 What's happening guys, it's Shane here. Welcome back to the channel. Today I have a very special guest. I got Devin to come on the channel and he has a background as a teacher, has a background as barista and in different customer service jobs. And he was pretty busy, but he signed up with course careers and got a really nice job offer within about four months or so. So we're going to go ahead and jump into the interview right now and tell his story. So Devin, thank you so much for coming on the channel, man. I'm really excited to hear your story. Usually I actually know the story before I did the interview, but your interview just posted the story. So I actually haven't heard your story yet. So this is going to be a real treat for me. So thank you so much for coming on the channel. Yeah, of course. Thank you for having me. All right. So let's go ahead. Let's get started. You know, at the very beginning, maybe just share a little bit about your background. Introduce yourself a little bit and kind of how you discovered tech sales in the first place. Hello, everyone. I'm Devin. And so I started out my main career was customer service, you know, for about 10 years. My first real job was being an orientation leader at Northern Arizona University. It was there where I got to, you know, lead small groups. I got to do presentations and I really got to experience like, you know, building my grit with like having 16 hour days. And then after that, I started my first true career, which was in specialty coffee. I did that for about eight years. And that was great because, you know, I got to learn an artisanal skill. I got to meet people from all walks of life. And, you know, really just got to tell stories about where the coffee came from. So that was an extremely rewarding experience. And then, you know, after about eight years of doing that, I knew I wanted to try something new. So I tried education. My initial goal was to become a history teacher. And so I thought, you know, I'll just be a substitute teacher for a year, see how it goes. And I'm really glad I did that because I realized that education was definitely not for me. And so I was researching some different careers. And I saw, you know, this thing called customer success. And I thought, oh, okay, like customer service, customer success. Like, those kind of go hand in hand, I think. And then I did some interviews at some different programs. And that's when I found out about tech sales. And I, you know, researched it. And, you know, I luckily found a blog post where I stumbled upon course careers. And that's where I got to do the introductory course. And then I initially, you know, I think I signed up right after I had a conversation with Troy. So you were thinking about becoming a history teacher at some point as well. I really love history. That's actually my favorite subject. And so I feel you there for sure. But yeah, that's that could be kind of a rough career. So the the role that you landed, I know I'm going to ask you about it in a little bit. But was it as a BDR, or did you actually land a customer success manager role right away? It was as a BDR. Okay, got you. And BDR to those who haven't watched the channel is business development representative. It is the entry level tech sales role. Awesome. So you discovered course careers. You discovered tech sales. It looked really interesting to you. You probably saw how much demand it is, what kind of results course careers is getting. We just had somebody get a job in two weeks, like I can't even make this stuff up. I mean, it's absolutely nuts how much demand there is for this career. So what made you decide to go with course careers? I think the main thing was return on investment. Seeing other programs out there, and I'm not going to call them out by name, but they're seeing the price tag of those things. And then also, I have student loans. So I thought to myself like, Hey, I can't take on another debt that I'm already going to have to start paying. Now that the payment pauses over. So yeah, the return on investment was a no brainer. And then also it was self-paced. And that was super important to me because, you know, I was able to live my life and do what I had to do, you know, work full time. I got to still play music. I got to work at the studio I interned at. And, you know, and then at night, I was able to focus on the material. So it was really easy for me to make that decision. Gotcha. Yeah, I think I know exactly who you're talking about. I'm actually doing a video. I'm doing a video on one of those boot camps because they charge $30,000. They have a lawsuit against hundreds of their students and they have two different States Attorney Generals coming after them. So interesting. Probably want to avoid that boot camp for sure. Yeah, absolutely. So this is one of those careers where you definitely don't need to go to like a full, you know, full stack online boot camp for this is the career that's, you know, an online training like course careers offers that's like super nice and flexible is perfect to get into it. And like you said, it's the return on investment. I don't see like, there's probably no other program that has as good of a return on investment as course careers. It's like 66X or like a problem, probably over a hundred X actually with the first job you land. Yeah, return on investment just right away. Boom. And how long did it take you to get through the course? It took me four months. Like, you know, I think it was three and a half months of going through the actual material. And then I spent a couple of weeks doing the last projects that Troy implemented, where, you know, you're trying to find, you know, outbound leads for the course careers. And that after that, I spent a couple of weeks, you know, really getting my interview process down. So like spent a week writing out all of my interview questions, and then, you know, really practicing doing role plays with people in my group, because there is a group that you get to be put in, you know, with the course. After that, then I started reaching out to new companies to land an interview with. Got it. Awesome. So can you just kind of go over the course material, just like a kind of a high level