From Munich over Düsseldorf to Columbia, Maryland

Heading to the US

After a very interesting time in Munich at the Nemetschek HQ, I packed my bags and travelled to Dusseldorf for a few days off in my hometown. Between doing my laundry and (un)packing, I spent some time with my family and friends before leaving again. For the next two months I will be living in Columbia, Maryland, which is between Washington D.C. and Baltimore, to gain work experience at Vectorworks (one of our 16 brands) in their Sales Department. On Saturday, the 8th of September at 7:45am, I flew from Dusseldorf over London towards Washington-Dulles. After a very warm welcome by Nicole Davison (VP of Sales) and her family at the airport, I was additionally invited to join Nicole and her family for dinner in D.C..

Arriving at the Vectorworks office

The first workday for three other interns and myself started on Monday, September 10th with a short introduction and some information about Vectorworks. After an office tour, the other interns and I were introduced to our desks in the Flaherty Room. At Vectorworks, all conference rooms are named by inspiring employees or customers. The only person who managed to name a bar after himself was Sean, the former CEO of Vectorworks (whether voluntary or not… ?).

Sales territories across the US

After I organized my desk, I joined the weekly sales meeting and was introduced to my new colleagues. Within the meeting, sales activity from the past week was presented, discussed and new functions in Salesforce were explained. Subsequently, I got the chance to gain insight into the daily business activities of different persons from the Vectorworks Sales Department. As you may know, Vectorworks offers a various range of CAD-Programs and therefor the Sales Department is divided into three areas separated by the product they are selling; there is the Architect-, Landmark- and Spotlight- team. These teams take care of the whole US market along with a handful of distributors. All other big markets, such as Europe and Asia, are served by distributors. The first lecture I learned was if you want to sell something you need to know the product in and out, so I spent a lot of time in my first week with Vectorworks Designer. Furthermore, Joshua Desmond, my mentor for my time with Vectorworks, and I talked about the main project for my internship in detail. This project is about developing a territory plan for the US Sales Team, in which I need to identify different territories for the Entertainment and Architect teams. The goal is to create a smoother sales and controlling process, but also divide the US into equally performing territories, so each sales representative would be responsible for improving and generating business in their own territory. On Wednesday, September 12th, Vectorworks launched their 2019 version for the US Market. Therefore, a little Champaign toast was planned for the afternoon. The scheduled launch party for Friday had to be moved to the next Friday because of the Hurricane “Florence”, who made everybody feel a bit anxious. My first week ended on a Friday at 5pm with an extended introduction into Salesforce by Landmark team manager, Jay Lawson.

Golf’n’Pancakes

For the upcoming period of my studies, I need to write a project paper of over 30 pages. I spent my Saturday creating a first draft, and then on Sunday, Joshua (the guy on the right) and two of his friends took me to a nearby golf course. After 9 holes of golf “Tiger Woods Style”, we decided it would be better to shorten the 18 holes course and have breakfast at IHOP – the International House of Pancakes! Breakfast the American way?.

All in all, a very interesting first week in Columbia with Vectorworks!

Stay tuned – to be continued…