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In this review, we’re covering Course Careers, the career training program that trains you how to work in the high-paying, low-competition industry of tech sales along with other career fields like HR, customer success, UI/UX, and IT. You can join the training as a beginner and complete it a few months later, landing an average starting salary of $65,000/year (some reps earn up to $85K salary starting).
You’ll learn what tech sales is, how you can break into tech working in tech sales, and where Course Careers plays a role in all this.
Let’s get started.
Breaking into Tech
The tech industry is booming, and it’s not just because everyone wants their own hoverboard.
We’re seeing more and more companies invest in their own infrastructure, technology, and equipment so they can become the next big thing.
And that means they need people who know how to make all of this stuff work!
If you’re looking for a career where there’s no shortage of opportunity or money—and don’t mind working with some high-tech gadgets—then becoming a technical sales representative might be right up your alley!
The benefits of working in tech can include:
- The opportunity to work remotely
- Lucrative salary
- Benefits and total compensation package
- Flexible schedule
- Unlimited vacation time
Companies like Google, Salesforce, Zoom and others are employers you could possible work for in tech sales. Here’s how you break into tech..
How do you break into tech?
The good news is that you can break into tech.
People think breaking into tech is so out of reach. Many think you need a four-year degree and experience behind you to start working in a technology field.
In many careers, that’s just not required, and tech sales industry is one of them.
There are lots of entry-level positions in tech, and they don’t necessarily require a degree.
Tech sales representative careers pays well ($65K on average), offers flexible hours and holidays off, and requires little formal education (just three years of college).
What is technical sales?
If you’re looking for a career in sales, but don’t want to deal with cold calls or selling to the general public, technical sales could be a good choice.
The tech industry is highly competitive and constantly growing—so there’s plenty of room for new people who know how to sell their products.
Technical sales reps work with buyers from different industries: engineering, IT professionals and developers.
The job requires them to understand the technology being sold as well as its market value and potential uses within an organization.
Technical sales reps are essentially go-betweens between sellers and buyers; they help determine product specifications based on customer needs before connecting the two parties together so that deals can be made effectively without any issues arising during contract negotiations down the road (or else risk losing business over miscommunication).
What does a technical sales representative do?
A technical sales representative is someone who understands the ins and outs of technical products.
They learn how to sell those products to both technical and non-technical people.
In order to understand the product, they must first understand its technical details.
A good example would be a computer program:
In order to do their job well, tech sales reps need an understanding of how the software works and what it does for customers. They also need an understanding of why people would want this particular kind of software (as opposed to other kinds).
Next, tech sales reps need another kind of knowledge: They have to learn how best to communicate these ideas with potential buyers in order for prospective clients not only understand but also buy from them!
This means that when selling something like a computer program, tech reps must be able make sure that potential customers know exactly why they should buy this product over all others out there on the market today – even if those other options may seem better at first glance due solely because they’re less expensive or more popular among current users’ peers.”
Other job titles like technical sales representative
Working in this career can come with different job titles like the following:
- Technical Sales Representative
- Sales Engineer
- IT Sales Representative
- IT Sales Engineer Technician
Regardless of your job title, the role is that of a tech sales rep, you’ll be working with customers to sell technical products (hardware and/or software)
How much do tech sales representatives make?
If you’re interested in becoming a tech sales representative and working your way to the top of the ladder, how much do you think you’ll make?
The average salary for a technical sales representative going through Course Careers is $65K.
For an experienced tech sales representative with five or more years of experience, that number rises to just over $83K.
But what about their managers?
Technical sales managers make an average annual salary of roughly $94K per year. Those with 10+ years experience can earn up to $104K annually.
On top of all this, there are also director-level positions available at companies like IBM and AT&T with salaries ranging from about $121-$171K according to Glassdoor’s data on these roles (note: some of these roles may have been outsourced overseas).
And then there’s executive-level positions in Silicon Valley where CTOs can earn anywhere from $250-$500K+ depending on their level within the company itself!
What is Human Resources?
Human Resources or HR refers to the department within an organization or a company that is responsible for managing personnel-related functions. The primary purpose of the HR department is to oversee and facilitate various aspects of the employee lifecycle, ensuring that the organization’s workforce is effectively recruited, trained, managed, and supported to achieve the company’s goals and objectives.
