Melissa Andrews counts sales engineering as her first “real” job after college. She had no idea what she was getting into when she got hired into Oracle’s “Scholar” SE training program, but it turned out to be one of the best decisions she ever made. She’s since transitioned into SE management at Splunk, and wishes she’d moved into management sooner. Melissa has been working with Department of Defense customers and technology since 1998. She is a skilled technical presenter and facilitator, adept at working with customers to discover their pain points and helping them use technology to address them, as well as keeping them informed and trained about new advances. She’s also a great relationship builder – successfully managing account managers, product managers, developers, and teammates in her quest to keep her customers happy. She loves to share that she was born and raised in the Caribbean.