Profile: SEBA Student Philip Smith, DJ at Salesforce

When you think Salesforce, the first thing that comes to mind is probably not live music, or a deejay. But deejay for Salesforce employees is what Philip Smith, an MBA student, does every other week at 50 Fremont in San Francisco.

In a past life, Smith was on the career path to becoming a doctor, studying hard science at Hampton University in Virginia. His friends were throwing parties, but the deejay, in his opinion, wasn't verygood. "He talked over everything, he didn't play anything the students wanted to hear,” said Smith. “Everyone was playing New York music, artists like Biggie, Fab, Just Blaze, Buttons, Jay-Z. No one was playing West Coast music. You could get like two songs. Everyone else got a 45-minute set.”

Smith grew up in Oakland. He knew West Coast music. He felt like he had something to contribute and really liked the idea of deejaying. Wanting to learn everything he could, he asked his friend for advice. His friend started him out on a laptop, then advanced him to playing turntables. Deejaying was a welcome relief from increasingly difficult courses, including chemistry, precalculus, physics, and labs, with classes on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

"It stuck with me," said Smith, "We had this whole DJ crew."

After he graduated, taking the “five-year plan,” as he called it, Smith asked himself what he really wanted to do. He wasn't super passionate about science, but he didn't want to waste the degree that his parents had spent so much money on. For a while, he contracted with small biotech companies, including  Biolab in Hayward, and Genentech.Then there was a hiring freeze in the biotech industry. Some companies were purchased by other companies, and the next thing he knew, they were all starting to fuse together.  

He worked as a teller, then jumped to working at a staffing agency, in recruiting and sales. "I was like ‘OK, I need to start a career and I don't want to be a lab tech because it's so isolated.’ I started the Enterprise (Rent-A-Car) program, and they said 'Why don't you just get into business management or customer service?’ I was there for about two and a half years. I jumped ship to a staffing agency, and was part of the sales team over at the staffing agency." Ultimately, he quit that job, studied for the GMAT and starting looking into grad programs.

Smith hadn't really thought about going into business management, but a friend who had graduated from the grad program told him to try SEBA. Saint Mary's College appealed to Smith, because he had gone to Saint Mary's High School.

"I was always really attracted to the Lasallian principles here at Saint Mary's." He had a similar experience with those principles in high school—there was a non-judgmental approach. Everybody was always equal. “If you give people opportunities to succeed, they will do what's necessary,” said Smith. The environment felt inclusive to him. "When you're in a really inclusive environment, it helps shape your personality and your outlook on life and how you perceive forward and how you interact with people."

The Salesforce gig fell into his lap, as he puts it, through a close friend who works in the real estate department at Salesforce. Salesforce kept cycling through deejays. His friend suggested Smith for an event and they asked him to try out, telling him what they wanted to hear him play at the event so he could prep in advance. Smith practices for a half hour to an hour per day in addition to his coursework. Sometimes it's a grind, but he knows he has to keep up on his trade to keep getting lucrative gigs. He takes his work seriously and it showed. "They loved me there. I was like, "Cool."

The first Halloween event turned into him becoming a deejay every day during the Christmas holiday season. “Right after my first quarter ended, I had a whole period of time for about two and a half weeks where I would go to 50 Fremont every single day. They had a DJ booth there.  They had this whole thing where they had a Winter Wonderland behind you with snow falling—the whole nine. They had me playing Christmas music in the lobby. It was really cool because it engaged all of the employees there, they loved hearing the music when they came down, it re-energized them, it got their mind off of work.”

For almost three weeks, smith deejay-ed there, and then they asked him to work “Magic Mondays,” an event the company launched to get workers more engaged after the weekend, with free breakfast burritos, bagels, and coffee. As a result, Smith not only has had the chance to do what he loves, he has also met many valuable connections in the industry. He also connected with Future Force, who hires and manages all the summer internships, who he hopes to work with next year.

Earlier this month, Salesforce.com Inc.donated $8.5 million to Oakland and San Francisco schools to promote math and computer science education, according to San Francisco Business Times. In line with Saint Mary’s social justice angle of Think Globally, Lead Responsibly, Smith was also, through deejaying with Salesforce, able to work with Frick Impact Academy,  a middle school in East Oakland. “Salesforce is donating a ridiculous amount of money and resources to San Francisco Public Schools. I deejayed an event for them for about two hours, giving away around 25 Chromebooks to middle schoolers while they ate burritos. San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, and Congresswoman Barbara Lee were there, along with Mark Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce.

Currently, Smith fuses his passion for music with his interest in business.  "I'm getting a general MBA with an emphasis in entrepreneurship and marketing," said Smith. "I would love to go into product marketing, specifically for a tech company out here, or a tech manufacturer who produces audio equipment like Samsung or Jawbone, even a streaming service like Pandora."

One thing Philip Smith has  learned from deejaying is: "Do what you love." Currently, he’s also deejaying for UC Berkeley’s graduate program, at the MLK Center. He does house parties when he can, too. “Hopefully I’ll get a chance to deejay here at Saint Mary’s,” he said. “I would love to do a pool party here… that pool is underutilized.”