By Charles Tan

Is there anything wrong with a graduate or a non-graduate taking up a job as an insurance sales agent or even unit trust agent? Well, to some people, jobs in sales are usually the last resort.

A news portal recently quoted the Malaysian Employers’ Federation’s executive director, Shamsuddin Bardan as saying (translated) that this was a loss because those who made the switch to sales would not be able to apply what they studied to their jobs, and would instead have to learn new skills.

The article also quoted a few examples of graduates who made the switch and surprisingly, were doing well. One of them said (translated), “Now my time is much more flexible. I have more time for my family compared to previously, and I have an income which is similar or more than what I used to have as fixed pay.”

First of all, regardless of the job we embark on after we graduate, not everyone will get promoted to CEO level by the time they are 50 years old.

Assuming there are 2,000 engineers in an MNC in Penang, how many would actually be promoted to be a team head, and promoted later to be a section manager, followed by a department manager, followed by a senior manager and even higher?

Let’s be very clear that many will stay below managerial level until the day they retire and that’s a fact, regardless of what degree they had. In other words, pay wise, they will never be part of the top bracket until the day they retire.

Assuming they obtained a law degree today, how many would move on to become senior partners in top established law firms in the country 10 years later?

Frankly, many will continue to be lawyers and keep doing the same thing and earning a normal pay until they retire from the profession. This is the reality of having a job/career and let’s not keep thinking that sales jobs are only for those who could not get a better job.

Remember the days when someone opening a clinic would earn an extraordinary income every month? These days, it’s a fixed income (as a doctor in these clinics) because most of the clinics are franchised brand names.

These clinics are able to approach organisations to appoint them since they have much better coverage and even provide reports on a monthly basis. Of course, it is still possible to operate a successful and profitable clinic but are the majority of medical graduates able to do this, today or even in the future?

There was also a time when everyone working in a bank had a rock solid job and stable bonuses year after year. These days, technology is “killing” many of these jobs. The only ones left are those flexible enough to change themselves and accept a new scope of responsibilities.

Just two years ago, those in the oil and gas industry had a hard time and many lost their jobs. It will not be easy to get back these lost jobs, which pay more than double of most other industries, most of the time.

With the world changing as fast as it is, we need to keep adapting.

Graduates who can’t get jobs in industries related to what they studied but are able to start a new career in sales whether for insurance or unit trusts, are good people. We should wish them all the best and stop stereotyping sales jobs as inferior alternatives.

Keep in mind that in most sales organisations, the top 20% of all sales people earn extraordinary incomes that those in other professions can only dream of.

Earning a five-figure income way before hitting 30 years old? This is a real possibility for those in sales. This is why many of those owning multiple properties happen to be sales people, not those in the typical professions we know of.

This article first appeared in kopiandproperty.com

Charles Tan blogs at property investment site kopiandproperty. He dislikes property speculators and disagrees that renting is better than buying. He thinks it’s either property or poverty. He is presently the CEO of an auction house auctioning assets beyond just properties.