Alex joined Funnel in February 2019 as a solutions consultant and as the 15th employee in the growing Boston office. A year after she joined, she was at a major crossroads in her career in which she had to decide between continuing her work or pursuing two master’s degrees. I had the opportunity to sit down with her and talk about working at Funnel, balancing school, and her advice for others following in her footsteps.

Take me through your journey from when you started at Funnel to your decision to pursue your master’s.

“I started full-time as a solutions consultant in February of 2019. I was the 15th person in the Boston office, and I previously had 2 other sales engineering jobs at large companies before Funnel. A year after joining, there was a program at MIT I was aware of, and applied for a dual MBA and master's in engineering, which I got into in February of 2020. Everyone at the company was very supportive of my decision to pursue this, to the point that Fredrik, our CEO who also did his Master's at MIT, sent them a letter of recommendation on my behalf.”

What was balancing work and school like?

“So I began school in June 2020 and continued working part-time at Funnel, first as part of the customer success team and then moving on to the revenue operations team. Funnel was extremely flexible when it came to working, allowing me to work 5-20 hrs per week, depending on the workload I had from school. And the income from Funnel supported me by paying for small stuff like meals, groceries, and things like that.”

And upon graduation, where did you go from there?

“As time went on, I stayed in touch with many people at the company and tried to find and create the right role for me to succeed. Fortunately, we were able to come to an agreement, and in June 2022, I started as a full-time project manager at Funnel!”

Do you have any advice for others considering the pursuit of a master’s while working?

“Some of the best advice I've ever been given was to only run toward something, not away from it. In past roles and companies, applying to graduate school would've been an ‘out’ or a means of running from a job I wasn't passionate about. But at Funnel, I finally felt that I was in a great place to be supported, and whether I got into the graduate program or not, I would have the opportunity to grow and advance.”

We also got some perspective from Tim Hurst, Alex’s manager during this time.

“We had a great opportunity to bring Alex into the Funnel revenue operations team during her studies,” said Tim. “We benefited by gaining more experience collaborating across time zones, having Alex close to our colleagues in Boston, and by learning from each other."

“Alex and I planned early with the team to make sure we could work collaboratively despite her reduced hours and time zone differences. So that Alex would have the best chance of success during her time with RevOps, we assigned her responsibilities that would add value, that she could learn from, and also that would fit Alex’s schedule."

"Overall, Alex became a full (though not full-time) team member with notable impacts including the improved role and team management in our CRM and collaborating to make improvements to our expansion pipeline process. Ahead of her graduation, we spoke frequently to define what a full-time role at Funnel would look like and what would be the best fit for her. I am really glad that we have been able to define such a role and I am excited to continue working together with Alex!”