Entry-Level Positions For Aspiring Business Development Representatives
Entry-level sales roles for undergraduate students include Business Development Representatives (BDRs), Sales Development Representatives (SDRs), and Market Development Representatives (MDRs); Sami started as a BDR, describing it as "the hardest job in the sales role" due to the high volume of cold calls and inevitable rejection, requiring "thick skin."
Sales, Business Development, Cold Calling, Resilience, Entry-Level
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Sami Khalil
Enterprise Account Executive
Wiz.io and DocuSign
University of Arizona
N/A
Accounting
Technology
Sales and Client Management
Scholarship Recipient, Took Out Loans, Greek Life Member, First Generation College Student
Video Highlights
1. Entry-level sales roles are available for undergraduate students.
2. The most common entry-level sales role is a Business Development Representative (BDR).
3. BDR roles involve a lot of cold calling and require resilience and thick skin.
Transcript
What entry-level positions are there in this field that an undergraduate college student might consider?
From the sales role, it's a BDR, so it's kind of interchangeable within the sales market. Some organizations have SDRs, which is Sales Development Representative. They have MDRs, which is Market Development Representative, and then they have BDRs, which is Business Development Representatives.
The majority of the time, where I started out of college, I was a BDR. Essentially, what a BDR does is it's a very hunter-focused role. You have to be motivated to continuously do cold calls.
In my view, it's the hardest job in the sales role because you are just starting to cut your teeth. You're going to get hung up on a lot. You're going to hear words that make you think, "Why did somebody just say that to me?" So, you have to have thick skin. That's typically where a lot of folks coming out of college start, in that BDR role.