overview and just let us know what you thought about that? Yeah, definitely. I know what I really liked about it was that Troy started us at the basics, you know, where you learned all the sales terminology. And, you know, that way you really knew when you see these terms come up, you know, you immediately are educated like, Oh, okay, that's what churn means. That's what an ideal customer profile is. This is a sales process methodology. And I think, you know, he really set us up for success to go through the rest of the course. And then also the books that he had assigned to us, you know, they coincide with the material. And I really, really liked that because you're able to relate what's going on in the book with the material and the course and, you know, how to win friends and influence people. That's definitely, you know, my favorite book now. And, you know, just learning people skills and really understanding how to talk to people. And just to be like a team player, be a more positive person. And I really, really liked that the course, you know, teaches you people skills and asking questions and, you know, really finding people's problems that they're having and how you can help them. And I think that, you know, that will carry you super far as a sales development representative. You know, it's like, just how can you help someone? And I just, I really liked that. And then also having a course project at the end, really being able to implement the stuff that you learned, you know, typing out your first cold email and really just putting it into practice. That way, you know, when you go into the interview process, you're ready because, you know, you've done this before. So it was awesome. So how long exactly did it take you to get the job? Because I know you were really busy with other things in your life. You even went on a vacation while you were taking the course and stuff. So how long exactly did it take you? It took me four months. You know, before I started the course, I got to get on the phone with Troy. You know, I asked him like, Hey, can I, you know, can this be self-paced? Do I have to show up to a classroom every day, a classroom type setting? And he said, no, just, you know, it's on your own time. So that worked out perfect for me because, you know, three and a half months, I was able to complete all the material. And then I did the final course project. And then I practiced for a couple of weeks, you know, all of my interview questions, you know, really preparing for that, doing mock interviews, really trying to formulate my why, because I think that's also super important when you're going through something like this, is to have like, you know, why am I getting into sales? Like, you know, why do I want to work for this company? I think those are important things to establish. And when all that was said and done, it was about four months and some change. Got it. And, you know, four months is phenomenal. Like that is phenomenal for like any other career out there, right? But some people might be watching this and they're like, Oh, four months for tech sales, right? But four months is phenomenal, guys. Like to go from no experience in sales or tech sales to landing a full time job in four months, like that is incredible. And, you know, tech sales, there's just so many opportunities for upward growth and like horizontal growth. And like, yeah, it's incredible to be able to start in a career that just has so many opportunities and so many different lanes that you can go down in four months. So kind of let me know like your quality of life, your job satisfaction before when you were working in those different jobs you talked about versus your quality of life and job satisfaction now working as a BDR. Yeah. So being a barista for eight years, there was always insecurity and insecurity was with money specifically. You know, the reason I stayed in that career for so long is because I was able to, you know, go on tour with my band and, you know, I was able to do like all the stuff I wanted to do when I was in high school, you know, so after I graduated college, I kind of like relived my childhood in a way. But at the end of the day, I mean, it was my quality of life was, you know, me always looking at my bank account and, you know, my poor wife having to go through that with me. And, you know, and she stuck by me, which was amazing. And so, you know, that a lot of insecurity with money and then, you know, being a substance teacher, you know, you think like, oh, cool, like I'll make a little bit more money. But then, you know, there's always, you know, the I had to, you know, be off for like two and a half weeks because of, you know, I was sick with COVID. And then kids were also getting me like sinus infections. And then you're off all the time because of that. So I think like, it got really difficult, you know, being in a classroom setting because it's like, you know, you're constantly in the fear of like getting sick. And then you get paid once a month. And that's really hard. Like you think it's awesome. You know, you're like, oh, cool, I'll get my paycheck all at once. But then you have to budget the rest of the month. So I think that was difficult. Now it's like, I, you know, I got my first paycheck the other day. And it was just, you know, it was an incredible feeling because it's like, oh, wow, like this is going to be like every two weeks. And then when I'm fully ramped, I'll actually have commission on top of this. So there'll be like three paychecks a month. And I get to work from home. Like I have a home office here and my company set me up with that. Like it's just going from being in a place where a lot of times, you know, you're not really appreciated for what you do. And, you know, you work extra hard, you give amazing customer service and, you know, you put all that work in and you don't get compensated for that. Whereas you, in tech sales, you work extra hard, you prospect, you put in that extra work. And then, you know, at one point in the month, you get rewarded for that in commission. So I think my quality of life is so much better now. I don't have to commute because I live in the Los Angeles area and traffic here is awful. And I hate