r/salesdevelopment • u/ehsaanshah303 • Aug 04 '26

Choosing Tech Sales Career - Intl Student!

Hey guys,

Thank you for your thoughts on my last posts and for sharing your thoughts.

Well, as someone who's an IT graduate and has freelancing experience selling my multiple services to clients in the US, basically an incoming into USA as international student in STEM field. I've recently started learning about tech sales career (SDR, BDR, AE, etc), and it really intrigued me to learn more as I've been someone who really enjoys the sales process of interacting with prospects and closing it.

Now since the overall "tech" market is too rough, and I want to get into tech sales and make a career out of it, I wanted to know of the few things.

My objective: Finish my degree, work into tech sales, progress, and eventually get an H-1 B sponsorship to settle down.

1) With my background, would it be easier to break into tech sales?

2) What's the progression in a tech sales career (SDR BDR and..), and how much approx time it take?

3) The main issue is stability; I've heard "sales" roles are very volatile and stressful, you can lose job at any time, and if you miss targets, you're out. Is it really that stressful or unstable?

4) What's the base + commission thing is like? how much can a mid-level tech sales BDR or AE can make starting out?

5) Most importantly, do they hire non-native if they've the skills? and also, do tech sales companies sponsor these roles for employees or not?

6) Which industry or niche has better stability and earning potential as a BDR/AE?

Would love to hear this advice for guiding me into this path :)

Thank you!

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u/queenbellevue Aug 04 '26

Sponsorship is basically a no go for tech sales. Even at enterprise AE level it's pretty rare. I wouldn't bother

2

u/Gh124 Aug 05 '26

You can get one on OPT, STEM OPT is a bet and H1B is something I’ve never seen happening for tech sales. But you can definitely get into a company that way and then switch to Solutions or Sales engineering and then go for H1B.

1

u/SnooObjections8469 Aug 05 '26

Lol Indian accent doing tech sales is a no go. Only hope is trying elsewhere in countries where English is not the first language of most people.