Creating the right conditions to gain opportunities

Opportunities come unexpectedly, but how can you help to make them happen? Hector Sim, Senior Manager of Sales Operations at Nansen, shares his experience in making an overseas posting possible.

Opportunities often come unexpectedly, but they’re not just about being in the right place at the right time. Many articles share tips and tricks like making sure to network, asking for opportunities, and stepping out of your comfort zone. But what does it look like to actually do this in real life?

I spoke to Hector Sim, Senior Manager of Sales Operations at Nansen (a data analytics and insights platform for Web3 investors) to hear his story about how he got an attractive overseas posting and what he did to make it possible.

Q. Hi Hector, thanks for being the first guest on Multiple Angles! I’m excited to dig into the details of your story but could you share a bit about yourself to start?

Hector: I’ve been in sales operations roles for the past five to six years. It’s a job that I find quite fascinating because things change so much that there’s never a dull day. There’s always something to fix, something to build.

I started my career at Zalora (a large e-commerce player in Asia) before moving to Linkedin. I spent close to two years in their Singapore office before working in their San Francisco office for another two years. I then returned to Singapore to join product analytics company, Mixpanel.

I was then impacted by layoffs during the pandemic and found my next role at a new business division in Autodesk. That was quite interesting as the new division was viewed as a key driver of growth and operated like a startup within a large company. I’ve recently joined Nansen as the first sales operations hire to build and lead the function for the startup as it grows.

Q: You mentioned spending two years in Linkedin’s Singapore office before securing an overseas posting to their San Francisco office. That sounds like a pretty interesting opportunity that doesn’t happen often. How did that come about?

Hector: I joined Linkedin on a contract so my main focus was getting a permanent role with them. I had a supportive manager who saw the potential in me and advised me to be patient as opportunities would come my way. So that’s what I did. And she was right. I became a permanent employee and also got posted to the US.

It was quite interesting how the overseas posting came about. My manager and I were building up a sales development (SDR) team in Singapore. At that time, we had only around 10 SDRs. After two years, it ballooned to around 50 SDRs. Our sales operations team also grew to around three to four individuals. We experienced exponential growth.

The SDRs help our sales teams to prospect and nurture leads to build our sales pipeline. They would get most of their leads from inbound marketing, and the rest from their outbound efforts. In the early days, lead assignment/routing, data quality, and the lack of data presented challenges for us. In my first year at Linkedin, I spent a lot of time getting into the weeds and understanding things like how inbound leads were being generated, how our systems worked, etc.

Our systems were mostly controlled by the HQ team. For example, many in the team would long vacations over independence day (sometimes up to two weeks), which meant that out here in APAC, we could not get issues fixed quickly. That was clearly a problem since business goes on over here even if it’s a holiday in the US. So I made a case for me to get access to the systems so I can handle these issues while the HQ team was out.

I think that was when I started to gain credibility within the global sales operations team. I was able to show them I understood the systems and how they operate. To add some context, Linkedin had built many of its tools and they were complex, so it can be quite difficult for someone to walk in and figure out what to do. This helped me slowly gain the trust of the US team.

Then one of the colleagues in the US responsible for the systems had taken another internal posting. This left a gap in the team. As I mentioned, the systems were quite complex and it would take a new hire a very long time to understand and learn them.

So my manager in the US thought of me. I already knew how stuff worked so she thought I would be a good fit to fill the role. That was what started the conversations about my possible transfer to the San Francisco office. At that time, such a posting was unheard of in Linkedin Singapore.

Q: It sounds like the posting wasn’t something you were specifically working towards. You were focused on how you could do your job better and when the opportunity came, you were in the best position to take it. What advice do you have for others who might be looking to create similar opportunities for themselves?

Hector: I think it’s important that when you’re given a task, be good at it. I try to be good at understanding the things that I am supposed to work on. I also try to anticipate any issues that might arise and proactively offer my help to solve them. Ultimately, even if the issues don’t affect my work directly, they could eventually have some effect on what I do, so I see no harm in helping. This also helped me to connect with people outside my immediate team and expanded my network within the company.

As long as you know your stuff, you can show your value and that you have the capability and knowledge, you’ve proven your worth. Share your work and promote it so others know what you’ve done. People can support or give you opportunities if they know about you, your work and your abilities.

I would also advise people to leverage Linkedin as much as possible and it’s not because I used to work there! Let me share a story about why.

One of my friends attended a networking event just after graduating and he met someone there. He hadn’t shared his resume but connected with the person on Linkedin and they continued a conversation there. There was no traditional hiring process. He was connected to people who worked in that company and also had great references from within the network.

The other reason is that I think we sometimes don’t fully appreciate that people on Linkedin are generally really open to helping others. It’s just that we are shy to ask. People do help but you need to let them know that you need help.

Q: What were some key learnings you gained from this overseas work experience? Would you recommend others to take up an overseas posting if the opportunity arises?

Hector: Singapore is a small market, so I think an overseas posting gave me new perspectives. For example, when I first went to the US, I was surprised at how loud people were. “Loud” in the sense that they are very present in the moment, and often talk about what they have done. This was quite different from my experience at home. Culturally we tend to value humility; few people feel comfortable talking about their achievements but my stint in the US taught me that there’s a need to promote yourself sometimes. You need to help others understand what you have done and shouldn’t undermine your own capabilities.

Another thing that I noticed was that problem-solving was more collaborative. It’s not like someone has a solution and tells the people down the chain what to do. It’s something I have taken with me and continue to practice today. I don’t pretend to have all the solutions. I work with my teammates to brainstorm ideas.

I do recommend that you should try working in a different country. There’s beauty in being uncomfortable and challenging yourself to start from scratch again. If you’re too comfortable in your own circle you could start to stagnate and stop growing. In fact, I’d love to go on another overseas posting!

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Thanks to Hector for generously sharing his story!