Assuming you’re also coachable and competitive. Probably safe assumption for someone with your coaching background.
Lots of people in sales w a sports background. Not to be a wet blanket, but the thought of starting a sales career at 35 sounds rough. At least the way I started.
Yes, I want to dominate. I am smart enough to realize, I know will need to learn from someone and be mentored. I would like a challenge and feel like this could be “competition,” if that makes sense.
I haven’t been looking at sales jobs. If it came to that, I would find something else. That line of work seems miserable. I know what my strengths and weaknesses are, I spent a decade coordinating 40-50 players and coaches and evaluating every single detail of film etc. Just want more $, time and less stress. Most people have said some sort of managerial role, analyst or some consultant.
Depending on where you're at in life, this could be accurate. A complete career shift into sales is going to take some time adjusting. If you have a lot of responsibilities outside of work (i.e. kids), then it could be more challenging.
Sales certainly isn't stress free lol The money and freedom from sales can be very fruitful, but it's a lot of upfront work that can be stressful.
First few years sucked, but also was great experience in retrospect. Probably wouldn’t be as successful as I am without them. But now I make great money and have tons of freedom. Can’t really say I love my job. I hate hate it some times, but I love the quality of life I’m able to enjoy
Yep. For me, it was the first five years of laying a foundation, getting experience, learning the industry, and learning from failures. I'm now in year 12 and I'm making much more in less time.
Have you been in staffing the entire time? I interviewed for at a couple firms out of college. The interviewers did a proper job of scaring me out of it. Sounded miserable. In twist of fate my 2nd job was at CareerBuilder selling to search firms. My first job was selling telecom in the loop. Sneaking into office building, going door to door trying to get business cards to call on later. All while trying to avoid building security who would kick us out for soliciting. Good times! For like a 38K base lol
I had a two year stint in Insurance. I loathed that. I was in an Agency Development Program with State Farm Insurance and I hated every second of it. Shitty pay, unattainable goals, rarely acting in the customers best interests, etc. I took that job out of college because it was August 2009 and there was bascially no other jobs available and I didn't want to mvoe home with my parents after school. Started recruiting in 2011 at the same place I'm a Partner at now. Been a hell of a ride. It's not easy and it is high turnover, but if you can get through those first couple of tough years, it can be incredibly rewarding. Much like most sales positions, I'd presume.
To the point of starting early. I had nothing to lose...I was 24 or 25. I made like 36k my final year at State Farm. My portion of rent at that time was like $250 per month. I had no girlfriend...no kids...no real expenses or responsibilities. I just dedicated the rest of my 20's to being good at my job.
Following up on this (kind of), but figured this thread has been helpful before so providing an update. Still feeling a little unsure about the job, for most of the reasons outlined above. Still seems like there’s minimal structure with the training. I’m hoping I can figure it out as I go, but not even having guidelines has been a little tough. I’m fine with the grey area aspects but it’d be nice to at least have a baseline when creating my thought process. There’s a part of me that wants to just do it how I know, and be less concerned with aligning with how someone else presents the info. I think my previous job made things more complex than needed so that’s what I’m used to, where my current job I feel they over simplify things which opens the door for a lot of questions and as a new guy inheriting accounts the answers aren’t always available. Still haven’t had much of a chance to bring this up to my boss, but we have a meeting next week so we’ll see. Anyways, a couple of weeks ago they announced a revision in our job title and description. Basically went from 4 “tiers” to 3, which meant by default I got bumped up a “level” which came with a 12% raise (plus higher bonus % and potentially another small merit increase this summer). Obviously that’s good news as long as I can figure out what’s going on sooner than later. Right around the same time, my old boss reached out to me trying to recruit me to work for him again (he left my old company after I did). He said they’d pay me whatever I wanted, which I doubt it’s that easy. Plus at my old job they strung me along a lot, most of which wasn’t his fault but still makes me question. He wants to talk about it again this week. It would be nice to work for someone I know, who is confident in my ability to do the job. Sounds like they brought him in to revamp a lot of stuff, so I might be involved in that. I’d also be back in a more familiar industry. Just hard to decide how serious I should even consider it, I feel like there’s more direct room to grow at my current job but am trying to confirm with him. Unless it’s a huge pay raise, I’d have a hard time moving over just to be at a ceiling day one. It’s also a smaller company which makes me nervous with a potential recession coming. I’m trying to put together some questions for him, just to see what I hear. I doubt I’d make the move, especially after just starting this job 7-8 months ago, but I’m at least intrigued by everything. That could just be the fact the current jobs “culture” doesn’t mix very well with my more introverted personality lol
This is a very 'broad brush' response, but in my opinion, I feel like you should just put your head down and stick with your current position for another 12-18 months. See how you feel at that two year mark. I assure you, if your old boss respects you like it sounds like, there will almost always be that opportunity. New jobs and new growth opportunities are supposed to be uncomfortable. That comes with the territory. It sounds like you're getting a lot of new experiences right now that will make you even more marketable in the future.
Didn’t see your original post but I’m in pretty much the exact position. Today marks 7 months at this job, which is also only my second spot post-grad. I got a pretty big pay bump to come here and don’t have to do any more on-call but the company and it’s product are a complete disaster. There was literally no on-boarding process and there’s hardly any documentation here. I’m used to hectic environments but this takes the cake. I’ve deployed the product I don’t know how many times and it’s never once gone smoothly. PMs will throw you into a meeting without any information and expect you to lead the meetings as a product expert. The only help you can get is from the two senior members and of course they’re always busy. I don’t regret the move because at least now I know I can handle the private sector (I came from local govt) but I think about taking a huge pay cut to go back a lot more than I should. I don’t really have any sage advice for you other than just keep plugging away and looking for the next landing spot. The good news is that if your job is anything like mine then it really can’t get any worse. :brohug:
This is pretty much what I’ve been thinking and I even told my old boss that last week. Basically told him, I feel like I need to stick it out here awhile longer to at least see where things go, but assuming I pass up the current “offer” it doesn’t mean that’d be my answer forever. He joked that he plans to let me know anytime he’s hiring until I say yes, so I think he gets it.
