Driven by Values: One Account Executive’s Journey into Personal and Professional Growth

May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Hear from Adam, Enterprise Account Executive and member of the MongoDB AAPI employee resource group, as he shares about his role at MongoDB, the importance of living company values, and how MongoDB has contributed to his personal and professional growth.

My journey into tech

I grew up as a first-generation Asian American in a town outside of San Diego. While San Diego is not traditionally known for being diverse, I’m fortunate that my town always felt relatively progressive and welcoming. The biggest challenges were the ones that existed in our own home and the career and life expectations that had been set for me as a first-generation child.

My parents pushed me towards pursuing a career in medicine at a young age and invested in my education as a pre-med student. When they learned that I was shifting my career toward tech sales as an adult, it was difficult for them to digest and understand. Looking back, while non-conventional for backgrounds of tech sellers, pre-med did, in fact, set me up for success when learning an extremely technical product with a complex sales cycle.

I started exploring an opportunity at MongoDB after hearing about the unique sales program and significant investment in employee growth. The hiring manager dove into my background and discussed what personally drove me, showing me how much MongoDB wants to ensure a mutually beneficial fit.

I joined MongoDB, working in new logo acquisition, moved into enterprise, and am now part of a global strategic team working with one of our largest customers. I’m selling the entire suite of MongoDB’s offerings: Enterprise Advanced, Atlas (our fully managed database), and, most recently, Atlas as a Vector database powering and scaling GenAI initiatives.

As I look towards the rest of this year, I have never felt more empowered to bring our expertise and technology to customers as true partners, helping them accelerate their C-level initiatives and drive meaningful impact within their organizations and to their customers. MongoDB Atlas is perfectly positioned and differentiated to support gen AI projects at scale, all within a unified developer data platform.

Find a company that lives its values

One of MongoDB's company values is to Be Intellectually Honest. We are encouraged to share our perspectives, even if some folks disagree, while also being open-minded to alternative perspectives so that we can all grow towards our goals together. Everyone is open to collaboration when asked, all the way up to our executive leadership. I regularly meet with both my peers and skip levels, and have never felt blocked when it made sense to connect with our executives.

I remember a time early on when I was feeling overwhelmed on how to best approach breaking into an account. After working with my leader, they acknowledged my efforts in certain areas, but also quickly identified opportunities that I had completely overlooked based on my own bias within the account. With additional suggestions on how to pursue those opportunities, I was able to quickly feel comfortable with a refreshed approach and landed the first deal.

Another core value at MongoDB is to Embrace the Power of Differences. One of the things I’ve appreciated greatly at MongoDB is leadership’s intentionality in creating a diverse environment and emphasizing the importance of pursuing that as an organization. Making sure that everyone feels valued, heard, and treated with respect is an absolute top priority for leaders.

Finally, Build Together is a value I live every single day. On a daily basis I work with our wider sales ecosystem who help scale the sales team’s efforts and support our success.

Sales Development Representatives help me scale my reach to engage individuals and teams I may have overlooked. Solutions Architects are key in pulling technical expertise from our 50k+ customers and highlighting why they chose MongoDB to accelerate innovation. Customer Success Managers are instrumental in connecting external stakeholders with our internal SMEs and thought leaders to help execute ideas. Deal Strategy and Legal support through complex close cycles, ensuring the fastest, best outcome for all parties involved.

Each of these teams are experts in their own domain and are critical parts of both the pre-sales and post-sales process to ensure our teams and customers are as successful as possible. A key component of this is communication, prep, and respect for each other's roles to help drive efficiency throughout the process.

A focus on personal and professional growth

Throughout my time at MongoDB, I’ve been challenged to learn a complex technology while working with some of the smartest people in the industry. I am regularly humbled by the team we have and the engineers we work with. Everything I’ve learned from them has helped me sharpen my skills and advance my career.

As I reflect on Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, I encourage fellow salespeople from the AAPI community to ask for help early and often, whether it’s questions about technology, growth opportunities, or customer engagement. While it may feel intimidating at first, especially earlier on in your career, if you’re at the right organization, you should feel empowered to be vulnerable and supported in your own growth.

I’d also recommend finding a network or community with a variety of skill sets and experience to learn from. Doing so has allowed me to gain different perspectives and continue growing personally and professionally.