Breaking Into Sales - Help With Getting a Bachelor’s Degree (Most Likely Business Adm

[AccountingForThis]

Hello everyone!

I previously sought help from this forum to determine how to obtain an accounting degree with the goal of becoming a CPA. After much research and reflection, my goals have since changed and I am now eager to start a career in sales. Since I received some incredibly helpful advice before, I hope that you will be willing to help me again.

Since experience is highly valued in sales, I am currently applying to entry-level roles. While I understand that having a degree is not a necessity in this field, I still want to get my bachelor’s degree because I think it will help open doors for me. In particular, a common way of entering business-to-business sales is through a trainee program but the vast majority of companies require applicants to have a bachelor’s degree. While I would ideally like to specialize in a technical/scientific industry in the future (e.g. healthcare, industrial, SaaS), I think majoring in business administration will give me the most options. Thus, I anticipate pursuing UMPI’s BABA in Project Management & Information Systems but would like to hear your advice.

Your Location: Ohio, USA
Your Age: 22
What kind of degree do you want?: Open to suggestions but most likely business administration - anticipating pursuing UMPI’s BABA in PM & IS

Current Regional Accredited Credits:
Maricopa Community Colleges: 9 credits total
ENG101 English Composition I, 3, A
ENG102 English Composition II, 3, A
ECE102 Intro to Engineering, 2, A
FYE101 Intro to College and Career Success, 1, A

Arizona State University: 3 credits total
SOC101 Intro to Sociology, 3, A

Current ACE, CLEP, or NCCRS Credits:
CLEP Credits: 3 credits total
Analyzing and Interpreting Literature, 3, 86%

Any certifications or military experience? No
Budget: I don’t have a strict budget but would prefer to keep it under $8K. Cheaper is better unless it takes considerably longer.
Commitments: I intend to work during my studies but do not yet know if it will be full-time or part-time.
Dedicated time to study: I can dedicate as much time as needed to study when I am not working. I anticipate this being about 20 hours per week if I work full-time and at least 30 hours per week if I work part-time.
Timeline: I don't have a strict timeline but my goal is to obtain my degree in less than 1 year.
Tuition assistance/reimbursement: I expect to pay for my degree out-of-pocket but will continue researching my options.

[newdegree]

Have you thought about taking Sophia and Study.com courses? They are a fast way to get college credits. UMPI will accept 90 of them, and depending on how fast you can do the courses, you can knock out almost 90 credits in a month.

[Duneranger]

Healthcare sales is extremely cutthroat, and they definitely consider aesthetics when hiring, just so you know. It's not something a UMPI degree is going to help you break into.

Sales careers also fluctuate a TON.

[AccountingForThis]

Healthcare sales is extremely cutthroat, and they definitely consider aesthetics when hiring, just so you know. It's not something a UMPI degree is going to help you break into.

Sales careers also fluctuate a TON.

I appreciate your response. As I mentioned in my original post, I do not yet know which industry I want to specialize in. My main objectives right now are simply to get sales experience and to get a relevant bachelor's degree. Through researching this career path, I am very aware of how competitive healthcare sales can be and would not expect to even apply for those sorts of positions until I had several years of proven success. I will say, though, that there is a pretty well-known phenomenon of sales representatives being "poached" from certain companies (specifically Cintas and ADP) for recruitment into medical device sales. Both of those companies almost always require a bachelor's degree for sales positions. Additionally, quite a lot of healthcare companies seem to be allowing applicants to have a business degree rather than a life sciences one, including even some of the top pharmaceutical companies.

I am curious what you mean when you say that "sales careers fluctuate a TON." Are you referring to year-to-year changes in earnings, the ability to move between industries, or something else?

---

Have you thought about taking Sophia and Study.com courses? They are a fast way to get college credits. UMPI will accept 90 of them, and depending on how fast you can do the courses, you can knock out almost 90 credits in a month.

Thanks for the response. I intend to complete as much of the degree as possible using Sophia and Study.com. The ability to complete a significant amount of the degree using Sophia is actually one of the reasons why I am most interested in UMPI.

[jg_nuy]

The full set of degree plans are below:
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Category:UMPI

General Education:
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/UM...ts_Roadmap

The BABA PM includes the requirements for the MIS concentration:
https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/UM...egree_Plan

[allvia]

The BABA-Accounting might be a better alternative in case sales doesn't work out, you could always fall back to accounting. I don't believe any specific BABA concentration would impact your sales career options.