Here are some of the key functions and responsibilities of the HR department:
- Recruitment and Staffing: HR professionals are involved in recruiting and hiring new employees. They create job descriptions, post job openings, review resumes, conduct interviews, and make hiring decisions.
- Onboarding: HR assists new hires in getting acclimated to the company by providing orientation and necessary training, completing paperwork, and ensuring they have the tools and resources needed to succeed in their roles.
- Employee Benefits and Compensation: HR manages employee compensation, including salary, bonuses, and benefits such as health insurance, retirement plans, and paid time off.
- Employee Relations: HR plays a crucial role in maintaining positive employee relations by addressing conflicts, grievances, and concerns. They also facilitate communication between employees and management.
- Performance Management: HR helps establish performance appraisal processes, conducts performance evaluations, and works with managers to develop improvement plans for underperforming employees.
- Training and Development: HR coordinates training programs and opportunities for employees to enhance their skills and career growth.
- Compliance: HR ensures that the organization complies with labor laws and regulations, including those related to workplace safety, equal employment opportunity, and labor practices.
- Policy Development: HR develops and enforces company policies and procedures, including those related to behavior, ethics, and conduct in the workplace.
- Records Management: HR maintains employee records, including personnel files, payroll information, and performance evaluations.
- Employee Engagement: HR may be responsible for initiatives to improve employee morale, engagement, and job satisfaction.
- Talent Management: HR helps identify high-potential employees and supports talent development and succession planning within the organization.
- Strategic Planning: HR professionals often work with senior management to align HR practices with the overall strategic goals and objectives of the organization.
The specific responsibilities and structure of an HR department can vary widely depending on the size and type of organization. In smaller companies, HR functions may be handled by a single HR generalist, while in larger organizations, there may be specialized HR roles and departments dedicated to different aspects of HR management.
The ultimate goal of HR is to create a positive and productive work environment while ensuring compliance with laws and regulations related to employment.
What is Customer Success?
Customer Success is a business strategy and a department within a company that focuses on ensuring that customers achieve value and satisfaction from the products or services they have purchased.
It goes beyond traditional customer service by proactively engaging with customers to help them achieve their desired outcomes and maximize the benefits of their purchase. Customer Success aims to build long-term, mutually beneficial relationships between the company and its customers.
Here are key components of Customer Success:
- Understanding Customer Needs: Customer Success teams work to deeply understand the needs, goals, and challenges of individual customers. This understanding helps tailor solutions and support to meet specific customer requirements.
- Onboarding and Training: Customer Success professionals often assist customers in getting started with a product or service. This includes providing training, resources, and guidance to ensure a smooth transition.
- Monitoring and Measurement: Continuous monitoring of customer usage and engagement is essential. Customer Success teams track key performance indicators (KPIs) to assess whether customers are deriving value and meeting their goals.
- Proactive Support: Rather than waiting for customers to reach out with problems, Customer Success teams proactively identify issues or areas where customers may need help and offer assistance.
- Customer Advocacy: Encouraging satisfied customers to become advocates for the company can be a part of Customer Success. These advocates may provide testimonials, refer new business, or participate in case studies.
- Feedback and Improvement: Gathering feedback from customers is crucial for improving products or services. Customer Success teams relay this feedback to the product development and marketing teams to make necessary improvements.
- Renewals and Upselling: In subscription-based businesses, Customer Success often plays a role in ensuring customer renewals and identifying opportunities for upselling or cross-selling additional products or services.
- Churn Mitigation: Churn refers to the loss of customers. Customer Success is responsible for reducing churn by identifying and addressing reasons why customers might leave.
- Data Analysis: Analyzing customer data helps in making informed decisions and predicting customer behavior. Customer Success teams may use data to segment customers, personalize interactions, and improve overall strategies.
- Customer Engagement: Building strong relationships with customers through regular communication and engagement activities is a fundamental aspect of Customer Success.
Customer Success is particularly important in industries with subscription-based models or where customer retention and satisfaction are critical for long-term success.
It’s about not just selling a product or service but ensuring that customers achieve the outcomes they expected when they made their purchase, leading to customer loyalty and potentially referrals to new customers.
What is IT?