it. You know, I used to love driving and now I hate driving. So yeah, you just saved yourself two or three hours a day with that remote job. So let's go ahead and talk about what everybody wants to hear. If you don't mind, which is the original salary. So I know that in tech sales, it's called on target earnings. So typically, you know, you have like a base pay and then you have your on target earnings, which is what they expect you to hit if you get a certain amount of leads and prospects and that sort of thing. So if you don't mind sharing, you can talk about just generally speaking what entry level position would pay or you can tell me what your position pays. Yeah. So at my company specifically, I remember going through the interview process and then asking me like, oh, what's your salary expectation? And, you know, everything I just told you, I told them, I don't care. I just want to learn, you know, like, I, of course, I want to get paid, but I want to be able to grow and learn. And I think, you know, when they told me, it was, you know, it's around 50,000 for the base pay. So already doubled my salary for my whole lifetime. And then for on target earnings, that brings you up to around 70,000. Wow. That is great. That is awesome. I've interviewed people like one year in, two years in, three years in, four years in, five years in now on the channel. So if you want to kind of see what you can expect a few years down the line, you can just watch some of the interviews on the on the channel. We just interviewed Antoine. He's a fellow YouTuber from the channel Black Heights. And I mean, he's in year five and he hit over 500k. So I'm curious, actually, I forgot to ask this, Devin. When you were, when you first discovered course careers, did you watch the free training that Troy offers? Yes, I signed up for that. And, you know, he gave an amazing background of what, you know, tech sales is and how to, you know, there's not really a huge barrier of entry. And also, I think another great thing about course careers is that offering the, you know, the different payment methods you could pay in full or you can, you know, break it up, which was really good for me. So I think really having that solid, you know, breakdown of what tech sales is. And, you know, it shows you that you can do this if you work hard. Because I think that at the end of the day, it is on you to learn, you know, the material and to really understand, you know, why you're getting into this. And I think that's important. So, you know, my advice for anybody, you know, that's on the fence about it, really put the work in and really learn the material. So, you know, if you're on the fence about it, you know, you're thinking, oh, it's kind of expensive and like, I don't know if I can do this, you can totally do this. And, you know, I think that you putting the work in and you practicing, that's going to take you a long way. Got it. Yeah. And just to clarify to everybody, because I do get comments about this sometimes. There's a free training that Troy offers. It basically is going to help you to decide whether tech sales is for you or not. Kind of talks about tech sales as a career, the different sub-careers you can go into, and all that sort of thing, really great information, honestly. And there are people that literally, like they haven't even signed up with the program, but they tell Troy that after watching the free training, that they were able to kind of figure it out on their own and get a job probably took them a lot longer, but Troy does get emails like that. So, it is a good free training. I took it myself as super useful. If you decide to use the course careers as a service, of course, it's a business, they have to make money. But essentially what they're going to do is they're going to train you up, and then they are going to get you guaranteed interviews with companies. So, right now, I think course careers has like 10 to 12, probably more than that by now, Troy's signing companies up left and right, partner companies that where they actually offer guaranteed interviews, right? And that's pretty rare, like you don't usually see that. If you want to check out the free training, I will put that down in the description below, as well as the pen comments. And if you choose to use course careers as a service, I do have a $50 off coupon. It is Shane 50. So, course careers cost $500 and the $50 off coupon should bring it down to $450. Costs $500 right now. I don't know if it's going to continue doing that, because honestly, that is just an absolute steal of a price for the results they're getting. And then I do want to ask you, because this just popped into my head, Devin, I wanted to ask you, because I get comments about this, are you being paid to do this interview? Not at all. That was my initial, I draw back from the course, I was like, I don't know, it just seems too good to be true. I thought to myself, this has to be a scam, because there's other programs charging thousands and thousands of dollars, and then this program is only charging $500, and then people are getting interviews like, I don't know, it just seems like too good to be true. And then now I'm here. Yeah, it's like, we were talking about, there's that boot camp that's charging like $30,000 and their students, it's amazing, because Troy's course careers charges $500 and he gets better results than boot camps that charge $30,000. It's incredible. And I think the reason is, is because they sign those ISAs, the income share agreements. And then a lot of people don't even want to get a job, because they're like, I don't want to have to pay, you know, 12.5% of my income for 48, for four years, right? Like that sounds, that's ridiculous. They don't want to have to do that. So yeah, but good talk. Good talk. Thanks so much for coming on the channel, Devin. Appreciate it. Thanks for sharing your story. Congratulations on landing the job. We're honestly getting so many people landing jobs at this point. I can't even interview like one-tenth of the people, but you had a really cool story. So Troy sent you over to me. But yeah, thanks so much for coming on the channel, sharing your story. Really appreciate it. Of course. Thank you for having me.