classes instead. Vidal's first job search involved months of unsuccessful online applications before she printed resumes and visited stores in person. A manager at Men's Wearhouse hired her after she insisted on an interview, beginning her four-year retail stint. She later worked in marketing and accidentally became a property manager for a year and a half, dealing with constant emergencies like construction delays. After a particularly stressful week, Vidal decided to pivot into tech sales after watching YouTube videos by Oracle account executive Patrick Dang about sales development roles. She secured over 30 interviews in two and a half weeks by posting her career transition on LinkedIn and accepted a sales development representative position. Vidal describes the SDR role as fostering camaraderie but notes she sometimes struggles to shift from a quota-driven mindset. She emphasizes that transferable soft skills from retail or property management, like persistence and relationship-building, are key to breaking into tech. Her job-search advice includes virtually "walking around with your resume" by proactively networking on LinkedIn. Vidal recommends sending personalized messages and video pitches to hiring managers, joining communities like RevGenius, and playing the long game by building genuine connections. She argues that crafting a compelling narrative about transferable skills matters more than a traditional resume or specific experience. RevGenius serves as a free community for anyone in tech revenue roles, offering weekly events and Slack channels for career advice and networking. Vidal believes remote work makes such digital communities especially valuable for building professional relationships and visibility. The conversation is informal and encouraging, punctuated by authentic moments like a door knock during recording. Joel and Vidal adopt a motivational, coaching-oriented tone focused on empowerment and actionable tips. This episode will inspire job seekers without college degrees or those in career transitions, particularly in sales, marketing, or tech. Listeners strictly interested in formal credentials or corporate ladder-climbing might find the alternative path less relevant.

As heard by us

A nontraditional career path becomes a useful map for breaking in.

The Daily Job Hunt follows Adriana Vidal through a nontraditional career path built outside the usual route. She talks through dropping out of high school, spending about four years in retail, doing marketing work for local businesses, and reselling vintage clothes on eBay and…

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Hear how Adriana Vidal turned a nontraditional start into a very usable job-hunt playbook.

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