From Intern to Employee: Launching a Career in Technology
By Life At Nutanix
Meet Zoheb Eftali (he/him), a valued member of our Customer Success team based in Sydney, Australia. Zoheb's journey with Nutanix began when he joined us as a Systems Reliability Engineering Intern in late 2022, while completing his studies at Macquarie University. During his 3 month internship, Zoheb gained exposure to potential career paths within technology, while also expanding his technical expertise and professional skills outside the confines of his studies. After graduating in 2023, Zoheb joined us as an employee, helping to impact the success of our customers and our company, through product enablement, customer expansion, and renewals. In our conversation Zoheb reflects on the biggest takeaways from his internship, insights from his initial foray into the tech industry, and how the work ethic and humility instilled in him by his immigrant parents has shaped his path so far.
Tell us about your role at Nutanix.
“I am a Customer Success Representative. I work in technical sales where I support our existing customers with a focus on renewals, product enablement and expansion.”
What are some highlights from your past that stand out on your path to where you are today?
“My thesis work as part of my honors in Software Engineering was a culmination of everything I studied over a 4-year period at university. My thesis paper focused on anomaly detection for Internet of Things/Edge Malware and required a great amount of attention to detail as I was working on software that is designed to not be detected. The paper allowed me to showcase the skills I developed throughout my degree.
My internship at Nutanix as a Systems Reliability Engineer during the final year of my degree stands out too. Whilst university equipped me technically for the industry, I lacked the soft skills needed (like communication, time management, leadership). My internship allowed me to work on my soft skills and gave me great insight into what it truly is to work in the tech industry.”
Zoheb (right) and Rajiv Ramaswami, Nutanix CEO
Why did you join Nutanix?
“My internship taught me a lot about Nutanix and equipped me with an understanding of how Nutanix’s technology works. The products are out of this world and the technology behind them is amazing. I fell in love with the simplistic, robust and efficient design of the Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI).
Joining the industry for the first time, the friendliness, hard-working mindset, and accepting culture that I experienced at Nutanix gave me confidence and optimism that I would thrive in this environment.”
What is the best part of your job?
“Building meaningful business relationships with customers, partners, distributors, and employees. I have been able to build professional and long-lasting relationships in my short time at Nutanix so far, which I know to be beneficial in the long run as I am just starting out my career.”
Tell us about your biggest professional win at Nutanix so far.
“It was an honor to be recognized with a Nutanix Star Award for exceeding quota in our first quarter.” [Star Awards celebrate people who go above and beyond to exceed their quota target and contribute to the growth of the company.]
What is something that people should know about you?
“My parents immigrated from Afghanistan during the Afghan–Soviet War and became first generation Australians. This piece of who I am taught me not to take things for granted, and to work hard for the things you love. You only have one life, so use it wisely and effectively. It also keeps me humble and open-minded at work and in my day-to-day life.”
Zoheb (second from left) and his family celebrating his graduation
What makes Nutanix a great place to work?
“I enjoy collaborating with other teams and departments which allows me to learn and get to know others in different regions and areas of the business. This is important as this is my first full time role.
Nutanix has multiple teams within departments. The Sales department, for example, has Account Managers, System Engineers, Customer Success, NC2 Specialists, Renewals, and the list goes on. Whilst the Customer Success team is local to my region (Australia and New Zealand), we work very closely with the Renewals team in Singapore who generate and amend our quotes which are sent to the customers. I also work closely with the pre-sales team (Account Managers and System Engineers) which is awesome as I am predominately post-sales. I learn pre-sale skills from my colleagues on how to sell Nutanix to new business, which in turn allows me to have meaningful, technical based conversations with existing business.”
How have you experienced our company values as an employee?
“As a Customer Success Representative these values have supported me by enabling deep and meaningful conversations between me, my colleagues and our customers.
One example that comes to mind is when we worked with an existing customer for a competitive win. The customer was testing the market to define their infrastructure roadmap for the next 5 years. They were extremely happy with our honesty on the best course of action moving forward, and our hungry mindset made us diligent in working with them to ensure the customer saw the value and felt confident in their decision to continue working with us.”
Any advice you’d like to share with others on how to make the most of their internship or time at Nutanix?
“There can be a steep learning curve–patience is key. Stick with it and it will be extremely rewarding.
Networking within the company is super important. It will allow you to branch off to different areas within the company should you feel like the current role is not suited for you.”
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Thanks to Zoheb for sharing his story and unique perspective. Want to learn more about Life at Nutanix and job opportunities? Follow @LifeAtNutanix on Instagram or LinkedIn and explore our careers page.
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