IT stands for Information Technology. It encompasses a wide range of technologies, systems, and processes that are used to store, retrieve, transmit, and manipulate data and information within an organization or for various purposes. IT is a critical aspect of modern business and daily life, as it plays a fundamental role in how we access and use information and technology.
Here are some key components and aspects of IT:
- Hardware: This includes physical devices such as computers, servers, routers, switches, and storage devices that are used to process and store data.
- Software: IT involves the development, installation, and maintenance of software applications and systems, including operating systems, productivity software, databases, and custom software solutions.
- Networking: IT encompasses the design, implementation, and management of computer networks, both within an organization (intranets) and over the internet (extranets and the World Wide Web).
- Cybersecurity: IT professionals work to protect computer systems, networks, and data from unauthorized access, data breaches, malware, and other security threats.
- Data Management: This involves the organization, storage, retrieval, and analysis of data, including databases and data warehouses.
- Cloud Computing: IT includes the use of cloud services and technologies, which allow organizations to access and use computing resources and software applications over the internet.
- Programming and Development: IT professionals often engage in software development and programming to create custom applications and solutions tailored to specific business needs.
- Support and Helpdesk: IT support teams assist users with technical issues, troubleshooting problems, and providing guidance on using technology effectively.
- Infrastructure Management: This involves the maintenance and optimization of IT infrastructure, including data centers, servers, and storage systems.
- IT Strategy and Planning: Organizations develop IT strategies to align technology investments with business goals and ensure that IT resources are used efficiently and effectively.
- Emerging Technologies: IT professionals stay updated on the latest technological trends and innovations, such as artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), and blockchain, to assess their potential impact on their organizations.
- Data Privacy and Compliance: IT plays a role in ensuring that organizations comply with data protection and privacy regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
IT is pervasive in today’s society, influencing how businesses operate, how individuals communicate and access information, and how various industries innovate and evolve. It’s a broad field with many specialized areas, and IT professionals can have a wide range of roles and responsibilities depending on their expertise and the needs of their organizations.
What is UX/UI?
UI/UX stands for User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX). These two terms are often used together, but they refer to different aspects of the design and usability of software, websites, apps, and other digital products.
User Interface (UI):
UI refers to the visual elements and design of a digital product. It focuses on how the product looks and how users interact with it. UI design includes:
- Layout: How information and elements are organized on the screen.
- Typography: The choice of fonts, font sizes, and text formatting.
- Color schemes: The selection of colors for various elements.
- Icons and graphics: The use of visual elements to represent actions or information.
- Buttons and controls: The design of interactive elements that users click, tap, or interact with.
- Navigation: How users move through the product, including menus and links.
The goal of UI design is to create a visually appealing and user-friendly interface that makes it easy for users to understand and interact with the digital product.
User Experience (UX):
UX focuses on the overall experience of using a digital product. It encompasses how users feel when they interact with the product, how easy it is for them to accomplish their tasks, and whether their overall experience is positive or negative. UX design includes:
- User research: Gathering information about user needs, goals, and behaviors.
- User personas: Creating fictional user profiles to represent different types of users.
- Information architecture: Designing the structure and organization of content and features.
- Wireframing and prototyping: Creating low-fidelity and high-fidelity representations of the product to test and refine ideas.
- Usability testing: Evaluating the product with real users to identify issues and gather feedback.
- Interaction design: Defining how users will interact with the product to accomplish tasks.
- Accessibility: Ensuring that the product is usable by people with disabilities.
- User flows: Mapping out the steps users take to complete tasks within the product.
The goal of UX design is to create a product that not only looks good but also provides a seamless, intuitive, and satisfying experience for users.
UI and UX design are closely related and often overlap. Effective UI is an important part of creating a positive UX because a visually appealing and well-organized interface can enhance the overall user experience.
However, UX design goes beyond UI to consider the entire user journey, including user needs, goals, and emotions, to create a product that is both functional and enjoyable to use. Both UI and UX are critical for the success of digital products in terms of user satisfaction and achieving business goals.
What is Course Careers?
Course Careers is an online platform that offers courses and one-on-one coaching to help you break into the tech industry. The company offers a variety of courses, ranging from web development to project management skills.
The main difference between Course Careers and other online learning platforms is that it has a network of industry professionals who can help guide students through their training.
