Working in Sales in Tech at Shopify, Declining Ivey, and Networking into Silicon Valley Startup, Clearbit: Trevor Sookraj – Atila TV 004

The Atila Podcast

Trevor Sookraj is a part of the Growth team at Clearbit in San Francisco working to grow their self-serve products. Before that he was a sales intern at Shopify and a marketing analyst at Turnstyle Solutions, which was acquired by Yelp. Trevor is currently at Western studying political science, after he declined his acceptance into the Ivey Business program and took some time off university to work in Silicon Valley, San Francisco.

We talk about how he managed to score an interview (and later an internship) at Shopify and then land a job at Clearbit in the Valley, all at a very early stage in his life. Also how he managed to network and hustle his way through his time at university, how he absorbed all the advice that was given to him by his mentors and used it to go above and beyond to exceed expectations, why he declined his acceptance into the HBA program, his take on the tech industry, and so much more.

Timestamps:

• What were you like in high school? [1:07]
• As a younger sibling, do you feel pressure to live up to your brother’s expectations? [2:44]
• How did you get the Shopify internship after your first year of university? [8:40]
• What was your thought process when hustling to get your job in Silicon Valley and how did you convince your parents? [12:18]
• Why did you decline Ivey? [15:58]
• When you said you were taking a year off, were you planning on coming back to school? [19:24]
• What are some things you did to help you get the Shopify interview and Clearbit job? [20:55]
• How did you develop your networking skills? [24:07]
• Why do you think sales is the best job you can get in tech? [28:43]
• Where do you see yourself a year, five years, and 25 years from now? [31:53]
• What are some really interesting books, articles, podcasts… that you consumed recently? [37:16]
• What are you currently obsessed with? [39:37]
• Advice you would give to your younger self or to the audience [43:26]

Links:

• Trevor’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trevorsookraj
• Trevor’s personal blog: https://www.trevorsookraj.com/
• Trevor’s boot camp site: http://www.jointhepath.com *spoiler* it redirects to his personal blog
• http://www.paulgraham.com/
• Future Shock by Alvin Toffler: https://amzn.to/2ttuoYV
  

Blogs/books/podcasts Trevor keeps up with:

• Accelerated Newsletter: https://accelerated.carrd.co/
• Startup Watching: https://startupwatching.com/
• Principles by Ray Dalio: https://amzn.to/2EmajtK
• Reasons and Persons by Derek Parfit: https://amzn.to/2V97sty
• Making Sense podcast by Sam Harris: https://samharris.org/podcast/ (available on Spotify)

Tim Ferriss podcast: https://tim.blog/podcast/