[Hotdogman1]

Most people I know in Medical Device sales have a medical-related masters or at least a life science bachelor's. I know one person that has a business administration bachelor's but he has 5 years experience as a Hearing Aid Dispenser and he sells audiometers and other audiology equipment.

If you’re looking into an entry level sales position, I recommend going retail telecommunication sales since you get customer service, retail, telecommunication, sales, tech, finance, insurance, software demo, and even management experience if you decide to move up the ladder. The "traditional" retail path at T-Mobile was something like: 3 months Mobile Associate (base hourly + hiring bonus split into 3 months if they’re still doing that) --> 3 months Mobile Expert (base hourly + commission = guaranteed minimum $20 per hour) --> After those 6 months, you can become a Keyholder (Same pay as ME)  and get an Assistant Manager position (Base + store commission = ~ 55k-65k) if there is one available. After you become a RAM, it takes about at least 1-2 years before you could become a store manager (Base + store commission = ~ 70k-100k). A bachelor's isn't required until the District Manager level (Might not be accurate but every RSM I knew was angrily completing their bachelor's. Even with a bachelor's, it seems almost impossible to move up past RSM in recent years).

I've personally seen many people transition to a B2B role. After 6 months employment as a Mobile Expert/Associate, you can start applying for an Account Executive role, which is a T-Mobile for Business position where you cold call businesses in your territory and convert leads from T-Mobile store locations. The strategy is once you get the AE position, you try to survive 6-12 months before mass applying at B2B/SaaS companies. It's a terrible position at T-Mobile but it seems like a good stepping stone to better companies.

At&T and Verizon has a similar structure so you can apply at all three companies. Just remember to apply at a CORPORATE location. Verizon has the best Tuition Reimbursement program with $8,000 while At&t and T-Mobile has $5,250. I don't know what part timers get at the other two, but you get $2,500 at T-Mobile. T-Mobile part timers also get health insurance, so a lot of people pursue their passion full time and work part time for the benefits.

[Duneranger]

Healthcare sales is extremely cutthroat, and they definitely consider aesthetics when hiring, just so you know. It's not something a UMPI degree is going to help you break into.

Sales careers also fluctuate a TON.

I appreciate your response. As I mentioned in my original post, I do not yet know which industry I want to specialize in. My main objectives right now are simply to get sales experience and to get a relevant bachelor's degree. Through researching this career path, I am very aware of how competitive healthcare sales can be and would not expect to even apply for those sorts of positions until I had several years of proven success. I will say, though, that there is a pretty well-known phenomenon of sales representatives being "poached" from certain companies (specifically Cintas and ADP) for recruitment into medical device sales. Both of those companies almost always require a bachelor's degree for sales positions. Additionally, quite a lot of healthcare companies seem to be allowing applicants to have a business degree rather than a life sciences one, including even some of the top pharmaceutical companies.

I am curious what you mean when you say that "sales careers fluctuate a TON." Are you referring to year-to-year changes in earnings, the ability to move between industries, or something else?

---

Have you thought about taking Sophia and Study.com courses? They are a fast way to get college credits. UMPI will accept 90 of them, and depending on how fast you can do the courses, you can knock out almost 90 credits in a month.

Thanks for the response. I intend to complete as much of the degree as possible using Sophia and Study.com. The ability to complete a significant amount of the degree using Sophia is actually one of the reasons why I am most interested in UMPI.

Eh I think you severely underestimate how important a science background is when it comes to a lot of medical sales. Nearly every rep I have seen (I work with them daily) has a science (or at least health-adjacent background) in addition to business. This is ESPECIALLY true in the OR setting where a lot of the money is. You are literally advising surgeons on how to do their job. Other healthcare sales jobs may not be as competitive but they also don't pay...

Unless you are a 10/10 female you aren't going to break into top pharm sales without some SERIOUS experience or a med background. I have a terminal medical degree and it was required for the lucrative pharm consultant jobs when I was hunting. I have been doing this for 15 years...

It fluctuates in every aspect.

[bjcheung77]

There are so many different options, I would recommend UMPI BABA, but maybe the Marketing concentration or even the Supply Chain Management option. Essentially, the business core classes are the same, it's just that concentration set is different. You should still transfer in the same 90+ credits before you begin your studies at UMPI to complete the degree... You may want to review your previous threads for info.