Tech Sales?
Interested in this path as a potential alternative to IB. Long story short, did my SA and hated the hours and lack of flexibility. I actually found the work reasonably interesting (as much as IB can be), but couldn't stand not being able to do all of the other things in life I find fulfilling (gym, sports, family, significant other, etc.). Thinking of trying to recruit in tech sales, as the lifestyle seems much more suited to what I am looking for, but don't really feel like sales would be intellectually stimulating or interesting to me.
At the end of the day, it feels like I am being forced to choose between the lifestyle I want vs. the work I want to do.
Anyone made a transition similar to this, or have any advice?
You may want to look into a platform sales role. They are not purely tech sales roles, you are essentially selling the banks broader reach and proprietary analytical tools to BD/institutional clients. Off the top of my head I know GS has the Marquee platform, CITI has Velocity and JPM has a platform, but I cannot recall the name. Based on what I have heard, the hours and pay are great and given your experience would be fairly simple to break into.
Bump
Have a buddy from undergrad working in Tech Sales at a very large public company in the SF Bay Area. I had a similar job in Junior College and felt suffocated by the lack of learning. But as far as I can tell, he is probably one of the happiest people in his graduating class. When there is work to do, it's very minimal - EG: structuring/scheduling product demos, operating as a quasi-PM, lots of back-office work for the sales leaders. He works 5 hours a week when the pipeline is weak, no joke, and maxes at 60 when it's strong. In terms of pay, total comp is supposedly $110k with up to $80k bonus if he hit's all targets - and will get a solid bump in pay and responsibility YoY.
Sales is a cutthroat environment that requires a Type-A personality. Have seen people that go this route and are forced out of their jobs every 6-12 months. Hard to go "up the ladder" into more technical roles and you end up becoming a salesman for your own resume.
My real point is that your work-life balance is a function of your ability to thrive in a competitive environment. Keep your options open and take the best opportunity available.
Real question - how can tech sales be a "cutthroat" environment, while simultaneously requiring 5 hours per week of work (and 60 at the most I rare cases)? Cutthroat implies people do anything they can to get ahead, including working harder than the next guy.
Any place where you work 5-20 hours per week is not cutthroat.
Hours Worked is not the only determinant of competitiveness, and this company is certainly not representative of the broader Tech Sales environment. But it is cutthroat - need to be constantly generating effective leads and making connections outside of work just to tread water.
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Most of my friends work in sales roles and comp is incredible if you're hitting accelerators for the work/life. I have friends that were making $150-200k+ in their mid/late 20s but also friends that were getting PIP'd regularly and jumped from role to role without every making much more than their base.
However, this is backward looking during a bull market/zero interest rate environment. Many SaaS products are long in the tooth and hitting maturation. We can see it in public companies where TAMs are no longer expanding and there is a small list of capital efficient, high growth businesses.
So, if buying is slowing and these companies need to get to profitability, the first cuts come from SG&A. Yes, marketing goes first, but sales is likely second. Tech sales has been in a period of significantly overearning and comp should fall over the next few years with top seats hard to come by.
I'm currently working at a top SaaS company (Google Cloud, Snowflake, Databricks) and I confidently say that selling at the enterprise level is quite difficult and complex. Usually sales process can last anywhere from 3-12 months due to POC planning and implementation processes. There are so many different teams/divisions that have to be involved in the deal process (software, DBA, finance, legal, procurement) in order to complete the "sale." This can be a hefty responsibility and highly stressful if you make it to the enterprise level by 27 years ago because you're talking c-suite level personas at F500 companies on a daily basis.
The compensation varies per level: SDR/BDR TC: 80-100k , SMB: 130-150k, Mid-Market: 160-225k, Enterprise/Strat: 280-340k
- usually takes 2 years to progress through each stage (heavily dependent on performance).
Exits: Operations/GTM team at a VC, Sales Mgmt (District Manager, Regional VP, CRO, CEO), Product
Overall, the work-life balance is quite sweet, but it comes with high stress and quotas. I know sales reps at my company that have had monster 1MM+ years so the money is definitely there if you're worried about that. Sales is a great skill to have and I recommend starting out at a top tech company with a good sales program.
Took a sales course this semester and think its a great career if you are a people person. Also make sure you love the product/ industry you are selling (seems like for you it is Tech).
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