Antoine Choquet

Presentation

Antoine Choquet, 25, had a fairly varied background before starting Akimbo.

He started with studies in economics and management at Paris Dauphine, where he continued all of his studies. He will leave with a bachelor's degree in Social and Political Science, and a master's degree in Marketing and Strategy.

During his six years of studies, Antoine had the opportunity to have two professional experiences:

- A first experience at BNP Paribas with an immersion in the commercial world as Deputy Sales Manager for the student market.

- He then joined Orange, within the group's innovation branch. He was in charge of the project to integrate virtual reality into the world of training at Orange.

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These two experiences allowed him to realize that what he liked the most were the moments when he was in contact with customers or collaborators. So naturally, Antoine thought that the sales profession could correspond to him. The problem was that he had impostor syndrome. Since it is very rare to find schools or establishments that allow you to acquire sales techniques, he turned to a training school. In this case, Akimbo.

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What Antoine learned from the Bootcamp

Let's go back to his words: “So I have retained a lot of things : the Bootcamp was an extremely rich training on a lot of levels. At first glance, I came to acquire methods, tools and also to get out of my comfort zone. Those were the first points I wanted to highlight.

The first things I'm going to remember about Akimbo is thatWe can't hide : there is A lot of practice, everyone practices speaking in front of everyone. At first it's a bit complicated, but in fact there are such benevolence, whether coaches to the Akimbers and Akimbers to each other. It's fast a cohesion that is created. We are no longer even embarrassed to speak in front of everyone, and I think that at this level, it is still a quality that is not necessarily always developed in other higher education. It is something that I have learned a lot.

The courses are very rich : we are very far from the cliché of a salesman full of crap who improvises. We are on an almost scientific approach to sales, with lots of methods, lots of techniques, lots of acronyms to remember too. At this level I think It's extremely comprehensive.

Afterwards, I would also highlight the impact of coaches. We have a lot of coaches who each have a specialty and very different characters. We often change coaches, and everyone brings us different things. The coaches at Akimbo are of particular importance, thanks to their presence throughout the training.

With the commercial profession, You learn a lot about yourself, humanly as well, of course. There is a lot of stereotypes that Akimbo helps to overcome. I had some myself before I came to Akimbo, and that helped me get past them. Being a salesperson is a much more human job than you might think.”

How did the connections go

The recruitment process is a bit like the culmination of Akimbo coaching: that's what we came for. At this level, we were very accompanied, very guided. At Akimbo, there are matchmakers who devote 100% of their time to Akimbers: on the one hand to identify the partner companies that are recruiting, and on the other hand to draw up recommendations, based on what they saw during the entire Bootcamp. In the end, they know us very well.

At the end of the Bootcamp, I was in four processes. I have never been left out of a process, which also shows that The degree of preparation is really good. We have coaching constantly, we have the agenda of coaches and matchmakers at our free disposal to make appointments. We help each other out.

We are the day on Zoom doing interviews, or in person and we really have All the cards in hand. It only depends on us, and I really have confidence in the rest of the operations and it's super rewarding. We learn lots of tips too. For example, follow-up emails: I didn't know that this was done at all, and I think that this is one of the things that make the difference in a process to keep in touch and show that we have learned things from the interview, and that we are not just there wanting to go through the interview.

Who do you recommend the Akimbo Bootcamp to?

We find all profiles at Akimbo. In our session, the youngest was 19, and the oldest was maybe 38.

The training is for everyone. The common point that we will have to have is The desire to discover new things, to learn, And a certain resiliency. It is necessary to be able to integrate training, because it is selective and the pace is sustained. But it's a good thing at the end of the day. We were also a promo that wanted to get the best out of the coaches on the various modules we took.

I would also say that the training is aimed at people in transition, because it is also a reorientation towards sales paths. It is something that will allow you to discover yourself a lot more. In this way, you will develop a skill that is certainly professional, but as the most important product it is often yourself... Knowing how to sell yourself is a quality that will help us all life regardless of what we do, whether we stay in the commercial world or not.