Highlights

Enmanuel Cruz is a top performing Sales Engineer with 4+ years of experience working on commercial, Enterprise and Strategic deals with a strong emphasis on Storytelling.

Bio

As a Bronx native many of my classmates, myself included, were at a disadvantage economically, socially and educationally. However, I was always raised to take every opportunity as a way to grow, learn and be challenged. This mindset led me to a career in the SaaS tech world when I had long envisioned working in politics. I earned a B.A in Political Science, M.A in Conflict Management and had studied French, German, Arabic, Mandarin Chinese and Italian. However, having a mindset of preparation, even in areas or field of studies I didn’t see myself working in eventually landed me a role as a Sales Engineer at an International start-up where I was able to combine my love for people, law/ politics, cultures and tech. 

My Story

Growing Up in the Bronx, in a latino household instilled in me the value of community, equality, equity & Justice. Early on I wanted to understand how and why the world worked the way it did, what I could do to make it better and how to challenge the status quo for positive impact. This led me to get a B.A in Political Science and later an M.A in Conflict Management. 

However, throughout my childhood and into mybachelor studies I realized I had a huge tech deficit. The first time this became apparent was in Highschol when I had moved  from the Bronx to Pennsylvania. Everyone seemed to be able to flawlessly type 60+ words per minute with their hands perfewctly aligned to the keyboard while I struggled to write with a couple of my fingers. The second time was when I was in college and had to take an intro to computers class. Every class left me more confused than the last and left me feeling out of place. The third time was my first job out of college. I was working at Avaya in a rotational management program and had to work in the Technical Client Services team. I quickly felt lost with all of the tech jargon, the lines of codes I’d see on peoples screens and at a loss for words when asked to explain technical concepts. 

I  knew that technology was becoming increasingly important and I didn’t want to feel left behind, so I started to make a plan. At first, I started googling small things to understand how the internet worked, then how applications were made, what coding languages existed and the list goes on and on. Once I felt more comfortable and while I was finishing my M.A in Germany I found an opportunity to learn to code for free in a one year ful stack Javascript bootcamp. It was easily one of the hardest courses I had taken. There were days where I felt everything made sense only to feel seconds later that I actually knew nothing at all. I often thought about quitting because everything seemed so foreign but every time that thought crossed my mind I could hear my mom saying “ never waste an opportunity to do something great. “ Shortly after finishing that bootcamp I got hired a sales engineer at a European start-up and I’ve been lucky enough to continue learning and thriving in the tech world.