I learned my first lesson in sales in a bar

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When I was 21, I used to do my uni reading in a nice cafe in the hipster district of Vienna.

After 7 p.m., the cafe would slowly mold into a bar, filling up with people (and cigarette smoke).

One day after a very long study session, my boyfriend came to join me for drinks, and as the bar was already full to the brim, two guys came to our huge table and asked to use the other seats.

Sure thing, they sat down, and it wasn’t long until we started having a conversation with them.

They were young, cool and funny. We bought a round, and they did too. We were having a good laugh, and of course, as in every flowing casual conversation, we started talking about what everyone does for a living.

When Andy, one of the guys, asked me what I do, I said: “I study statistics, particularly empirical research like designing and analyzing surveys, you know, for customer satisfaction and finding out what people want”.

His eyes lit up. He said, “I have an app, we’re drowning in user feedback and we have no idea how to plow through all that data. We need someone exactly like you”.

Rest assured, 3 days later I signed my first consulting contract in data.