The Buzz with ACT-IAC
The Buzz with ACT-IAC
From Intern to AI Sales: A Talk with an Associates Graduate from IBM
In this episode, Yohanna Baez hosts Mackenzie (Kenzie) Downes, a data and AI seller at IBM, to discuss her journey through the ACT-IAC Professional Development Associates Program. Kenzie shares her background, how she was inspired by her mother to pursue sales, and her experience working at IBM. She dives into her motivations for joining the ACT-IAC program, the skills and network she gained, and specific moments that shaped her career.
00:00 Introduction to The Buzz from ACT-IAC
00:31 Meet Kenzie Downes: Early Career Insights
01:29 Journey into Sales and IBM
03:32 Daily Life and Responsibilities at IBM
05:44 Joining the ACT-IAC Professional Development Program
07:00 Experiences and Learnings from the Program
14:03 Impact of the Program on Career Trajectory
17:09 Encouragement for Future Applicants
19:36 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
ABBY
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Intro/Outro Music: See a Brighter Day/Gloria Tells
Courtesy of Epidemic Sound
(Episodes 1-159: Intro/Outro Music: Focal Point/Young Community
Courtesy of Epidemic Sound)
Yohanna: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome back to The Buzz from ACT IAC. I am your host, Yohanna Baez. And today, we are diving into the experiences of early career professionals who have taken part in the ACT IAC Professional Development Associates Program. We will explore their journeys. Before, during, and after the program, what they learned, how they grew, and where they are headed next.
Yohanna: Okay, let's jump right in.
Yohanna: Hello there. I am here with Mackenzie Downes. Welcome to The Buzz, Mackenzie. How are you doing today? I am great. How are you doing? I'm doing pretty good. We got a little bit of snow on our side.
Kenzie Downes: I know. I'm based in Chicago and we have a big winter storm coming as well. Tell our listeners a little bit about yourself.
Kenzie Downes: Okay. Yeah. Excited to be on this podcast here today. I am originally from Minnesota and have been living in Chicago for. The [00:01:00] past few years, I am a data and AI seller at IBM. So I focused specifically on the federal civilian customer base and help them, um, with different data and AI technology solutions.
Kenzie Downes: But I also, which is how we got connected here, went through the ACT IAC Associates program this past year. here and had a great time. So excited to chat today and dive into it a little bit more.
Yohanna: Can you maybe give us a snapshot of your background and how maybe there are some key moments in your life that led you here?
Kenzie Downes: Yes. How, how I got into this role really started in college. My mom had been in sales her whole life. So from a young age, I was able to see what that looked like, the work life balance, the initiative, the drive it takes, and it really excited me. So when I was in college, I started looking at different internship opportunities and I landed at IBM.
Kenzie Downes: Um, [00:02:00] primarily landed at IBM because they've obviously been such a strong performer in the market for so many years. Um, but also they had a great sales development program that excited me to get that initial training, um, post grad. So, went through the internship program, really liked it, and decided to come back full time.
Kenzie Downes: And since then, I went through the sales development program, which at the time was about a nine month program where you got to learn. All about what IBM's doing in the technology space and really foundational sales skills. And after that, I, um, decided to end up on a team that was selling data and AI. So.
Kenzie Downes: IBM sells quite a variety of different products and services, but it seemed to me like they were really investing in data and artificial intelligence. So I was excited about that and excited about the potential to call on our federal civilian customers, um, [00:03:00] because the mission, there's just such a variety of missions, so it was.
Kenzie Downes: It was a super unique experience and I have been doing that for the past three years now, calling on majority of the same accounts and have learned a lot throughout the process and it's, it's really been great. I'm happy where I landed and happy to continue to grow in this space.
Yohanna: That's really good. You said that you saw your mom.
Yohanna: I always go back to this quote, like, if you see it, you can be it. So that's really amazing that you were able to have that example at such an early age. Now that you've settled in your current role, can you like walk us through what an average day looks like for you? Like, what are some of the projects that you've been working on?
