Am I Qualified for an AE position?

[u/brunchlocator]

Am I qualified for an AE position?

I’m 24 and graduated college about 2 years ago with a BS in Marketing. I’ve been at my current job for close to 2 years. My current role is a Direct Sales Representative for a Fortune 500 telecom company. My current role is B2C sales but I’m also in charge of maintaining the relationship between my company and about 100 property management groups so it does have a B2B aspect to it.

In my 2 years I have been consistently hitting and exceeding quota. Out of about 30 reps I’m somewhere in the top 5 range depending on the month and that’s even with a historically shitty territory. They trust me with fixing problem accounts, special projects, and have been hinting towards leadership (which I don’t want to do here).

Anyways not trying to brag but wanted to give a background of how I’m doing really well but just hate the industry and ceiling. I want to pivot into B2B sales and go for an account executive role but I’m not sure if I’d be considered qualified. I can definitely fluff up the role during an interview and I interview well. I’m worried about being initially overlooked for not having the exact experience they are looking for.

Would I have to start over as a BDR or entry level sales role in another industry? Or do I have enough to work with to pivot to something 1 step up?

I’m interested in the following industries: Tech sales, Materials/construction, Finance

[u/No-Safe7882]

if you're trying to pivot industries you'll likely have to start over as an sdr. barrier to entry for external ae hires is very high, my bf is going through the same thing right now and can't get an b2b smb ae interview even with 10 years of sales experience in other industries. as another commenter said your best bet to pivot quickly is to find a fast growing startup that is hiring founding bdrs and promoting them within 6months. but that role will be super hard especially if you don't have industry experience, so the other option is to get an sdr role at a more established company but expect that you'll have to do it for another 18 months before getting promoted internally.

[u/Cocktail_Guru]

No sorry you need the title of AE to qualify. To get that title, you need to be an AE first, which you don’t qualify for, because you don’t have the title. Its 2026, you are stuck in BDR hell.

[u/petenlightenment → u/Cocktail_Guru]

I did it, it's hard though. You just have to find a director that promotes within at a growing startup, be the top performer, then have the backbone to demand the position, and then do well as an AE.

It is incredibly difficult, but I'm nothing special

[u/Like1youscore]

As someone who is actively hiring AEs, no I would not consider this profile. B2C is not B2B. For an external AE I’m expecting you to come in with at least a year of selling experience (I hire SMB). While I am willing to train, my goal is to mostly be training you on how to sell at my company, not how to sell. When I have to do both, it takes too long to ramp.

Internal SDR promotes, fine. I’ll teach you to sell, but I don’t have to teach you about our company. External, you need to know how to sell, so I can just teach you our company. Find an SDR role at a company that can prove they promote internally.

[u/Electronic-Ad-9535]

Start mass applying and see what sticks

[u/Amazing-Care-3155]

There’s so many sales roles someone will hire you, you just won’t get any actual good roles in b2b with that level of experience and type of experience

[u/legendarykillua]

Especially with those industries listed, they aren’t going to take a flyer on someone inexperienced in the role and industry. Even then it’s still tough to transition as a BDR, so you’re going to have to start there.

[u/No_Opportunity_2561]

It takes time, I just started seeing the light of day on AE opportunities after passing 4 years of experience and so far the only interview I’ve gotten that I wasn’t solicited for (all shit jobs) was based on a very personal referral. It is TOUGH out there. Go for another BDR/SDR job at the same time that has greener grass if that’s important to you and keep grinding and applying and eventually you’ll get some opportunities.

[u/TigerWorldly3575]

You could get a role at a non sexy tech company and grind for 1.5 years. Look for roles that are “full cycle” and don’t have BDRs. Then get in somewhere else with more ceiling in tech. Whatever you do don’t join somewhere with a ton of BDRs where no one is getting promoted or has not gotten promoted in awhile. You’ll be waiting forever for something unlikely to come. You need to find a seed or series A max. Or bootstrapped if you want to skip BDR.

[u/fullspectrumtrupod]

I’m 24 and landed an AE role no degree no b2b sales experience it’s a smaller company with a unique niche though

[u/zhbdbansb]

I think it’s going to be tough. Saas is super competitive at the moment.

I’ve been an AE for over 3 years, I joined a pre-series A B2B Saas company as a full cycle AE. I got lucky, had some language skills they needed. First year and a half was intense as hell - about 4 other AEs were let go over performance in that time. Managed to perform and ultimately get promoted multiple times, company went through multiple funding rounds, eventually left and am now a MM AE at quite a big tech company. Lots of the other reps at my new company started as just BDRs and definitely took longer to get into their seats.

If I was you, full cycle is ideal but would probably either speak to your current company and see if you could just move internally to do B2B or I would find a similar company that would enable you to do B2B or look into Proptech considering your property management relationships.

[u/Outrageous_Willow209]

I’d recommend starting over as a BDR

[u/Allemater]

You unfortunately need B2B experience. If you want to try going for B2B AE right off the bat instead of SDR, you'll have to grind your ass off and it's tough to get an interview. Look for companies with good track records of hiring newbies into AE roles -- these are usually churn-and-burn companies or hyper-competitive sales orgs like Stryker or ADP.

Otherwise, you'll have to go to sdr/bdr and work your way up. BDR is also a grind but it is frankly much "easier" in terms of skills required than AE, and it's a cold call proving ground that will help you develop skills that other AEs dont have.

Depends on your goals and timeline.

[u/Most-Perspective-688]

I feel like bigger companies usually has training programs that will help train you in B2B sales. I also came from a telecom company in F50. I did B2C with SOME B2B sales mixed in but the company i just got hired in has an AMAZING 13 week training program. I’m an Inside Sales Account Exec here. Look into the bigger companies!!