From Med School To VP Sales At $400M SaaS Security Company Darktrace With Parker Ashley

On Target: Sales Leaders

You might’ve known before that not all stress is bad stress. Some amount is helpful and might cause you to progress in your career quicker! Stress is a good thing if it helps you to push yourself forward in your career. It’s also one of the secrets to the success of our guest for today’s episode, Parker Ashley, a senior sales professional currently serving as the VP of Americas at Darktrace.

Recounting his journey to sales, Parker shares it hadn’t been easy for him. He started in university wanting to be a surgeon, pursuing courses in certain branches of medicine, and was dead focused on that goal, even scoring 98 percentile in the MCAT, the admissions test for medical school in the US. Parker was determined to find a job soon after med school after spending almost all his life in the library among books (studying for a goal now totally irrelevant). But after graduation, he started working at his friend’s startup to fund himself till he got a medical job. That’s where all his calculations started to fall apart – when he began falling out of love with medicine and the healthcare industry as a whole. He realized he couldn’t spend a significant part of his life doing something he did not enjoy. So while interviewing for medical jobs, he also worked wholeheartedly as an SDR. Even when he got the job he had been preparing for, for what felt like a lifetime, he knew he couldn’t accept it, and it came as a shock to his whole family, that was expecting him to be a doctor. He needed time to assess if the medical field was for him, and he happened to have done well.

The newfound interest in sales + its rewarding potential got into Parker completely. So when Darktrace found him, he was more than ready to take up the challenge. Today, Parker is not only an experienced sales representative but a leader and mentor who helps others find and succeed in their career in the industry.

Sit back and listen to this episode to learn about Parker’s impressive journey and the secrets and motivations behind his outstanding success!

Key Talking Points:

● Using stress to your advantage

● What the stoic philosophy teaches you about work and stress

● How to drive forward in your career with freedom of choice

● Cultivating grit

Connect with Parker!

● LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/winstonparkerashley

Connect with Alex!

● Website: www.elitelevel.co| https://www.alexalleyne.com

● Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elitelevelalex

● Twitter: https://twitter.com/elitelevelalex

● YouTube: https://youtube.com/c/elitelevelpodcast

● Learn with Alex: https://www.elitelevel.co