What It’s Like to Work in Sales at Udemy: A People-First, High-Impact Team

Inside Udemy’s Sales Team Culture

Rachael Seidenberg’s decision to join Udemy’s sales division taught her that culture isn’t a place — it’s a practice. 

After joining the company in 2020, the senior strategic account executive wasn’t able to meet a single colleague or customer in person for nearly two years due to the pandemic. Yet, she could still feel Udemy’s culture everywhere, from the way leaders engaged in strategy sessions to the support her peers offered each other.

“Success isn’t individual here; it’s shared,” she said.

Senior Director of Enterprise Sales Gordon Egan echoed this sentiment, calling teamwork “central” to Udemy’s sales division. That’s why Egan strives to build an open, collaborative, and transparent team culture. 

“I try to create an environment where people can bring their true selves to work every day, where they can grow and develop and really make an impact for our customers,” he said.

For Udemy’s sales team, success takes many forms, from an enterprise client doubling its revenue to team members developing into true strategic partners. And all of these wins have something in common: They’re the product of a culture rooted in support, empowerment, and far-reaching impact. 

How Udemy’s Sales Teams Drive Customer and Learner Impact

Evolution shapes the employee experience for every member of Udemy’s sales organization, including Peter Kokkinos, vice president and managing director for the company’s Asia-Pacific division.

“What’s defined my time here has been the incredible pace of transformation, both in how organizations view learning and how Udemy has evolved to meet those changing needs,” he said. 

 

“What’s defined my time here has been the incredible pace of transformation, both in how organizations view learning and how Udemy has evolved to meet those changing needs.” 

 

Recently, Kokkinos’ team partnered with a major multinational corporation to completely overhaul the business’s learning strategy across APAC. 

“This was crucial for our team because it represented everything we stand for — using technology to democratize learning while respecting local cultures and business needs,” Kokkinos said.

Apart from surmounting technical hurdles, his team had to overcome skepticism, given that the organization they were working with had had negative experiences with previous learning technology companies. By leaning on a “respectful localization” approach, they were able to overcome the client’s hesitation, and worked directly with local teams in each major market to ensure they addressed every need. 

The result was a solution that respected local nuances and increased course completion rates by 40%. The experience taught Kokkinos a valuable lesson about trust and its role in the development process. 

“What I learned is that trust isn’t just built through successful outcomes — it’s built through the process itself,” he said. “When teams see you’re willing to invest time in understanding their unique challenges, they become partners.”

 

Related ReadingUdemy Career Growth: How Humans Form the Heart of the Company's AI-First Evolution

 

 

How Udemy Supports Growth, Inclusion, and Collaboration in Sales

For Egan, the strength of Udemy’s sales org doesn’t just lie in collaboration and determination — it comes down to its diversity as well. 

“Bringing these amazing people together and blending these different cultures whilst retaining our individual identities is what makes our team unique,” he said.

 

“Bringing these amazing people together and blending these different cultures whilst retaining our individual identities is what makes our team unique.”

 

Udemy strives to offer a space in which everyone can show up authentically, guided by the belief that honesty empowers people to reach their full potential. 

Of course, innovation also plays a role in Udemy’s sales culture. According to Seidenberg, the company’s sales team strikes a balance between being both people-first and technology-oriented, leveraging AI to work smarter while continuing to build authentic relationships with customers. 

“The result is a culture that blends innovation with empathy, a place where people are supported to perform, grow and make an impact together,” she said.

This growth is cultivated by leaders who invest in team members’ upskilling by providing tools, training, and opportunities for learning. Seidenberg said that executives carve out time for one-on-one conversations and feedback, ensuring everyone feels heard. 

Another core tenet of Udemy’s sales culture is what Kokkinos calls “curious collaboration.” He said that he and his teammates begin every major client engagement with a “learning archaeology” session, where they dig deep into a client’s needs and what their learners experience and value. 

Kokkinos and his peers also take part in quarterly “culture exchange” sessions, which enable team members across different markets to present insights about local business cultures, learning preferences, and market dynamics. 

“It’s part education and part celebration, and it’s made us incredibly effective at navigating complex regional differences,” he said.

This combination of sales excellence and a passion for learning is what Kokkinos believes sets Udemy’s sales org apart. Rather than just focus on hitting quotas, he and his peers prioritize transformation stories and human impact. 

“We celebrate not just when we close a deal, but when we hear about learners achieving career breakthroughs because of our platform,” Kokkinos said.

 

 

Why Sales Professionals Build Long-Term Careers at Udemy

Those in Udemy’s sales org aren’t just motivated by quotas; they’re fueled by a universal passion for helping others.

“It is incredibly rewarding to see and hear the impact we have on our learners,” Egan said. “Hearing stories about their success inspires our team to continue to deliver excellence.”

Equitable access to knowledge and education is critical for the success of people, companies , and the world. That’s why Seidenberg said that Udemy aims to close the access gap, helping people build real-world skills that prepare them for digital and AI-enabled careers. 

“Not every software company can say they are impacting the world in this way,” she said. “The problem is large, but we are focused on solving what we can and moving human capability forward. That shared mission is something you feel every day when you work here.”

For Kokkinos, there are many benefits of working in sales at Udemy, but the greatest one is having the opportunity to shape this transformation, not simply witness it. 

“Every day, we get to help organizations unlock their people’s potential in ways that seemed impossible just a few years ago,” he said. 

 

“Every day, we get to help organizations unlock their people’s potential in ways that seemed impossible just a few years ago.”

 

Driving change on a global scale is far from easy, requiring individuals to overcome complex challenges that lie at the intersection of technology, learning and human potential. But, as Kokkinos put it, the rewards of this work outweigh them all. 

“The future of work is about continuous learning, and we’re building the platform that makes that future possible,” he said. “It’s challenging work, but it’s also some of the most rewarding work you’ll ever do.”

 

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