It also provides career services as well as opportunities for internships and jobs at companies like Google or Facebook.
This Technical Sales Representative course is the first of many courses to come at CourseCareers.
The Course Careers platform is a new online learning space that aims to help students build the skills they need to enter the tech industry. The ultimate goal of this project is to provide educational resources that will enable anyone who wants to enter the field of technology or software development, regardless of their current education level or experience.
They want to give people who have never had access before the tools and knowledge needed to pursue a career in technology.
CourseCareers came out with their flagship tech sales training but, since then, has put out courses in:
- IT
- Customer Success
- HR
- UI/UX
What you’ll be taught at Course Careers?
Here’s a look at the curriculum you can expect when you enroll in the tech sales rep program:
- Sales basics and process
- Sales technology
- Skills in sales and,
- Career prep
Course Careers Pricing
Course Careers sells its course for $499. It’s a fraction of the price of other boot camps which I’ve seen online for $10,000+ and it’s much cheaper than attending a four-year college or university.
What you’ll get from Course Careers:
- You’re not just getting access to information that could be found online—you’re gaining access to instructors who know what they’re talking about and can teach you how to apply their knowledge practically in real-world situations;
- Achieving financial success requires much more than just knowing how to use certain programs; it requires mindset shifts and tactics from productivity experts like Tim Ferriss that will make all your work feel effortless so you have time left over after work hours in which enjoy being an entrepreneur (or employee).
The Course Careers team is working with their hiring partners to create unique programs tailored specifically to help address the technical skills gap in the growing tech industry.
The Course Careers team is working with their hiring partners to create unique programs tailored specifically to help address the technical skills gap in the growing tech industry.
These partnerships range from startups like Aerosoft, who are looking for experienced developers and designers, to large corporations like Lockheed Martin, who hire skilled IT employees on a regular basis.
Frequently Asked Questions about Course Careers
Here are some common questions you might have.
1. What are the qualifications for the tech sales course?
- Be in the U.S. or Canada
- Have a strong desire to learn and improve
- Strong verbal and written English communication skills
- Good interpersonal skills
- Have a strong work ethic
- Desire to be judged and paid based on your performance
2. What type of background should you have?
- High school graduate looking for an alternative to a college education
- Worker looking to make a career change
- College drop-out figuring out their next career move
- College graduate considering what their options are
3. Do you need to be extremely tech savvy?
No. You don’t need to be a tech master, believe it or not. At the end of the day, when you break it down, you’re selling solutions for your customers problems.
4. Is there a guarantee of employment after finishing the program?
No, there’s no employment guarantee but, Course Careers does help you find a job:
- Resume help
- Insider knowledge to help you setup your LinkedIn profile
- Interview prep
- You’ll be taught how to apply to jobs
- And, more!
5. What equipment is needed to start the program?
You’ll need:
- A computer
- A phone
- Wi-fi
- 3 books (total cost under $50)
Wrap Up | Is Course Careers worth it?
Yes, I think so. You have to think about yourself and consider where you’re currently at and what your future goals are.
Are you a college dropout wondering where to take your life with your career?
Recent high school grad thinking about how you can break into tech without pursuing college or having experience?
Wanting a career change?
This program is perfect for so many different kinds of people. It’s one of the best tech careers that pays well and is not super competitive. The average starting salary is $65,000/year with the potential to earn up to $100K+ in a few years.
I went to school and graduated with an MBA (actually I have three degrees: an AA, BA, and MBA) and the most I earned working for my employer was under $56K/year with a decade of experience in the field and all that education under my belt!
If I knew training programs like this existed back then, that would probably be the career trajectory I’d be on, tech sales or something similar in the tech field.
If you’re looking for a break into tech sales, then I highly recommend that you take a look at Course Careers and see how they can help. Their courses are designed to give you the skills needed to succeed in this industry, as well as connect with hiring partners who will provide more information on how they can assist with further training or employment opportunities.
When you’re ready to get started, you can begin by taking their free introduction course which tells you more about the career field and will help you determine if working in tech sales is truly right for you.
If it is, you can go on to take the paid course and you can use coupon code HUSTLE50 to get $50 off at check out. To go straight to the paid course, click here to enroll in Course Careers.