A Rookie in the Workforce
“To win the grand prize!”
“For the grand prize!!”
The moment the news came through that we had cleared the Startup Competition document screening, our group chat erupted.
It was practically as if we had already taken the grand prize in the finals.
Still, rather than dousing everyone’s excitement, we went ahead with the team dinner under the suggestion that we should just drink to celebrate.
It was, after all, a welcome party for Park Jaeyun.
Park Jaeyun.
She had been busy handling onboarding, inheritance of duties, and a mountain of paperwork the moment she joined, so she had barely had time to properly greet everyone.
I wanted this chance to bring us a little closer.
“Hello, I’m Park Jaeyun, twenty-three years old and newly joined. Please take good care of me!”
“Please take good care of us too~!”
We all applauded and welcomed Park Jaeyun.
As the only woman among us, Yoo Jiwon looked almost absurdly grateful for the presence of another female coworker, and she couldn’t hide the soft, syrupy gleam in her eyes as she looked at Jaeyun.
“Our club room can get a little smelly sometimes, so please bear with us. I’ll make sure to spray plenty of perfume.”
“Ah. My older brother is a college engineering major, so I know the type. It’s fine.”
What? What type was she saying she knew?
“Hey, don’t say weird things.”
“We agreed to use polite speech, remember, Hyeonwoo nim?”
“Ah, right.”
Since there was now an employee joining us rather than just another student from our school, a new rule had formed among us.
We had adopted the habit of calling one another with the honorific nim, and we spoke politely to one another so no one would feel excluded.
It was a minimum precaution to keep newcomers from feeling left out.
“Then is it okay if we just call CEO Kim Siwon ‘Siwon nim’ too?”
“Yes. Please call me Siwon nim.”
“Got it! Still, since I’m the youngest, you don’t have to use honorifics with me. Feel free to treat me casually!”
Park Jaeyun was a bright person.
In the language of this era, she was the type of person with blood type O; in the language of my previous life, she was the sort of person you’d call EEEE.
Rather than feeling isolated among the people who had started in the club, she threw herself into getting close to them, and it was impressive to watch.
It didn’t seem like she was saying she wanted to do sales for no reason.
“You graduated on time without even taking a leave of absence?”
“Yes. I’ve wanted to be a salaried employee rather than a student since I was little!”
“You never went on a working holiday or a long trip either?”
“A break during vacation was enough for me. I traveled plenty overseas when I studied in Europe as an exchange student!”
“Your English is good too?”
“I’m really good at English~”
Thanks to Jaeyun’s spirited energy, our own tension rose with it.
Even if she had gone somewhere other than our company, she would have been loved for sure.
“Then I guess you’ll want to go beyond domestic sales and handle overseas sales someday too?”
“Yes. I want to expand my career all the way into overseas BD, business development.”
“Oh. What country would you want to handle?”
“North America would probably be my final goal. I’ll grow step by step here at TA Medical!”
None of us had asked Park Jaeyun future-related questions like, “What do you want to do at our company?”
Not even on her first day.
Honestly, we had been careful in our own way because we didn’t think she’d want to build a long career at a startup.
But Jaeyun had taken the initiative herself and actively introduced the future she was envisioning at TA Medical.
That made me even more grateful to her.
“You’ve really brought in a character our company didn’t have before.”
“We definitely didn’t have anyone with sense, brightness, and social ease.”
“Thanks for the compliment~”
Watching her bright, eager expression, I fell into thought for a moment.
She was definitely the kind of talent the company would feel sorry to keep only in business support.
In fact, it was a shame we didn’t have a field for her to jump into right away.
That said, we didn’t yet have any approved medical devices ready to charge ahead with blindly, and the paperwork for the Startup Competition and our investment talks was already keeping us far too busy.
Hmm. Still, she was an intelligent talent who handled her assigned work well. It would be a little wrong to keep her from doing the work she actually wanted forever.
“Jaeyun nim.”
