Am I stupid for considering leaving IB for a sales position at a start-up?
I have an upcoming interview at a startup with 500+ employees and ~$300mm in funding. The position is Sales Development Representative (SDR), which from my understanding is just researching leads and cold-calling. Based on Glassdoor, I can expect to make $70K OTE the first year. After being an SDR for a 12-18 months, I could become an Account Executive. I realize that sales doesn't have 'exit opportunities' per say, but I would certainly be happy working my way up to $250k+ working in sales at an enterprise company (e.g. IBM, Oracle, etc.) while putting in less than 50 hours a week.
I just graduated in May and have been working as an investment banking analyst at a lower middle market IB since the summer. I knew after my internship that I didn't want to stay in finance my whole career, but I'm realizing that I'd like to jump to something else as soon as possible.
The long hours aren't as bad as the technical work in Excel and logo rearrangement in PowerPoint for pitches that go nowhere and deals that I couldn't care less about. My program is rotational and none of the different business lines interest me. They also cut bonuses for all analysts so I'll only be making my base, which is $87,500. I want to move into a role that is more client-facing and was thinking that sales could be a good fit. I am good with people and I feel that chasing after sales targets and commissions would be highly engaging.
Does anyone have any experience/guidance on moving to sales from IB? I think it would be exciting to work for a tech start-up/SaaS company and actually impacting the bottom line and not just emailing around PowerPoints and spreadsheets all day/night.
Am I an idiot for even considering this?
My Friends that do well in sales don't work 50 hour weeks. Some are pushing IB hours and others are still working soil 60-65ish. If you don't care about finance, then sales maybe great. I would just caution you on the overstated upside in the sales world.
Do your friends generally enjoy it and make decent comp?
Some do some don't. I would say it doesn't differ from any other career where some people dislike it and some people love it.
I know at places like Bloomberg, compensation is pretty good. A Sales Team leader said this:
“New hires typically out of University or 1-3yrs experience start at $70k base + $5k bonus in our analytics help desk. If they don’ become a Team Leader (mid lvl manager) in ADSK typically within 2-3yrs they will cap out at $115-$120k TC. High performing analytics reps typically move to sales as soon as 1yr as late as 4-5yrs as an account manager. AMs average $130k TC and cap out around $185k TC. Experienced account managers get promoted to sales reps with targets typically within 2-4yrs as an AM. Sales reps average $185k TC and cap out around $280-$300k. Base/bonus is typically an 80/20 split so bases are relatively high compared to most firms relative to annual bonus. Sales Team Leaders average $275k TC and cap out around $375k-$400k. Sales TLs typically have a minimum 5-7yrs with the firm, hope this helps!”
reference:
https://us.teamblind.com/s/dY8gYCrB
Take that as you will. I know places like Microsoft and SAP pay higher.
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