I was in sales for 5 years and when I tried to get out, it was very difficult. When I applied for non-sales jobs, recruiters would call and offer me an interview for a sales job. When I explained that my cover letter stated which position I was applying for and I made it clear in the letter I did not want to do sales, they acted surprised.

Be firm in your resolve to get out of sales. Make sure you have identified a career path you want to do and develop the marketable skills for that career path. Good luck!

It's not a matter of me losing; it's a matter of you not winning.

It's not a matter of me losing; it's a matter of you not winning.
 

i'm considering sales right now...assuming solid performance, do salespeople tend to get into top-tier b-schools? i imagine that would be a good point to switch career paths if needed.

 

Sorry to dig that one out.

Pretty competitive job market out there.

Since the info posted above was written many moons ago:

if one was to start his career in these times in a sales role (credit or rates or fx), would it be possible to change over to trading later on? Do you see this happening in practice? I don't know the whole street obviously, but I saw many ex-traders who are salesmen (even though often these are guys who started back in the 90s or even before), but do you also see the career change the other way round?

 
Best Response

Many people switch between sales and trading, although trading to sales is slightly more common--has to do with people understanding the product extremely well and getting worn down from the stress so they get into sales and make a killing. Point is, if you are good at what you do, anything is possible.

"Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, for knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind. And greed, you mark my words, will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA."
 

hi monty,

do you find this switch easy to do? i mean if you stay in the same product, obviously you know everything about it but you'd have to build a client list?

 

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