“Yes?”
“Have you ever talked to a doctor? Not while receiving treatment.”
Since she was someone who had come to us, I figured it would be right to at least let her taste the path she wanted.
＊＊＊
Just as salespeople at pharmaceutical companies are called MRs, or Medical Representatives, salespeople at medical companies must deliver product information to medical professionals.
That is their job.
It is forbidden to pass along false information or engage in illegal rebates, meaning practices where the seller gives the buyer some benefit, such as returning part of the payment.
So people who don’t know any better sometimes say, “If the product is good and the marketing is good, don’t you just not need sales?”
But that was a line only someone who truly knew nothing could say.
“Jaeyun nim.”
“Yes.”
“What do you think is the most important thing for a sales role at a medical device company?”
“Isn’t it explaining the product accurately and well?”
I gave her a slight smile.
“That’s correct in principle, but my view is a little different.”
“How so?”
“You have to win doctors over.”
In a B2B company, the sales team is the face that represents both the product and the company.
No matter how good the product and promotional materials are, if the salesperson gives off the impression of, I’m not buying from this guy, then everything falls apart.
In the end, as technology advances, it becomes hard to monopolize a product that is truly one of a kind.
So when the performance gap between competitors’ products is small, friendship with the salesperson becomes a deciding factor in product selection.
“But isn’t our product the only AI product in the market?”
“It isn’t the only one. Our product is number one in performance for now, but no one knows whether that will stay true forever. And officially, we don’t yet have any research results to prove it.”
“Then we just need to make it the ‘original,’ right?”
“That position doesn’t get created overnight. First, you need a lot of actual users in the industry.”
Jaeyun nodded slowly.
Even so, she still looked puzzled.
“Then shouldn’t our main priority be opening new accounts right now?”
“We can do that. But before that, we should go through a somewhat easier first step.”
That first step was lunch with Professor Shin Dongjin.
“So you’re saying this is less about ‘pioneering a new account’ and more about experiencing ‘maintaining an existing one’ first?”
“Exactly. Instead of starting with cold calls, we’ll deal first with an existing client who is already friendly toward us.”
Professor Shin Dongjin was both part of our company and a professor in Korea University’s veterinary medicine department.
So for Jaeyun, who was meeting a medical professional for the first time, there was no better way to begin her sales work than by meeting Professor Shin Dongjin.
“Honestly, I’m so nervous. Will I be okay?”
“You’ll be meeting people alongside me for quite a long time, so you can relax a little.”
“Phew.”
“Still, don’t forget this is real work. Try not to get flustered.”
“Yes!”
While we were talking, we arrived in front of Professor Shin Dongjin’s lab.
The professor was already waiting outside the door for us.
“Hello, Professor. It’s been a while.”
“It has. And the person next to you must be the new one?”
“I’m Park Jaeyun. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
With a nervous expression, Jaeyun greeted him and handed over a newly issued business card.
It wasn’t a card for business support, but one made for sales activities, complete with her title.
Fortunately, Jaeyun had studied card etiquette well.
She didn’t cover her name, and she handed it over in a direction that would make it easy for the other person to read.
So far, Jaeyun was following along naturally enough.
“Are you a college student? You look young.”
“Ah. I’m scheduled to graduate. I, well, am young.”
“I see.”
But at the words “you look young,” Jaeyun immediately panicked.
The professor hadn’t meant it badly, but she seemed to instinctively realize that looking young was not exactly a strength for a salesperson.
“Should we move in my car?”
“No, Professor. We’re planning to go in Jaeyun’s car.”
“Oh? You have a car?”
“I’m good at driving too, Professor.”
At the professor’s surprised reaction, Jaeyun’s expression loosened a little.
She really did seem tense in front of a professor; the sly, polished Jaeyun from the dinner party was nowhere to be seen.
And yet, even if her hands were shaking, the fact that her voice wasn’t was impressive.
“Park Jaeyun. That’s a rather gender-neutral name.”