Yohanna: I mean, if they're not top secret, of course.
Kenzie Downes: I'll keep the top secret ones to a minimum. Um, yeah, my role, it's, it's a combination at the premise of it all is supporting our federal civilian customers. So I think it's [00:04:00] evident that customers have a lot of challenges in their every day, just like any company does.
Kenzie Downes: And so my role is really to help them identify any challenges that they're having in the data management space. So AI space and see if there's a fit for technology to help enhance the efficiencies there. So I think we're all aware, like each company has tons of data for all the, you think of all their employers, all of the work that they're doing and that continues to grow and expand the longer these federal agencies are around and with additional data comes additional challenges and we're really trying to help them seek efficiencies there.
Kenzie Downes: So to be able to talk with my customers, figure out what drives them, what's really keeping them up at night. And if there is a technology within the IBM portfolio that helps solve those challenges, then we work [00:05:00] together to implement that and, um, see how we can help enhance that mission efficiency.
Yohanna: That's great. Sounded like you had a lot on your plate. I'm a regular person and I have three hard drives. Couldn't tell you what's on them, just a bunch of photos. So I know data is really important in my life, so just imagine.
Kenzie Downes: I always think of like, even most of us probably have iPhones at this point, and you, I always get the notification like your iCloud storage is full because of photos.
Kenzie Downes: And it's, it's pretty similar in these agencies. The, the more people and more time, the more data that comes with it.
Yohanna: Yeah, and we're constantly learning new skills and learning how to do new things. When, when folks want to join professional development programs, there's a variety of reasons. So it's learning new skills, expanding their network, tackling specific challenges.
Yohanna: What was it that, what was like your main goal when you applied for the ACT IAC professional [00:06:00] development associates program?
Kenzie Downes: My main goal was really to, it was two pronged. It was to expand my network outside of IBM. And also to get a better understanding from a federal lens. I wanted to, I mean, we work with our customers every day and you get a sense of what's important to them, but having the ability to be in a setting like this, where you can expand your network outside of the people you see on the day to day within your company, um, allows you that ability to.
Kenzie Downes: Obviously build relationships, but also get a newfound understanding of where they're coming from, what this looks like from a federal perspective. And so I think it was both a great opportunity to establish new friendship. Person relationships, but also gives me a new perspective that has been super helpful within my day job as well.
Yohanna: Wonderful to hear. I really liked that. [00:07:00] Did anything surprise you when you joined the program? Was there anything that like you, maybe you were excited or nervous, but what was your first impression of the Act I Act program?
Kenzie Downes: I think it was just interesting to learn how so many of us within the program have a similar role, whether it's.
Kenzie Downes: Business development or sales. Um, but we all have different approaches to it. So learning new terms and acronyms and ways that various companies go about it was fascinating. And then it was also just apparent that there's so many leaders within the GovCon space that are just so excited about. Being able to work with government and industry.
Kenzie Downes: I think you look at our coaches and it's a great example of people who really just want to give back and lift up like up and coming leaders. So it [00:08:00] was an exciting feeling to be in a room full of people who all. are so eager to better develop themselves as well as the people around them.
Yohanna: Yeah, tell me who your, uh, mentor was and your, and your group name, because you guys come up with the funniest names.
Kenzie Downes: Yes, that is true. Um, we were the mainframe magicians. So we worked with the I. T. management and modernization Koi. So we tried to put a spin on, on some of the legacy technology with the mainframes there. Um, and Melissa was, Melissa Scott with GSA was our coach. So it was a great team and. A fun, a fun team name and fun working with them throughout the course of the program as well.
Yohanna: That's great. The magicians. Okay, cool. Um, so one unique aspect of our program is that blend of government and industry that you mentioned earlier. We have folks from the government side, we have folks from the industry, uh, side, [00:09:00] like the private sector. Is there anything that was maybe like the biggest insight that you gained from collaborating across all of these sectors?
