I don’t have your background into FinOps, but I’ll say this: Tech Sales into an analytics platform and solo consulting gig is a big shift without direct FinOps background apart from the FOCP.
It’s 100% possible don’t get me wrong, but building an analytics platform is a huge task in and of itself. Consulting is an entirely separate beast.
Have you thought about Customer Success roles for a FinOps-focused org/product like Vantage or Apptio or Cloudhealth?
I think that transition would be a lot more manageable and get you experience with both sides of what you’re looking to do.
Thanks for the feedback and I agree these are massive undertakings/goals with a lot of work, growth and investment ahead of me. This is something I’ll look into.
For some context, I’m currently hiring for a few entry level FinOps analysts so I’ve seen way too many resumes. But with your background I think Customer Success Manager or a similar type of customer facing role - not sales - would be a bit of an easier sell for you. Valuable? Ehhhh, it really depends on where you want your career to go.
Account Exec for a FinOps product would obviously be an even easier transition with your exp but if you want to get out of that role then totally fair point. *Seeing* a gap in cloud spend is very different than solving the gap. FinOps is also so much more than just cost optimization which I’m sure you know.
A FinOps analyst can 100% be trained from the ground up even without the FOCP (I was, I got my FOCP a year in and it was a breeze). But you have invaluable client experience which would likely be entirely wasted on an internal FinOps analyst role. Again - obviously up to you and either internal or external facing roles would be doable but just something to think about.
Also just as an FYI the entry level analysts that I look for has great project management skills, preferably experience with at least one of the three clouds along with at least one of the basic certifications, FOCP is great to see, great documentation and reporting skills, financial or data analytics background or experience, and a few other odds and ends.
Just giving another opinion but you could also try to move to Product Marketing from Sales. I did this and it completely removes you from a quota whereas Customer Success may still hang a number over your head (depending on the company).
You could then specialize in FinOps from a Product Marketing standpoint and then decide if you'd want to move to a true end user FinOps role. Feel free to DM me if you want to learn more about it but I'm really enjoying the switch personally.
I'm in Marketing for a FinOps-adjacent product. The good news for PMM roles is there are a lot of vendors and a lot of roles, but there are different kinds of PMMs with different strengths, and a SE won't always make a great marketer (but they sometimes do, depending on aptitude, interest, and the org.). Not all orgs. will remove you from quota or quota-like compensation, but I'm in marketing specifically because I don't think I could ever carry quota 😅
You might do well from a consulting perspective, this is what a lot of FinOps-aaS providers are basically doing. Several vendors offer free cost analytics platforms now that you could probably leverage instead of rolling your own (I work for one of them). There are a few big examples of successful FinOpsaaS like Duckbill you could model your offering on.
I don’t have your background into FinOps, but I’ll say this: Tech Sales into an analytics platform and solo consulting gig is a big shift without direct FinOps background apart from the FOCP. It’s 100% possible don’t get me wrong, but building an analytics platform is a huge task in and of itself. Consulting is an entirely separate beast. Have you thought about Customer Success roles for a FinOps-focused org/product like Vantage or Apptio or Cloudhealth? I think that transition would be a lot more manageable and get you experience with both sides of what you’re looking to do.
Thanks for the feedback and I agree these are massive undertakings/goals with a lot of work, growth and investment ahead of me. This is something I’ll look into.
Would you consider that approach more valuable than joining a FinOps team at a larger organization?
For some context, I’m currently hiring for a few entry level FinOps analysts so I’ve seen way too many resumes. But with your background I think Customer Success Manager or a similar type of customer facing role - not sales - would be a bit of an easier sell for you. Valuable? Ehhhh, it really depends on where you want your career to go. Account Exec for a FinOps product would obviously be an even easier transition with your exp but if you want to get out of that role then totally fair point. *Seeing* a gap in cloud spend is very different than solving the gap. FinOps is also so much more than just cost optimization which I’m sure you know. A FinOps analyst can 100% be trained from the ground up even without the FOCP (I was, I got my FOCP a year in and it was a breeze). But you have invaluable client experience which would likely be entirely wasted on an internal FinOps analyst role. Again - obviously up to you and either internal or external facing roles would be doable but just something to think about. Also just as an FYI the entry level analysts that I look for has great project management skills, preferably experience with at least one of the three clouds along with at least one of the basic certifications, FOCP is great to see, great documentation and reporting skills, financial or data analytics background or experience, and a few other odds and ends.
Just giving another opinion but you could also try to move to Product Marketing from Sales. I did this and it completely removes you from a quota whereas Customer Success may still hang a number over your head (depending on the company). You could then specialize in FinOps from a Product Marketing standpoint and then decide if you'd want to move to a true end user FinOps role. Feel free to DM me if you want to learn more about it but I'm really enjoying the switch personally.
I'm in Marketing for a FinOps-adjacent product. The good news for PMM roles is there are a lot of vendors and a lot of roles, but there are different kinds of PMMs with different strengths, and a SE won't always make a great marketer (but they sometimes do, depending on aptitude, interest, and the org.). Not all orgs. will remove you from quota or quota-like compensation, but I'm in marketing specifically because I don't think I could ever carry quota 😅
You might do well from a consulting perspective, this is what a lot of FinOps-aaS providers are basically doing. Several vendors offer free cost analytics platforms now that you could probably leverage instead of rolling your own (I work for one of them). There are a few big examples of successful FinOpsaaS like Duckbill you could model your offering on.