Networking Your Way Into Your Dream Role with Chelsey Bonilla

Episode Information

Show Notes

Breaking into a major tech company requires more than submitting applications online. Chelsey Bonilla shares how strategic networking, intentional preparation, and genuine curiosity helped her land an account executive role at Gartner, despite not having a traditional technical background.

Guest Background:
Chelsey Bonilla is an Account Executive at Gartner, one of the world’s leading research and advisory companies. A Las Vegas native and UNLV double alum, she built her career through operations, IT staffing, startup experience, and project management before finding her current role. She’s an active member of SIM (Society of Information Management) Las Vegas, where she volunteers and builds relationships within the tech community.

Episode Highlights:

Non-Traditional Path to IT
Chelsey’s career didn’t follow the expected route. Starting in operations and moving through various roles, she found herself drawn to IT despite lacking technical credentials. Her willingness to ask “I don’t understand” became a strength rather than a weakness.

Strategic Networking That Works
When Chelsey became obsessed with working at Gartner, she didn’t just apply online. She researched everyone attending a SIM networking event, showed up early, and made genuine connections. That preparation led to a phone call about an opportunity that wasn’t even posted yet.

The Power of Preparation
Before networking events, Chelsey researches attendees on LinkedIn, follows them strategically, and comes prepared with questions. She calls it “cyber stalking”—and it works.

Surviving Seven Rounds of Interviews
Large organizations have rigorous interview processes for good reason. Chelsey shares what it took to get through seven interviews at Gartner and why each round reinforced that she was on the right path.

Key Takeaways:

• Ask questions freely, even when you don’t have technical knowledge
• Prepare intentionally for every networking opportunity
• Build genuine relationships within professional organizations
• Research people before you meet them
• Trust the rigorous interview processes at companies you admire
• Give recruiters the information they need to advocate for you
• Volunteer and give back to your professional community

Connect with Chelsey Bonilla:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/chelseybonilla/

Listen to Career Downloads:
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TranscriptionManuel Martinez: Welcome everyone, my name is Manuel Martinez and this is another episode of Career Downloads where each episode I basically hit the refresh button, bring on a different guest to learn more about their background and their experiences, to really try and uncover any actionable advice that you can use as you’re managing your own career. So I’m excited for today’s episode because I have with me Chelsey Bonilla and her and I have, over the last, probably close to a year now, have developed a both professional and personal relationship, just kind of getting to know each other. And ike I’ve mentioned before, there’s different areas of technology. So she didn’t feel that she works in technology, but she really does. So again, I just kind of want to help, I hope that her story kind of helps dispel some of those myths. And we get to learn a little bit more of how she’s navigated it, and hopefully find some things that will be helpful for you. So with that, I’ll go ahead and introduce Chelsea.

Chelsey Bonilla: Thank you, Manny. I appreciate all the time and consideration and overthinking that you’ve allowed me to have over the last year.

Manuel Martinez: And I appreciate that it kind of, it took time because you’re not the only person that, it takes a little bit to be like, “Well, wait a minute, why me? Why my story?” it’s not something that you do all the time, right? I don’t see you on podcasts all the time or kind of speaking out publicly. So I think this is good because I’ve had a couple of guests like that. And it it helps other people see like, “Okay, it’s not just me.”

Chelsey Bonilla: Right, yeah, absolutely. I mean, we met for coffee, you emailed me questions, we had in-person conversations. So on the scale of overthinking, I think I’m on the high end. So I appreciate you indulging me throughout the year.

Manuel Martinez: No problem. So if you don’t mind as we get started, if you just kind of tell me a little bit about where you grew up and then eventually kind of what led to you starting your career.

Chelsey Bonilla: Absolutely, so I love the story of where I grew up because I actually grew up in Las Vegas. So born and raised never left. And I like to say that because growing up in Vegas, born and raised here, not very far from where we are right now, I’ve kind of seen the growth of the city, seen the change of the environment, but I’m also a double alum from UNLV. And I knew coming out of high school that I wanted to go to UNLV. And when I went back to get my MBA, I knew UNLV was where I wanted to go. And that never left, not to say if someone leaves there’s anything wrong with that, but a lot of people that I grew up with left to UNR, left out of state. And I just, I truly have an affinity for Nevada. And I knew UNLV was my school. So that’s kind of my education. And then starting in my professional career, I started working at the young age of 15, which is crazy to say. So I started working at 15. I worked for a small mom and pop shop here in Vegas, a school uniform company. And I was the right hand to the CEO. So I would do everything from payroll to training, to hiring, to operations, to, I was the controller. I would do bookkeeping. So it was this amazing experience to get exposure to business. 15 to 17, I was basically supporting and helping from a business perspective. So then when I started at UNLV, what am I gonna do with the rest of my life? I naturally gravitated towards a business degree. So I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business. And it was amazing because I would take these concepts from class, I would come back to the business and say, “Hey, what if we tried this? What if we created a social media account? What if we did marketing campaigns? What if we changed the way our strategy looked?” So it was this amazing playground where the CEO would let me come back with concepts and kind of grow those organically within the business. And then when I graduated with my bachelor’s degree, working through the entirety of my bachelor’s degree, going back to school, I knew I wanted to get my MBA. So I went through the executive MBA program at UNLV, which was great because it was unique to the standard MBA tract because I was with a cohort. So I was with 18 other individuals who are still friends to this day, seven years after graduation. And it was just such an eyeopening experience that really led to my journey and the evolution of my professional career.

Manuel Martinez: What is it about that CEO? And do you think it was just them kind of seeing you grow up and knowing that you’re pursuing this business degree, that they gave you the ability to kind of implement a lot of these changes that you wanted to go through because sometimes there’s business owners or just maybe the businesses, it’s so established that they’re like, “No, we’re not gonna do that.” Or, “Hey, that’s great in theory or in a classroom that would never work in an actual business setting.” So is it you communicating, not just like, “Hey, we should do this,” because I’m sure you weren’t just like, “Let’s implement this.” And they were like, “Sure, let’s do it.” You had to kind of build a business case. So what was that kind of interaction like?

Chelsey Bonilla: Yeah, that’s a great question. And I love the term business case because I think as IT professionals, we use that all the time. And thinking back 15 years ago, I didn’t even know I was building a business case to why should we do this? So there was a lot of trust that the CEO had in me I think because I was with the business for so long. So I ended up working there for 10 plus years. And just over that time, it allowed me to build that trust with her. So I could come and I could say, “Here’s an idea. Here’s what I’d like to implement.” She was great at building the business, but she didn’t have the college education. So me coming with, “Hey, this is what I’m learning at school. I don’t know if it’ll work, but maybe we could try it.” And there was a lot of freedom for me to kind of try different things and work with the team and say, “Hey, let’s try this. Let’s see if it works.” So like building employee manuals was something that I had so much fun with. And it was the first time the organization ever had an employee manual. So it was like that compliance and that documentation was things that I was learning that I could bring back and then were valuable to the business. And she saw the value as I would execute on those things.

Manuel Martinez: And my guess is though, that not every idea was a success.

Chelsey Bonilla: Absolutely.

Manuel Martinez: And when it didn’t, how did you Did you take it personal or kind of, it sounds like you had a good relationship so that when it didn’t work, how do you determine, “Hey, this isn’t working as opposed to, we just need to keep trying harde