Bismillah joined the Therefore Community in February 2022. After four meetings with new connections, he got hired by a company that resonated with his experience, interests, and values. Here’s what he had to say!
How did you find out about Therefore? What interested you about joining the community?
I found out about Therefore on Reddit. I was looking for sales opportunities and trying to get a feel for where to start and what companies to look for outside of the big tech companies... Prior to this, I had been taking care of the family business. There’s a mindset of like, these are the jobs that are expected of you and you kind of get stuck in it. But what I want to do long term is get into sales and technology, and I had been searching around for the right opportunity.
I know I'm a minority in the tech industry and I thought, might as well give it a try because other routes like going through Glassdoor, Indeed and LinkedIn isn't getting anywhere, then I'd rather go through something that's going to possibly get me in touch with a legitimate person and get some information at least.
Tell me about your experience with Therefore.
I've definitely enjoyed Therefore— it was really creative opportunity because before this, I would apply through online job boards and I would get nowhere. Absolutely nowhere. My resume was missing the formula that was necessary to get past the filters, to get to an actual person. Even though I have the creativity and the ability to communicate and do what I need to do for a sales job, but I was just missing a small piece of the formula.
What do you mean by “a piece of the formula”?
My family has a couple of country stores. And so when you read that on a resume, it’s like okay, you manage stuff. But the thing is, you're actually selling every single day, and continuing that over an extended period of time to have a successful business is really hard to do.
In one of the intro meetings I had, I was kind of telling her about how I was continuing to apply and not really getting a lot of responses. And she said, let me go ahead and take a look at your resume just to kind of see what you're working with. And she gave me some really good pointers for terminology and how to explain all of my experience. That advice made a lot of difference.
You also mentioned that when you joined the Therefore Community, you wanted to find out about new companies. Did you feel like you were able to do that?
Definitely… I mean, I got hired after meeting someone on Therefore at a company I hadn’t heard of before! Before Therefore, I was primarily using online job boards and sending countless apps: out of 100 maybe three might get back to you, and then you MIGHT get one interview. I was trying to find a company that’s more aligned with my values, but I would get into an interview and then there'll be a lot of red flags.
Like, salary conversations. I was in a third round interview and they're still kind of like avoiding the subject of salary, and like they're giving you a number that's way lower than what was posted. And then I just kind of feel like I lost a lot of my time because this is not something I'm going to, I'm going to go with you because I still need to make enough to live. I'm not gonna go and work for nothing.
How do you feel like Therefore helped with that?
Well, in another meeting I had through Therefore I talked about all these red flags that I would notice, things that I didn't feel comfortable with. And I thought I was just kind of being crazy. The person I was connecting with made me feel comfortable and was like, no, when you see red flags, if you ever have to, you can leave the room, don't, don't accept it because you need to make money.
So even if I hadn’t gotten a job through a Therefore connection, I would have learned a lot of valuable information that I wouldn't have ever gotten otherwise. I think education is kind of part of what you guys are doing.
Would you recommend Therefore to other people in your networks and communities?
I would definitely recommend joining.
"Therefore has gotten me a lot closer to employers than any other platform out there. Coming from a non-traditional background, you just don’t have the initial gate open for you; without the connection it’s really hard to get into companies. And I was just never going to get the opportunity without Therefore."
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
