Before Momen­tum, Hank, a grad­u­ate of the Uni­ver­si­ty of North Car­oli­na at Wilm­ing­ton, worked as a Sales Spe­cial­ist at a high-growth startup.

He describes his time in sales as equal parts invig­o­rat­ing and frus­trat­ing— while he enjoyed his work, the feel­ings he had at the end of the day large­ly fluc­tu­at­ed. Some days he felt like he was at the top of the world, and oth­er days, he left work feel­ing defeated.

In his sales role, Hank’s inter­ac­tion with his cus­tomers gave him the real­iza­tion that he not only want­ed to help his cus­tomers pick the best prod­uct offer­ing for them, but he also want­ed to be able to build and adjust the prod­uct offer­ing to meet their needs. That’s when Hank decid­ed he want­ed to learn how to code. 

After grad­u­at­ing from Momen­tum, Hank joined a local agency as a Soft­ware Devel­op­er where he helped build con­sumer retail web­sites for up and com­ing brands. That posi­tion led him to take on a role as an Asso­ciate QA Engi­neer at nCi­no, Inc., where he is now.

I remember when I finished on Demo Day, I actually had already committed to working for [a local agency]. So before that course was even over, I had a job.

Hank Mitsch

QA Engineer

“After pre­sent­ing at Demo Day, I had peo­ple walk up and tell me that I should come in and speak to them at [their] com­pa­ny. Every inter­view I’ve had since [then], I’ve nev­er seen peo­ple as excit­ed to talk to me, because I have [expe­ri­ence] in sales, and I also know what I am talk­ing about when it comes to technology.”

Speak­ing to the knowl­edge gap he’s bridged since Momen­tum and the ways the skills he devel­oped in sales apply to his new career in tech, he says, ​“Being able to bring in a skillset that you’ve refined [and] can apply, [and adding] on top of that, the tech­ni­cal knowl­edge to build soft­ware and under­stand soft­ware [is] a real­ly effec­tive cou­ple. I have one friend [who is] a real­ly great sales­per­son [and] he always tells me that he wish­es he had the knowl­edge about what he’s sell­ing that I do. So that feels pret­ty good.”

Beyond the pos­i­tive change he’s expe­ri­enced in terms of his career, Hank is also thank­ful for the com­mu­ni­ty he’s gained through Momen­tum. He loves the space that Momen­tum has pro­vid­ed for its alum­ni to con­tin­ue to con­nect, and says, “[You can’t find a more] imme­di­ate meet­ing space with peo­ple who are will­ing to sup­port you. It’s like at any giv­en time you can pop in, say hel­lo, and you’re back among peo­ple who you can trust, and who want the best for you.”

Look­ing for­ward, Hank says sim­ply, ​“You nev­er stop learn­ing.” He hopes to con­tin­ue to be as cre­ative as pos­si­ble, and is excit­ed about con­tribut­ing to his com­pa­ny in new ways. We’re thrilled for him and all the oppor­tu­ni­ties his future no doubt holds.