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Life at Gem

Gem's Gems: Meet Darya Issaeva

Lauren Shufran

Lauren Shufran

Content Strategist

Posted on

February 20, 2020

For the fourth post in our "Gem's Gems" blog series, we spoke with Sales Development Representative Darya Issaeva. Read on to learn about this awesome SDR!

Today we’re taking a pause from our flurry of feature release updates (including the exciting InMail auto-logging feature we just delivered at our customers’ requests) to return to “Gem’s Gems,” our blog series spotlighting individual team members at Gem. After all, it’s the people that keep Gem ticking and iterating on such a great product.

For our fourth post in this series, we spoke with Sales Development Representative Darya Issaeva. Darya came to Gem from HoneyBee Financial Wellness, where she was a top performer on the outbound sales team with an average performance of 125-130% of annual quota. We’re thrilled to have her—not just for her competitive nature but for her sense of humor, her interest in the supernatural, and her love of trashy reality TV. (As you can imagine, she’s one of our favorite people to sit next to during our team lunches.)

Name: Darya Issaeva

Job title: Sales Development Representative

Hometown: Raised in sunny San Diego, CA baby!

How long have you been at Gem? 6 months now; but wow, it feels like I’ve been here much longer! I’ve already made some life-long friendships!

What’s the coolest thing(s) about working at Gem? Oh my gosh, have you seen the dogs?! I’m obsessed. Working in a dog-friendly office makes my job even better than it already is. Of course, we wouldn’t have these animals without their wonderful owners. Gems are some of the best people! I moved up here not really knowing anyone, and I feel like I very quickly found my place. Every company talks about having the “best people” and the “best culture”; so I didn’t really buy into that when I was interviewing. I thought, it’s a really strong product; and I might have some fun here. But it turned out to be true! There’s something to be said about the fact that I repeatedly catch myself at work mid-laugh, savoring the moment. It’s real, and it’s fun. :)

What’s a typical day like for you? I come in early and greet the morning crew! There’s a few of us early-risers. We have this ongoing joke where every morning we say, “Oh my gosh it’s so good to see you! How are you?! Let’s catch up soon!” It’s so dramatic and over-the-top, but makes us laugh every time.Then it’s time to check emails. Usually during this time I’ll confer with my teammates or AE team on messaging tips and objection handling—we’re big on collaboration and bouncing ideas off of each other.

Adam is usually in the office by then, which means he’s about to brew a fresh pot of coffee (Adam’s our caffeination hero). He always warns that today’s coffee is a new “experiment,” but then he makes the meanest cup of coffee, every time. Now I’m ready to make my cold calls. After that, it’s time for lunch! We always have lunch as a company. Which I love, because I work with some bad-ass (can I say that?) people. One of the biggest surprises when I started was how much effort folks put in to talk across departments during lunch; so this is my time to catch up with the whole team. Not to mention it’s fun to compare who ordered the better lunch.The rest of the day is prospecting and sending emails. Pretty normal SDR work; but you’d never know that 'cause we’re always having a hoot.

What are your hobbies? I love yoga, pilates, wine, and trashy reality tv (listen, we all have our vices). You can also catch Christi and I at the farmer’s market on Saturdays!

What superpower would you like to have? Okay so this one’s a little creepy, but I wish I could read peoples minds! I think it has to do with wanting to understand how others think/operate (Must be my bachelor’s in psych making an appearance).

Tell us something about you we don’t know!I was born in Russia :) Dasvidaniya!

Thanks, Darya, for stepping away from your email to chat with us! If you want to know more about the Gem culture Darya mentioned, take a look at our post on what it’s like to work with us.

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