When Susan Pesciotta decided to pivot her career from e-commerce merchandising into tech sales, Riskified — an e-commerce fraud management and risk intelligence SaaS company — had a role she knew she could bet on.
Despite a lack of previous sales experience, Pesciotta’s background in e-commerce analytics gave her a clear sense of Riskified’s customer profile, earning her a role on the business development team. Thrown into the deep end of tech sales, her first two years on the Riskified team became a crash course on the essential skills needed for a lifelong career.
“Things were intimidating to me at first as they were outside my comfort zone, but those experiences have been huge for my professional development,” said Pesciotta.
A key player in the success of Pesciotta’s early experience was Riskified’s learning and development team, who held one-on-one sessions with her throughout her onboarding process to get her comfortably up to speed. As a new member of the Riskified team, these lessons offered early inspiration for Pesciotta’s career journey at the company, as well as additional opportunities for team-building and peer-to-peer learning.
“Being able to learn from my peers has also been invaluable. There are so many really smart, hard-working people at Riskified,” said Pesciotta.
“There are so many smart, hard-working people at Riskified.”
While business development allowed some first-hand experience on the front end of the customer journey, Pesciotta knew from the start that she wanted to end up on the closing side of the sales cycle — as an account executive. Having determined she was ready to rise to the challenge required to secure the promotion, she communicated her goal to her manager, and the Riskified team came together to supply the stepping stones she needed to make the leap.
“Everyone from my direct manager to senior-level managers gave me guidance on what I needed to do to get there,” said Pesciotta.
Having successfully made the transition to tech sales, Pesciotta, now a senior account executive, is always finding new ways to improve her confidence as a Riskified professional.
“Each year I am faced with new challenges that help ensure I continue to grow and develop in my role,” said Pesciotta.
From Aircraft to Software
For Mike Fusco, the rise to his role as account management director at Riskified was all about finding the perfect tailwind. With an educational background in aerospace engineering, the early years of Fusco’s career were spent designing military aircraft for government contracts.
Hungry for a faster-paced environment, Fusco made his way to sales at IBM, selling healthcare services during the height of the pandemic. As he accrued valuable experience seeing the impact of his work on the customers he served, Fusco knew he wanted to move to a smaller company where he could make his mark in a leadership role. It was this desire that brought him to the account management team at Riskified.
From the start, Fusco had a specific career goal in mind: He wanted to lead a team. After communicating this goal to his manager, they worked together to build out a list of milestones as opportunities for learning new skills and accumulating leadership experience. Each year, milestones were checked off the list and replaced with new ones. After three years, the director of account management seat opened, and Fusco was already primed for the promotion.
“When the opportunity arose in our organization, my management knew I was eager and able to step up into this position,” said Fusco.
“When the opportunity arose, my management knew I was eager and able to step up into this position.”
Having achieved his goal at Riskified, Fusco credited team leadership for setting a strong example that motivates him to be a better manager every day.
“As a newer leader in the organization, I am inspired by the exemplary model they have set,” said Fusco.
The benefits of Riskified’s company culture — one that promotes ingenuity, collaboration and making your mark beyond your daily work — laid the groundwork for a learning environment. Beyond selling a product he believes in, Fusco is regularly inspired by the “work hard, play hard” mindset of his colleagues, who continue to elevate one another to new heights for their careers and the Riskified product.
“Everyone on my extended team is results-driven and highly motivated. I am very happy with the work-life balance we have achieved,” said Fusco.
“I am very happy with the work-life balance we have achieved.”
Feuling Career Growth With Feedback and Flexibility
Chris Behnke, an enterprise account manager, was initially drawn to Riskified’s product and business model as an opportunity to grow his skills. With a background in account management in the financial sector, he eventually moved from the business development team to account management where he felt he could make a positive contribution to the business and the work lives of his team members.
“Riskified has enabled me to achieve my long-term desire to support and manage some of our most strategic relationships while becoming an asset to my colleagues,” said Behnke.
“Riskified has enabled me to support and manage some of our most strategic relationships while becoming an asset to my colleagues.”
A combination of a feedback-friendly culture and a diversity of career development opportunities like internal training sessions, cross-functional collaborations and a mentorship program afforded Behnke regular chances to round out his product knowledge and leadership skills. His most valuable Riskified expertise has been his creative approach to problem-solving — a skill honed from hands-on experience helping Riskified’s customers.
“Most importantly, I have developed a strong capacity to adapt to new situations and solve problems effectively,” said Behnke.
All of these accomplishments were made possible by Riskified’s collaborative, approachable approach to career development. For passionate employees interested in taking the next step in their career and seeing tangible results in their day-to-day work, leadership is quick to highlight areas for growth alongside key programs and resources to give employees a leg up as they climb the ladder. Like Pesciotta and Fusco, Behnke openly recognizes the positive effect that his managers have had on his career in such a short period.
“Through continuous and open feedback, I’ve learned from strong leaders who value my opinion. This has helped accelerate my career development,” said Behnke.
“Through continuous and open feedback, I’ve learned from strong leaders who value my opinion.”
Riskified employees embody the ideal experience of a professional in tech — one that does not require an annual job change to earn a promotion. Instead, working hand-in-hand with team members across the organization, leaning regularly on internal knowledge-building programs and outlining a career path with leadership does more than move Riskified employees’ careers forward — it gives them undeniable and invaluable skills to last a lifetime.
