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Chaching3000

Sales and Marketing Specialist

Contributor
Fire Starter
Good Citizen

Did anyone jump straight to AE after 4 year degree?

Title, been applying to sales positions and had some AE / Market manager interviews. One for a very large healthcare tech company, but my honesty cost me I believe. Made it to the 5th round & was ultimately rejected due to lack of experience. 

Should I just lie about experience and keep shooting for AE / better comp positions? 
🧠 Advice
💉 Medical
☁️ Software Tech
10

18 comments

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Sunbunny31
Politicker
4
Sr Sales Executive 🐰
How are you going to lie about experience with nothing on your resume? You want to find a company that hires and trains new reps.
CuriousFox
WR Officer
4
🦊
Yeah I was a little lost myself.
Chaching3000
Contributor
0
Sales and Marketing Specialist
I have roughly 2 years experience from my own business i had going on. Drove $100k revenue my first year. In addition I also (since graduation) have had about 6 months cold calling / touring the facility / closing deals in the Assisted living industry.

However, that doesn’t seem to hold much merit.
Sunbunny31
Politicker
3
Sr Sales Executive 🐰
OK, that makes much more sense. It is experience, but perhaps not quite what the company is looking for, though I believe you could provide metrics (sold x units as a sole proprietor or similar). It's going to depend on the kind of business you had. If you ran a tech start up, that would hold more water than being a TikTok influencer or Twitch streamer, or your own clothing line, for example.

What the cold calling and 6 mos at the care facility shows is your ability to hustle, which is a positive.

Are you considering starting as a BDR or SDR if you can't find an AE role?
Chaching3000
Contributor
1
Sales and Marketing Specialist
Yes, I am considering it. Thanks for your input, from what i’ve gained I need to provide more measurable metrics. I have a small bit of experience, but I need to illustrate it in a more effective manner.

Thanks guys, I appreciate it a lot
Sunbunny31
Politicker
2
Sr Sales Executive 🐰
Absolutely, just having done it is interesting, but it's like anything else in sales - make it relevant as to why they should care.
antiASKHOLE
Tycoon
3
Bravado's Resident Asshole
I jumped from going to med school to stopping while climbing the corp ladder in the restaurant industry then to sales.

Long way to say, no? I guess?
Kosta_Konfucius
Politicker
1
Sales Rep
You should not lie about experience, you can for sure get a smb AE role, do you have any sales like internships?
Chaching3000
Contributor
0
Sales and Marketing Specialist
Yes. My sales and marketing specialist internship has turned into a 10 month employment thus far.
Mono
Opinionated
1
Customer Retail Associate
I think there's always a place to start before achieving your goals when it come to carreer development. As a teacher I had years ago said "you gotta aim at the stars, to at least reach the clouds" (perhaps sounds better in spanish tho lol)
Pachacuti
Politicker
1
They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy
My first real job out college was as the sole salesman for a startup.
TennisandSales
Politicker
1
Head Of Sales
no. dont lie about your experience. it will catch up to you at some point and it wont be good.

i did not have an AE title out of college but I was closing deals
jefe
Arsonist
1
🍁
I did my undergrad, a one-year marketing post grad and then straight to AE. This was before SDR was a thing though...

Edited to add: DON'T LIE!!
ChumpChange
Politicker
1
Channel Manager
First off... sucks that this happened to you. Also, some hidden knowledge behind the curtain. Some companies will have to interview a set number of candidates in order to hit an internal goal that they've presented to the company. Once it gets to the final rounds, they'll pick two candidates and stagger them out. Pick 1 gets the offer and then the negotiation starts. If that falls through then they move on to candidate 2.
Chaching3000
Contributor
0
Sales and Marketing Specialist
That makes sense!
DevSomeBiz
Valued Contributor
0
Senior B2B Sales Guy.
A degree is not a good indicator of success in sales. Go get a job selling something - cars, houses, whatever. Prove that you can do the things about which you've heard.
MSPSales
Politicker
0
Partner Development Manager
I wouldn’t lie if you have 0 sales experience. They will definitely tell once you hit the floor
Chaching3000
Contributor
0
Sales and Marketing Specialist
I do! For my own gig, most of my sales were from non traditional ways of prospecting, like messaging people via instagram saying something along the lines of, “Have you seen our story today?” etc etc.

I provide institutional grade options data (dark pool print & option flow) as a monthly subscription service. Out of the 550~ people that have signed up, I would say I phone called/ video called around 10%.

I do barely 50 calls a week at my current position due to having administrative duties / no consistent leads.

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