“Yes. It is.”
As she answered, Jaeyun’s eyes darted around.
She seemed to be thinking about what she should say next.
“Ah, Professor. What do you think of our product?”
“The product?”
“Yes. The one you’re using in your lab, Professor. Or, rather, sir.”
“Ah, that one. Well, it’s good. It’s good enough that I invested, after all.”
The moment she heard the professor’s answer, Jaeyun’s face turned red enough to burst.
Her mind had frozen under the pressure of being a salesperson.
I understood.
No matter how well someone did in interviews or how capable they were, how could a rookie employee steer a conversation smoothly under that kind of pressure?
“Ah. Was that not right? We’re using it well~”
The professor seemed concerned by how red Jaeyun’s face had become, so he added another answer in an extremely kind, gentle tone.
“Ah, yes. I’m sorry.”
Even so, Jaeyun couldn’t relax with that level of kindness.
She had already slipped into full self-reproach mode because of her own mistake.
It was obvious from the way “I’m sorry” kept slipping out of her mouth over something that really wasn’t a big deal at all.
“Hmm. So that’s why CEO Kim asked me to have a meal with him?”
Looking at Jaeyun, who had completely frozen up, the professor wore a pitying expression.
He seemed to pity young Jaeyun, and at the same time to pity me for having to raise a rookie like this.
“It was partly to meet you and partly to have a meal together.”
“That’s right. I think meeting me first was the right choice.”
The longer our conversation went on, the more complicated Jaeyun’s mind seemed to become.
She looked like a textbook example of a rookie employee who had made her first mistake.
At times like this, you had to calm them down as quickly as possible.
“Jaeyun nim.”
“Y-yes?”
“Don’t worry too much. The professor is trying to help you relax right now.”
At my words, Jaeyun glanced at the professor.
He was saying he was managing his expression, but he still looked broken somehow.
Seeing that, the professor burst out laughing.
“Oh dear. I’m known around campus as the angel professor, and you’re this nervous around me?”
“I’m sorry.”
“No, stop apologizing. If you keep saying that, the person listening will think you really did something wrong.”
“Ah.”
“Looks like I’ll need to have a meal alone with you, Junior. I think you’re due for some hard training.”
“Pardon?”
Gentle Professor Shin Dongjin.
But it wasn’t easy to be endlessly forgiving and patient with a salesperson at the company he had invested his own money into.
In fact, seeing that he intended to correct her thoroughly put me at ease.
And I liked that it was the professor who proposed it first, not me.
“Please take care of her, Professor.”
“Of course. Kim Siwon must have chosen her for a reason.”
“That’s right.”
“All right. Junior, for now don’t just start talking about the product with other professors. It makes it obvious you came here with a purpose, doesn’t it?”
In truth, a lot of rookies would burst into tears in a situation like this or start to question their own job.
Even if the other person had no bad intentions, being battered by the cold variables of reality and losing one’s judgment while reacting emotionally was fairly common.
But Jaeyun didn’t want to do that, and she clamped down on her mouth with determination before nodding.
“Please take care of me, Professor. If you call me anytime, I’ll race over with the car.”
“Oh~”
Even Professor Shin Dongjin seemed surprised by Jaeyun’s hardened resolve, and he let out an admiring sound.
Then he looked my way and nodded.
“Ah. Jaeyun Junior is apparently good at golf too.”
“At her age?”
“I heard she even placed in an amateur tournament?”
“Oh-ho. Tell me about the tournament, Junior.”
As soon as she touched on one of the professor’s interests, his voice became brighter.
Jaeyun caught that shift immediately and brought out her own smooth wit at once.
“I have three certificates for eagles.”
“Oh~ Eagles?”
With the tension a little loosened but her mind fully alert, Jaeyun quickly had the professor cracking up.
Before long, she was tossing out terms I didn’t even know because I wasn’t properly familiar with golf.
With talent like that, she’d be worth carefully raising.