Under the current circumstances, digital transformation is an inevitable part of our daily life and many parts of our surroundings are integrated with cutting edge technology. DevOps is one of them as a core value to change various business processes.
Here at CircleCI, our business delivers the continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) platform, CircleCI has been empowering engineers for more than a decade all over the globe.
Speaking of the business aspect, our Japan office has supervised both the Japanese and APAC regions (we called it JAPAC office) so it's fascinating to cultivate the entire global business growth seamlessly.
Nowadays at CircleCI, APAC business growth has been on the rise rapidly and there’s many sales achievements coming along the way every now and then that make us realize it’s the sign of emerging the rise of transformation by DevOps.
With this roller coaster riding environment at the APAC sales department at CircleCI, would you be curious to know the APAC market trending at DevOps market and how do we deliver the CircleCI value towards the APAC region? Take a look at the dialog by our current APAC Account Executives!
Ash: Hi, I’m Ash, I’m originally from Australia and have been in Japan for about 8 years, with CircleCI for 2. I like hiking and snowboarding on the weekends.
Angela: Hello everyone, I’m Angela. Born in Korea, raised in China, studied in the U.S. and UK, worked in Hong Kong for 9 years and now in Japan! I’ve been working for CircleCI for the past 8 months.
Ash: I joined CircleCI 2 years (and 2 funding rounds!) ago because software is taking over the world, and everyone in the industry I spoke to always had positive experiences with the product and company.
Angela: Trending market, wonderful teamwork environment and a strong, brilliant product.
Ash: The working environment at CircleCI is very friendly. We work from home, but the company is very well prepared for remote work with good tools and processes. We can set our own schedule, and everyone is respectful of the time of others. I balance work and life by prioritizing time for hobbies like hiking and relaxation.
Angela: One thing I really like about working at CircleCI is that everyone respects each other. As a professional, you decide where you want to work (in office or at home) and you are in charge of your own schedule.
As a working mom (yup, I have a 3 year old) having flexibility is important, and at CircleCI everyone respects your time and appreciates your life outside of work as well. To balance my work-life balance, I work 200% during the regular working hours and try to turn off my laptop by dinner time so I can spend quality time with my child and get to tuck her into bed.
Ash: High potential as the APAC market continues to develop, and it’s a great opportunity to work with some really great people from all over the world.
Angela: What thrills me the most about looking after the APAC region is that this is a HUGE region with so much potential. APAC is an interesting market - it’s divided into multiple markets with different cultures, work ethics and focus areas. And by working as an APAC Account Executive, you get to meet various people and organizations from all over this region and you can learn so much from your everyday conversations with your customers.
Ash: We get to enjoy the benefits of living in Japan - like the great food and culture, but we also get to work with a wide variety of interesting customers in different countries.
Angela: Usually companies have their APAC HeadQuarters in Hong Kong or Singapore and do APAC ex-Japan business however this may lead to creating a barrier between APAC and Japan and have difficult time understanding the APAC business as a whole. By running the APAC market from Japan, we get to work closely with the Japan AEs and share ideas and interesting insights. And of course, Japan is a wonderful country to live in - not to mention the food but the quality of living is superb.
Ash: The market has changed a lot in the 2 years I’ve been with CircleCI, mostly in a positive way! Funding for startups in the main hubs like Singapore and Australia is increasing quickly, and the pipeline of new and interesting companies is healthy. But APAC is still behind the other regions in some software development practices, and needs time to catch up - but we’re perfectly positioned to help!
Angela: There’s never been a more exciting time to be involved in the Tech industry for APAC. Last year, there were around 200 unicorns (startups valued at $1 billion or more) in APAC and many of these leading startups are making a global impact. We also have enterprise customers who have been using their legacy systems for a long time and looking for a change in their DevOps practice as the technology continues to improve and go faster everyday.
Ash: I like the team and culture. I really enjoy working with all of my colleagues - both the ones that I work with day-to-day in the Japan office, and the global sales team. And the other departments are also fantastic - when we need some support from security, legal, finance or support they are always responsive and helpful. The positivity and strong sense that we want to win as a team are really encouraging.
Angela: I like how I can learn about entrepreneurship. Both by speaking to our customers and by participating in CircleCI’s growth, I can gain understanding of what it takes to scale a business.
Ash: Working with the leading startups in Japan and APAC is always really exciting, but I enjoyed coaching Angela on a big opportunity last quarter. It was a large customer with technical complexity and a tough negotiator. But with a few suggestions on data to use, Angela did a great job. That helped us hit above target for the quarter, and it was exciting to see a new team member do so well so quickly.
Angela: There were many exciting moments while working at CircleCI but the most memorable moment was when your work had a visible impact. I am currently working together with our team on localization for the Korea market and it thrills me how you can see almost daily that you are creating something that wasn’t there before and this satisfaction helps me to thrive to continue making a meaningful impact as you grow with the company.
Ash: CircleCI is very supportive of people. There’s respect and appreciation for people’s time and achievements. So schedules are easy to manage and we’re able to prioritize our most important work to the best part of our day - I prefer early mornings as a time to focus. Wins are also celebrated for the effort. We also have a ton of data to work with - as a data driven company, we use data to guide our activities in the sales team, and in our conversations with our customers to make sure that we’re supporting them in a meaningful way.
Angela: Teamwork is an important element of working at CircleCI. Especially for the APAC market, as we have diverse customers to cover, having a supportive teammate who can help you is very important. I was very lucky to have Ash as my teammate and my mentor - he was always there for me when I had questions and was happy to sit down with me and brainstorm ideas together. Having the opportunity to work together with a smart, supportive and nurturing teammate, I was able to develop skills and knowledge not only for my role but as a business professional in general as well.
Ash: I’m optimistic. I think there’s a lot of potential, but it’s also a super fast-changing environment. As DevOps and CI/CD evolves, so does CircleCI and our customers. APAC in particular is heading towards a more competitive environment for software companies, so speed and quality are more important, and CircleCI is a really excellent product that will only get better with time.
Angela: More and more customers in APAC see the importance of having a strong CI/CD practice that is tightly coupled with the most important value drivers of software development. We continue to see startups and unicorns adopting good DevOps practices and enterprise organizations replacing their legacy systems with more agile and speedy methods. With this trend, I am optimistic about our business in APAC.
Ash: Both Angela and I are part of the interview process, so we look forward to meeting our future colleagues soon!
Angela: CircleCI is an amazing organization to be in - great product, passionate coworkers and friendly environment. We’re a great team and excited to have you onboard. I can’t wait to work with you and learn more about your ideas to grow our APAC business together!
Hope you get the general takeaway of our business in APAC!
Would you like to be part of our APAC Account Executive team? We are actively hiring the additional Commercial Account Executive,APAC! To find out more, please take a look at the below JD and apply!
CircleCI is the world’s largest shared continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) platform, and the hub where code moves from idea to delivery. As one of the most-used DevOps tools - processing more than 1 million builds a day - CircleCI has unique access to data on how engineering teams work, and how their code runs. Companies like Spotify, Coinbase, and BuzzFeed use us to improve engineering team productivity, release better products, and get to market faster.
Founded in 2011 and headquartered in downtown San Francisco with a global, remote workforce, CircleCI is venture-backed by Base10, Greenspring Associates, Eleven Prime, IVP, Sapphire Ventures, Top Tier Capital Partners, Baseline Ventures, Threshold Ventures, Scale Venture Partners, Owl Rock Capital, Next Equity Partners, Heavybit and Harrison Metal Capital.
CircleCI is an Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, sexual stereotypes, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. We also consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state and local law.
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