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Anoncloser

BDR Intern

Valued Contributor
Good Citizen
Fire Starter
+1

High Finance or Sales

If you were graduating today would you rather go into high finance (VC, Investment Banking, Management consulting - not exactly finance but fits in the group) or SAAS at a top company such as AWS or a unicorn startup? 

High Finance or Sales

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🧠 Advice
🎯 Career Development
☁️ Software Tech
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22 comments

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braintank
Politicker
5
Enterprise Account Executive
My degree in communications won't get my a job in "high finance" 
poweredbycaffeine
WR Lieutenant
4
☕️
LMAO same. I would have had to rewind that clock 4 years or get an MBA or CPA.
braintank
Politicker
4
Enterprise Account Executive
If I had a time machine I'd go back to elementary school and smack myself upside the head during math class and yell "pay attention"
poweredbycaffeine
WR Lieutenant
5
☕️
I probably would have avoided an out-of-state tuition while I was at it.
braintank
Politicker
2
Enterprise Account Executive
I appreciate my parents approach. Told me and my sis they'd pay for college, but only up to a certain amount. Forced us both to shop around see where we could get max ROI.
Sunbunny31
Politicker
5
Sr Sales Executive 🐰
If you would have told me when I graduated that I'd be in tech sales, I'd have thought you were nuts.  Banking would have been right out as a choice.  Sales itself had little appeal.

But then, tech didn't yet exist.

All I can think is that for many of these graduates, their future job or career may not even exist yet.   That's pretty cool.
Mobi85
Politicker
2
Regional Sales Manager
Agreed 100% thinking about my toddler there are things that he will see and get involved in for a career that I honestly can’t even fathom right now. Shits pretty cool in that aspect.
Sunbunny31
Politicker
2
Sr Sales Executive 🐰
It's fun to imagine.  I tell my kids to not stress so much about the job or career path in specific; who knows what will be coming down the path that will suit them, even as soon as 5-10 years?   Follow a general path that appeals (science, engineering, legal studies, whatever) and see where it leads you.   

Your toddler...wow.  What may change in 10-15-20 years.  Pretty exciting!
funcoupons
WR Officer
5
👑
I’ve never been interested in numbers (except the ones in my commission cheque) so sales it is. 
ExtremeVibeChecker44
Arsonist
1
Inside Sales
In sales, you can make pretty good money in a few years with low barrier to entry. Good luck getting into ibanking coming out of State U. This question isn't really a fair comparison. 
Upper_Class_SaaS
Politicker
5
Account Executive
What kind of question is this in an all sales forum lol... you know the answers you are going to get 
JDialz
Politicker
0
Chief Operating Officer
Finance is sales.
1nbatopshotfan
Politicker
3
Sales
I like the hours and autonomy that I have in sales. No 20 hour days at my desk because that’s what’s expected. Same with high profile legal. That type of schedule and busy work just isn’t for me. 2am changing the font in a PowerPoint for an MD or Partner. No thanks. 
CuriousFox
WR Officer
3
🦊
Exactly. I'd die if I had to look at spreadsheets all day.
FinanceEngineer
Politicker
2
Sr Director, sales and partnerships
I made the move from High Finance to sales. You work more in Finance, and you make more. You can always make the move to sales, and be a higher up since you have the C-suite connections, and can even go back if you want. It's impossible to go the other way without getting an MBA and even that is going to be a hard move.
Brandonite
Good Citizen
1
Account Executive
It definitely depends on your personality! I studied to become an accountant and realized in was not for me. In my opinion, tech will bring much more opportunities down the road. At least I would work in finance but in a tech company!
countingmyinterest
Politicker
0
Account Executive
Personally I tried to go into finance (IB) but didn't end up making the cut. I created a couple businesses which floundered and found myself in sales. 

I've found the best entrepreneurs are usually the ones with backgrounds either in finance or in sales. Never underestimate the power of networking in finance
goose
Politicker
0
Sales Executive
Assuming money wasn't an option, I'd go with finance.  Opens more doors in the sales world, can always pivot to sales if I want.
SalesPharaoh
Big Shot
0
Senior Account Executive
I think you are asking the wrong form here. But yea there is a lot of sales involved i would have loved to have had an opportunity to be a stock broker but it never materialized. 
dwightyouignorantsale
Politicker
0
Account Executive
this is probably the wrong forum to ask this question considering all of us on here (should**) be in sales, so obvi we’re going to lean toward sales
amyhyoung
Politicker
0
Vp ops
I did banking and VC after college, and it wasn’t until I joined Bravado, I wish I learned sales earlier. Once you get to partner/MD level, you are just another sales person with a quota. Except we never learned any of the soft skills of sales (essential to anyone working in business). I now just have very good excel and PowerPoint skills 🤷🏻‍♀️
Also going into sales doesn’t require working working 115 hour weeks and taking naps under your desk. And you’ll probably still make more than finance people if you crush quota.
EOQpanic
Executive
0
Mid Market AE
I’m not sure if this is the wrong way to think about this, but, I played a college sport where the pipeline to high finance was really solid. I had a friend that was a year older that got a job at a top tech company and I did a lot of thinking about where I did my junior summer internship many years ago…sales or finance. After some thinking, I realized holy **** why would I try and go into finance to work 3x as much with extremely hard peer competition, when I can go into tech sales with much much less peer competition, work less, and have a higher potential to break through the rat race to make more $$$. Also, we all know people that make 300k at 27 in PE, but at an hourly rate, how much are they really making???

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