New College Graduates: Is Sales a Rewarding Career Anymore?

What future professionals should know before choosing or rejecting a career in sales.

Once seen as a fast track to financial freedom and leadership opportunities, sales is now facing a perception crisis among new college grads. Is the career still worth pursuing? Has it lost its luster?

Let’s unpack where things stand and where they’re headed.

1) Trends in Sales as a Career Choice for College Graduates

Not long ago, business schools churned out ambitious grads ready to hit the phones to dial for dollars, manage territories geographically defined or in some cases broken out by a simple letter split, and climb the ladder into sales management roles. Today? Not so much.

Roles in marketing, product, and data analytics are seeing double-digit growth in graduate interest. Among business majors, sales is not as often pursued as a career destination, but more of temporary role for experience or a fallback.

Why the shift?

There are a number of reasons why, a few of which include:

• - The explosion of tech and startup culture has glamorized product roles.
  
• - Social media has made "creator" and "influencer" jobs appear more lucrative and independent.
  
• - Sales roles are increasingly associated with burnout, pressure, and lack of autonomy.
• - When targets are missed sales are often the first to exit the ship even if the product, well dare it be said, just isn’t good enough or competitive.

2) Why College Graduates Are Questioning if Sales is Right for Them

The skepticism isn’t unfounded. Entry level sales roles today, especially in technology SaaS, platform, and MSP sales, come with real challenges:

High Turnover: Some estimates show ramp-to-quit timelines as short as 12 months for SDRs and BDRs. That's barely enough time to get traction.

Unrealistic Quotas: According to Salesforce, only 28% of reps hit their quota in 2023—down from 44% from just a few years ago. And in 2024, Salesforce indicated as many as 84% of sales reps missed their quota.

Micromanagement and Surveillance: CRM activity logging, call recordings, daily dashboards, data science, sentiment analysis, Slack pings. Many sales reps today don’t feel as if they are benefiting from sales mentorship, and they commonly aren’t. They feel like they are being constantly monitored.

Burnout Culture: With ongoing goal pressure and often minimal coaching, burnout is now one of the top reasons salespeople exit the profession altogether very early in their careers.

And, let's not overlook compensation uncertainty. With many comp plans heavily weighted toward performance and increasingly aggressive goals, predictability and fairness are hard to come by.

3) What to Expect as a Sales Professional

Contrary to what some may say, the role of sales in the business world is not going away with Artificial Intelligence. However, it is changing drastically now and will continue to in the future. Cohesiveness across sales, marketing, customer success, and operations continues to improve. This has historically been a challenge for many organizations. However, it is driving a lot of change for sales representatives.

Here’s what future sales professionals can expect:

More Automation, Less Creativity: AI tools and revenue platforms are systematizing how outreach is done. Expect stricter adherence to playbooks and customer engagement processes, fewer custom pitches, and perhaps less room to experiment.

Micromanagement by Metrics: Sales leaders are increasingly managing by dashboards. Expect scrutiny on email open rates, call and meeting activity, CRM hygiene, and deal velocity. This is often at the expense of actual selling which arguably is the only true statistic that matters.

Relationship Selling is Evolving: With more buyers preferring self-service and digital journeys, traditional rapport building which is often one of the drivers why individuals chose to jump into sales, is being replaced by precision, timing, and relevance.

The Rise of Revenue Operations: Sales has become more integrated with marketing, customer success, and operations teams. This means fewer lone wolf reps and more cross-functional accountability.

However, since the sales rep of the future will be more of an orchestrator than a relationship builder, working within tight frameworks and tech stacks, time will tell how the changing relationship dynamics impact the ease and likelihood of increased churn. 

One thing that will not change, if you always hit your quota, there will be less scrutiny and micromanagement. That focus will be on sales reps tracking behind on their quota.

4) Only Great Sales Professionals Will Be in Demand and Why

Here’s the silver lining: the best will thrive.

In a sea of automation, average won’t cut it. But the sales pros who rise above, those with emotional intelligence, business acumen, adaptability, and relentless curiosity, will remain in high demand.

Why?

They can simplify complexity when information overload is making decision making increasingly complex and prioritize what needs to be done.

They sell outcomes, not features, and challenge customers' thinking in meaningful ways.

They build trust, even in digital-first relationships, which is so very critical in maintaining and growing relationships..

They can navigate ambiguity, especially in enterprise deals that don’t fit neatly into the boilerplate frameworks.

Companies will not need armies of sales reps anymore. They will need a few exceptional ones who can close deals in a world of compressed attention and increased buyer control.

‍

Final Thoughts

A sales career is no longer a guaranteed ticket to financial and business success or Friday afternoons at the golf course. It’s become more demanding, more technical, and less forgiving. But for the few who master it, the rewards are still real. Plus, experience in sales provides a great foundation for climbing the corporate ladder, becoming a successful entrepreneur, and thriving as a business owner because it sharpens the most critical leadership skills: understanding customer needs, creating value, influencing decision-makers, and driving revenue. Sales professionals learn to navigate rejection, adapt quickly, and communicate with clarity and confidence which are traits that are essential in the C-suite. Whether you're pitching investors, closing strategic partnerships, or motivating teams, a background in sales equips you with the resilience, persuasion, and results-oriented mindset required to lead and grow a business effectively.

If you take the plunge, during the interview process determine how the sales leadership views professional development. You can by asking questions about the company's training process during onboarding, inquire about ongoing sales training opportunities, and determine if they allow employees to seek ongoing education on their own time and provide reimbursement.  

If you're a new graduate looking for a challenge that will push you to grow fast, develop resilience, and learn how businesses really work, sales may still be the best teacher you will ever have!

For additional sales tips, sales insights, and revenue growth best practices, visit Justellus’ Sales Growth Blog.