A lot of my friends and colleagues want to migrate into corporate strategy or BizOps and I feel compelled to want that as well - but I’m happy in sales.
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Chief
Definitely seen as more prestigious, but I work for money, not prestige.
First things first: if you’re doing well in Sales, you’ll definitely earn more than in Ops.
As someone who started in Sales but then moved to Ops, here’s what I’ve learned:
1) Not everyone is cut out for Sales (that would be me), but similarly not everyone is cut out for Ops. But Ops is a very big & varied field, so there might be something there for you if you look hard enough; but again, even after looking, you might find that it’s not for you.
2) Based on my experience, as well as from talking with my friends who are still in Sales, there is waaaaay much more you can learn about the business if you’re in Ops than in Sales.
3) While it used to be true than companies used to prefer a CEO with Sales background, that’s just not true anymore: none of the CEOs at Google, Apple, Microsoft are from Sales.
4) I went into Ops because I didn’t like doing Sales, but I eventually figured out that once I was in a leadership position in Ops, “selling” was a big part of what I do: I sell ideas, strategies, etc. So even if you move to Ops, your Sales skills will still be very useful.
My advice? If you’re happy in Sales and you’re doing well there, then stay. Also, NOBODY moves to Ops for the money.
But the fact that you say that you “feel compelled” to move, as well as the fact that you posted your message here, gives me a feeling that you’re having doubts about staying in your current career path. In that case, ask yourself whether you see your current path in Sales is something that you think you’d be happy with. And if you can’t definitively answer Yes to that straight away, then maybe start investigating the different areas of Ops to see if there’s anything that might interest you: it’s gotta be something that when you look at that specific field’s long term career progression, you think you’ll feel engaged & challenged; but don’t worry about getting locked in into only one specific field in Ops; if you play your cards right, you can actually move around in Ops quite easily. Also don’t limit yourself into thinking that you have to make the jump at any specific time within that career progression; try to line up your current Sales track to the possible Ops track and the see where all the possible on-ramps are, and what skills, knowledge, & experience etc that you will need to make the jump at that point. Talk to others at your company that have made a similar jump before. Also bear in mind that in Ops, it’s generally easier if you work your way up from the ground level, but with the right knowledge (not necessarily an MBA style education), you can still jump into it in the middle; basically you’ll need to know the fundamentals of that field and you don’t have to learn this from personal experience, even though there are a lot of old school Ops people that will say that you do.
Good luck.
Chief
Not if you are hitting your number. You can be an IC and regularly make 500k and up in sales in enterprise
What?! 500k/year!? I’m at a FAANG company. Sounds like I should try out sales!
Rising Star
I made this post earlier but strategy & ops is over hyped and in all reality pretty underwhelming unless you’re on a growth team. You’re either writing policy/procedure, enforcing existing policy/procedure, a specialist in some specific subset, or doing research.
Product and sales definitely make more $$ than biz Ops.
Sales makes more especially if you’re hitting your numbers. I know of multiple folks that moved from BizOps to Sales and now earn significantly more.
I think BizOps is usually seen as more prestigious because they can work with higher level people and you can think about the company as a whole, but I think:
1) Prestige doesn’t pay the bills
2) Sales especially in Strategic Accounts / Global Accounts is very strategic as well
Lots of people want CEOs with sales experiences.
But I do hear a lot of young women (vs men) express that sales is not for “smart” people. But that has not been my experience. Great sales folks are always smart and creative.
If you are hitting or beating targets, you have talent.
Do you enjoy it?
Do the work you like. Things work out. You will be more and more successful.
I’m a founder and I wish I had sales experience. It’s tough.
BizOps brings exposure internally in the company, which is probably helpful in rising through the ranks - in sales you get exposure to senior folks at other companies and if you are doing a great job can use that to find growth opps as well