Kenzie Downes: Yeah, we had one session that we had folks from both the government side as well as the industry side speak. And it was basically like a day in the life from contracting, um, on each person's side. So it was really interesting to hear their perspective of like, Hey, on the government side, it's really frustrating when industry responds with these things.
Kenzie Downes: Or it's really difficult when you are constantly nagging us to respond, uh, about updates around an RFP or an RFQ. And then you could hear industry side as well. So to be able to see the different perspectives, um, and look at it in a new way, like, Hey, maybe I could adjust this to be easier to work with, um, moving forward, it was a unique experience to be able to hear.
Kenzie Downes: Firsthand from those folks, [00:10:00] what it's like.
Yohanna: That really sounds like an amazing series to tell you the truth. I'd love to understand the day in the life of somebody who's in government contracting. With that, was there anything that your mentor kind of helped you navigate, like roadblocks or try to help you understand some things better?
Yohanna: Is there an example maybe during the program that you
Kenzie Downes: can share? Melissa's our coach and she is with GSA. We also had one other teammate on our team, Madison, who also works for GSA. And then the rest of the folks were from industries on our team. So we, the unique ability to hear both sides, I think from Melissa's perspective, it was really helpful to have her, like when we were looking.
Kenzie Downes: So our project was about the top AI use cases within the federal industry. And. Melissa was able to give her perspective as well as Maddie on, Hey, these are specific sites that [00:11:00] you could use that we use within the government in order to get additional information around this. So being able to use their background and their knowledge, um, of inside the federal government in order to enhance our research and get better.
Kenzie Downes: Information and contacts for this AI use case project was super helpful.
Yohanna: Yeah, that sounds really helpful. When you talked about Maddie and Melissa, was there any advice that kind of sticks with you, with your experience with them and your time with them? Is there wisdom that they've said or, or maybe is there something that they did that you saw that you really appreciated like, Oh, these folks move in this kind of way.
Yohanna: I really, I really liked the way that they move, you know?
Kenzie Downes: Definitely. One big thing is it's all mission oriented. I think sometimes from the industry perspective. We have certain goals that we're trying to obtain and certain things that we're trying to accomplish. So some of our mindset is a little bit different than the way the federal government [00:12:00] looks at things and everything they do is for the better of the mission.
Kenzie Downes: So to be able to. Take whatever I'm speaking about or whatever challenge I'm looking at for my customers and really think about how does this impact the mission? How can my technology help enhance the mission and make the day job easier for some of these folks was good insight because obviously sometimes we look at things from a different perspective and to hear it from folks who are within.
Kenzie Downes: The federal government helped me shift my mindset moving forward.
Yohanna: Yeah, that's amazing. That's great. Having the mission as your North star, you can. Reverse engineer from that. That's that's really great.
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Yohanna: Welcome back. We've been diving into the experiences of professional development graduates. And now it's time to talk about what happens after the program, how it's made an [00:14:00] impact, and what lessons are carrying forward. So now that you've completed the program, the ACT IAC Associates Professional Development Program, how do you feel it has influenced your trajectory now in your career?
Yohanna: Like where do you see yourself going in the next couple of years?
Kenzie Downes: The associates program definitely helped build confidence as well as expanding my network. We had a variety of different sessions around negotiating, around, um, Like knowing your worth and knowing how to ask for things within your organization, mentorship.
Kenzie Downes: So, I think the program allowed me to hone skills in those various areas, which will be super helpful moving forward within my career, knowing when to stand up for myself, when to ask for what's next, ask for the promotion, et cetera. Um, but I also think just from a personal perspective, Starting the program, my network was [00:15:00] much smaller than it is now.
Kenzie Downes: Uh, just recently I went to the January membership meeting and we were in a room full of people for happy hour. And I felt like I knew a good chunk of the room with my associates and the coaches, but also people beyond that people we've worked with for the COI, um, in different, different groups and projects throughout the associates program.
