Is a Sales Career Right For You as a Grad?

You just finished your university degree— and you miss it. The feeling of possibility, the changes and constant learning, the social life… Transitioning to the real world is hard.

On one hand, you want to get a well-paid, challenging position to start off your career with a bang. On the other, you don’t want to give up that fulfilling sense of adventure in exchange for conventional workplace security. No way.

While this might seem like an impossible choice, in today’s digital business, it really isn’t.

The times are a-changin’, and you can make the best of them in a way that feels true to you. A career in sales can offer you just what you want— professional and personal growth, as well as a daring, always-evolving environment that will keep you on your toes and make you feel accomplished.

Perhaps you’ve toyed with the idea, perhaps you’ve never really given sales a serious thought. Anyway, let’s take a deeper look. Why is a career in digital, tech, or media sales the right choice for recent grads?

You Already Have Experience

How can you possibly have sales experience as a recent grad? Even if you haven’t worked an actual sales job before, you’ve been selling without even knowing it.

There are many situations in a student’s academic life that call for the same skills and actions a sales role does. Think of how often you have imagined yourself in someone else’s position and worked from there to achieve your goals successfully.

For example, you’ve given presentations, communicated complex ideas in a class debate, and persuaded professors and classmates alike to side with you. All these circumstances are a perfect picture of what a salesperson does when interacting with clients!

In sales (especially in the fast-moving media and digital world), it’s all about offering tangible value to a customer and achieving the best possible outcome for everyone involved. It’s quite the same as your social prowess in the academic field.

So, even if you don’t have a digital, media, or tech sales reference to add to your resume, there’s still hope! You simply need to think back on the many situations that mirror the tasks of a sales job in your academic path, and skilfully show potential employers how they correlate.

Think in Innovative Solutions

Maybe you think of a sales career as trying to sell obsolete solutions to unwitting clients. Predatory— almost sleazy, perhaps. Or you might believe that given the deluge of information a person can access at any given time, becoming a salesperson is a thing of the past, soon to disappear into oblivion.

Neither of these things is true. See, it’s about helping, not pushing. A seller will (in all transactions, but especially in B2B) trade in solutions. Not because clients can’t find solutions by themselves— in today’s digital world, everyone can— but because they might not even notice they had a problem, or they might think that the solution is still nonexistent.

A seller’s role (particularly in the digital arena) is to always be one step ahead of the game and bring growth value to both sides— that’s when sales happen.

It follows that, given that the goal is to innovate and always go a step further in providing solutions, this is a career that will never become obsolete! Even more, a successful seller has to constantly expand their understanding and expertise in diverse areas, like consulting, IT, and marketing.

All this means that you will always be changing and advancing, as well as experiencing very different aspects and roles.

Motivation, Transparency, and Fulfillment

In a more static, conventional position (say, for example, marketing or finance), it can get hard to really perceive the impact that your work as an individual has on the whole company. If you’re like us, you will start to find that can get pretty demoralising fast. After all, if you can’t see the effects, your contribution might not be so essential after all, right?

Well, you will never face that issue in sales. Here, it’s pretty clear when you’re actually helping the company meet its goals: you have specific objectives and a clear-cut notion of whether or not you’re meeting them!

A monetary quota (or any other kind of quota, for that matter), can sometimes be a bit stressful— hat tip to all sellers not sleeping this week to meet theirs— but also incredibly effective motivation. If part of your salary comes from actually meeting that quota, you develop quite a drive for success!

And, of course, besides the satisfaction that numbers provide, it just feels good to help businesses solve their problems and flourish. You can truly make a noticeable change for the better in people’s lives.

Choose an Adventurous Life

If you got this far and still think of going down a more conventional career path— go ahead!

But, if the energy, relationship building, and problem-solving aspects of a sales career appeal to you, don’t miss this chance. As a recent grad, you’ve got a golden opportunity to start with a clean slate, so don’t get stuck.

Find your way in one of the most adventurous business paths in today’s shifting digital scenario. Build up a career based on constant personal and professional evolution and goal-oriented action. Sales are a rewarding new world for you to explore.