Career Pivot: Leveraging My Data Analytics Background in the Rev Ops and Admin World

It has been almost one year since I accepted my first Administrator Role. This pivot was not something I sought, but I am grateful for the journey it’s taken me on.  

I naturally fell into my first pricing role after completing my Master’s in Data Analytics, where I had my first real exposure to Excel. Thanks to a fantastic women-led Sales Operations team, they saw my potential and led me down a path to grow into an experienced Data Analyst.

I sat in a Pricing role for the following six years across two companies with great teams but with intermittent, long periods of staleness. I realized I needed to be challenged in order to be interested in my work, and started to get the fear that if I continued down my current path, it would leave me unfulfilled.

I redirected and joined a startup company as a Sales Analyst. This meant a 17% decrease in salary, a huge loss of comfortability in my skill set, and coming into a completely new industry. I had been a Salesforce user until this point, but was hired with no Administrator experience of any kind. Looking back on this, I would have felt a lot more insecure accepting the role if I had known any better. Thankfully, my manager felt differently and hired me because of my data experience over Salesforce experience. I was able to learn on the job and picked things up quickly.

After six months of guided experience and the help of sporadic Trailheads modules and Udemy courses, I passed my Salesforce Administrator certification. At the same time, my boss was offered a role at a Consulting firm and asked if I would be interested in following him there. Again, a feeling of inadequacy came. I hadn’t been doing Admin work that long and didn’t feel I would be qualified for the role. This was another unexpected opportunity, and it felt super risky for me.

But, I took the chance and joined him. It has been another six months since I was hired as a Revenue Operations Analyst at Admin Within. I have been challenged in so many different ways and have gained the most rewarding experience in my career thus far. Here are a few things I’ve learned along the way:

• My data analytics background has played a major role in picking up an Admin role quickly; there is extensive crossover between all sorts of functions I use in Excel and Salesforce systems and processes.
• I am constantly being challenged by client problems and learning different ways to carry out what is being solutioned for them
• I am able to merge my creative and analytical mindset in reworking and formatting current client tools and creating documentation
• My experience in data is a unique skill that allows me to lend my abilities to other team members
• I have made up for the loss in salary from my initial jump and my earning potential is much higher than my previous path

In one year, I had completely pivoted, and my lack of experience as an Administrator did not affect me at all. I now work on projects for several clients doing large-scale data analysis, and my background in data has benefited me more than I could have imagined. Coming into an Administrator Role can be intimidating, but it has taught me not to count out skills you may think are non-transferable. I have found a new purpose in my career and am confident in my growth and where I can go from here. I encourage anyone not to be afraid to seek new and challenging opportunities; no matter how risky they seem, the payoff can be well worth it!

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