Kenzie Downes: So. I think that will help me within my current job, um, to know different folks within the federal industry and continue to learn and grow from them so that I can do my day job better.
Yohanna: I was also at that meeting. That was a fun, fun membership meeting. So happy that you felt good. I think a lot of folks feel like we do a good job of just building community and pulling folks in and being open and vulnerable and just giving folks the opportunity to like share and be heard.
Yohanna: So that's really good to hear that you felt the love.
Kenzie Downes: Most definitely. Yeah. It's crazy what a happy hour does for connecting people. [00:16:00]
Yohanna: Absolutely. So it, so are you staying in touch with your cohort or your coaches? Um, and also like you can feel free to like reach out to other folks that were from different graduating classes too.
Kenzie Downes: Yes, yes, certainly staying in touch. We have a group message that is constantly going off with different people's updates, different people planning happy hours, dinners, lunches, sports, et cetera. So definitely folks that I will stay in touch with well beyond the program and they have already done a good job at the GAP program is what happens after the associates program.
Kenzie Downes: So it's anyone who graduated. And they have a program in place that allows former associates to stay in touch with other graduating classes. So that's been super nice. We recently had a happy hour with some people that were going through the partners program. So certainly staying in touch with my associates as well as expanding, [00:17:00] um, and building relationships with other people who graduated in, in different years as well.
Yohanna: That's really good.
Kenzie Downes: Thank you.
Yohanna: Um, all right. So if there's anybody that's listening to this podcast right now and considering applying to the associates program, but they're not sure they're on the fence, what would you say to encourage them?
Kenzie Downes: I would say, what do you have to lose? If you're willing to give a little bit of time over the course of nine months, I think you're going to see that you get a lot more out of it.
Kenzie Downes: You are going to have expanded. Networks, expanded relationships, more confidence in your skills, a new mindset and viewpoint from whether it's industry or fed, the federal government, and all of those will make you a more well rounded person and employees. So What do you have to lose? Alright,
Yohanna: so we've had a great conversation about career growth and professional development [00:18:00] and confidence and networking but before we wrap up, let's have some fun.
Yohanna: It's time for Acronym Wars. Here's how it works. I'll throw some common and tricky government acronyms your way and you have to tell us what they stand for. Are you ready to play?
Kenzie Downes: I'm ready.
Yohanna: Alright, here's the first one. G A O.
Kenzie Downes: Government, uh, accountability office? Ding, ding, ding.
Yohanna: Yes, that's correct. That wasn't so hard.
Yohanna: Alright, what about N O A A?
Kenzie Downes: NOAA, National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration. It helps that they used to be my client, so. Oh really?
Yohanna: Oh my goodness. That's great. All right, here's the last one. C B O.[00:19:00]
Kenzie Downes: B, um, I think it's Budget Office. Yes,
Yohanna: you got half of it right.
Kenzie Downes: All right, C,
Kenzie Downes: Congressional Budget Office?
Yohanna: There you go, all right, three for three. Winner, winner, chicken dinner.
Kenzie Downes: I love it. Hopefully I Hopefully I beat some of the other associates that you might be talking with.
Yohanna: Wait a minute, hold on,
Kenzie Downes: there's competition already. Oh, yes. Always competition of some sort.
Yohanna: This has been such an insightful conversation.
Yohanna: Thank you so much for sharing your journey and your experiences with us. And to our listeners, if you're interested in learning more about ACT IAC's Professional Development Program, be sure to visit ActIAG. org slash professional dash development. Until next time, keep learning, keep growing, and we'll see you in the next episode.
Yohanna: Kenzie, is there anything else that you'd like to add?
Kenzie Downes: Just want to say thank you to everyone who's [00:20:00] listening. I would love to continue to expand my network. So if you have questions about the associates program or IBM or anything beyond that, and just want to connect, feel free to. Connect with me on LinkedIn and we can set up a chat.
Kenzie Downes: So thanks so much. Have a great day. Thank you so much.