It’s such a weird feeling, at least for me. I’m glad I left my previous job just because it became a disaster after 2020. My area grew a ton volume wise but they refused to hire more people even when people left, which there was a ton of turnover. So by the time I left I was working 50-60 hours a week (salary), getting strung along for BS promotions, etc. That said I had some comfort knowing the job more than most due to turnover, the few coworkers I socialized with were good people, I was able to show up do my work and go home until the last few months. After this recent unexpected raise, I’m making like 35% more than my old job plus am eligible for a bonus. Theres some perks in benefits too. So financially it’s been nice, but in the back of my mind I’m thinking “what if I never figure out WTF is going on..” so it’s fairly stressful. I don’t want to say I miss the workload of my old job because that was overkill, but I do miss just showing up, plugging away, and leaving. I don’t mind some random chatting, but at my current job no one STFU even if I’m wearing headphones. There’s a ton of pointless meetings and team outing type deals. I know it could be way worse, but it just doesn’t fit with my personality. Especially when it seems like that stuff takes precedent over having people know what’s going on with the actual job functions.
Yep, exact same boat. I was doing like 50 hours a week and basically doing three full time jobs because they knew they could count on me. I turned down one other offer before this job but I finally decided it was “now or never”. I got a 50% raise for this job but I’m not entirely sure it was worth it. I thought it was just me having a hard time at first but everyone I’ve talked to (pms, other engineers, etc) says it a very chaotic environment. I assume it will get better for both of us over time but it’s a rough way to start after finally making the leap.
this could come off poorly - but are you “long email guy” at work? That could play a part in the various interactions you describe
I know my ramblings on this board would lead you to believe otherwise, but no my emails at work are fairly concise if possible. On here I’m usually unloading like 3 weeks worth of thoughts at once lol I think it’s mostly just an adjustment. At my old job I had more in common with coworkers, or it was too busy to socialize. Now I’m the only one that’s not married or doesn’t have kids, which doesn’t mix with the increased interactions I have to have.
If you can get more money, be in a better job (responsibilities/function/etc), like your boss.....I'd be open to changing. No reason to get to 2 years just to get to 2 years
Probably not one you’ve heard of. It’s a mapping product for telecom companies. Not really doing consulting in the traditional sense although we do get stuck acting as IT for on-prem customers pretty often.
Talked to my old boss yesterday, thinking I’ll stick with my current job for now. Just a lot of unknowns without an actual application/offer and hard to know what’s real and what’s a sales pitch. Probably going to tell him the timing isn’t right, but let me know down the road and I’ll re-consider. That way I can stick it out a bit longer and also give him time to settle in and maybe have some more solid answers about the job structure, etc.
This sounds like the right move for you, but like I said earlier, please don’t for one second think you have to “stick it out” as an act of good faith to the employer. You owe them nothing.
100% agree. Mostly just mean give it more time to get past this initial adjustment period on my end and see how things go. On his side, there was a lot of talk about opportunities that COULD happen in a few years after some changes take place which haven’t started yet. So it’s hard for me to put much stock into a lot of the information I got, at least for now.
Is anyone here a medical sales rep? Are there that many people in the industry? Every day seemingly a college student tells me they plan to go into that field. "Yeah, you can be like, any major, and you just like, do it."
I think that's pretty accurate. I know a few, they're all either kinda dumb, sleezeballs, or both. But they make bank.
It is usually cuter girl types who mention it. Still seems like more people banking on it than there are real jobs but idk. It's the go to answer when their first idea gets too difficult
My cousin’s husband is this and works for Stryker. Has made good money for being a C business student from Wichita State. He’s also a cocky prick who wears scrubs to funerals.
A hit local news chick my friends know, quit doing the news and moved to med sales. Appears to have been a successful transition.
Medical sales is pretty broad. There’s everything from capital equipment to pharma to dental to distribution. But yeah it helps to be an extremely attractive female.
Two of my friends recently went to Stryker. It's always strange to me that they're physically in the OR during surgery, but I guess you want someone that knows the product. "Yea here's the C student from Wichita assisting the orthopedic surgeon in reconstructing your knee."
Yup I think he does spine shit. Idk don’t talk to that side of the family since they’re all huge MAGA.
GF is in medical device sales. She's been in it for about 5-6 years and last year was her first year making serious money. She's smart and works hard. Probably too hard. Travels a bunch. I'm sure being hot doesn't hurt her. However, she's the only woman on her entire team. My dad is in pharmaceutical sales. A few years away from retiring. I know he's a dying breed. Women make up a super majority of that workforce.
I work at a non-profit. I currently oversee three programs. I created a fatherhood mentorship program that recently got 190k from the state this year for implementation and ongoing costs. My CEO asked me to create a rough budget. I want to ask for a raise out of this. It was my idea, it will add work, and it's going to bring a lot of good pub to the agency. Why am I so scared to ask for some of this money? Any tips? It's strange in the nonprofit world.. it feels selfish.
Best part about being in sales is you just need to be coachable and have work ethic. You don't need to be overly smart academically- in most cases.