Anyone heard anything or have some advice about someone breaking into tech sales with no degree? I have a family member that is really struggling to get by working retail and I’m trying to help him pivot into a career he is interested that I think will get him to a live-able wage if he’s patient. Any advice or point into potential companies would be greatly appreciated!

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Tech sales, smashed my targets for last 4 years. and won various awards.
No degree, no previous “consulting” experience, no previous direct sales experience when I started.

I recently sat on an interview board and the candidate had no degree, but his answers and passion was the best I’ve seen.

My advice, a lot of it is hard work, networking with the right people, start with partner vendors who are keen to take a chance on the individual. They will after all be investing in skills and training.

LinkedIn is super powerful, connect with like minded people, identify a good mentor - this will go a long way.

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I think this is great advice! What would your advice be for just starting out? He is new to LinkedIn but I have been working with him to try and get his profile to stand out a bit.

I’m in tech sales with no degree at MSFT.

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What would be your advice for someone with no sales experience or professional network?

It can be done. I don’t sell per se, but I have a GTM role without a degree.

Takes a great resume and persistence. Aspireship is a good course on SaaS sales, then your family member can target BDR/SDR roles.

Nope. It wasn’t around when I started out. I got my job after a few years of customer support at a tech company. I know people who have used Aspireship and are satisfied with it.

Degree doesn’t equate to being able to do the job. In some cases you can tell a someone got nothing from their college education other than debt.

I agree 100%! It’s just getting your foot in the door seems to be much harder and I feel like I’m not the go to person to help him because I took a different path. Any advice on that?

No degree, been in tech sales for 1.5 years, crushing quota.

Your friend needs to circumvent the automated systems that check for bullshit requirements like a degree. Email sales managers directly, talk about exceeding KPIs working retail, and how the best part of working retail is being able to learn about a customers unique needs and then show them a product (or a couple options) that will fit those needs.

Honestly, a degree doesn’t matter. Just get super passionate about one or two things (storage and compute for example) and learn to pitch the product. Lots of phone calls and relationship building.

I would look at pivoting to retail sales positions like spectrum, Verizon, AT&T & T-Mobile all have opportunity’s to make 80-90,000 and typically promote internally

Wow really? You would say there is possible progression from working there as a customer sales representative up to that point?

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And it needs to change.

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