Met a guy this past weekend who before covid worked as a Safety Consultant for a few years before switching into insurance sales for trucking companies. He met someone through worked in this field, and thought this guy was not the brightest but was making somewhere in the $400k range and it piqued his interest. For added context, this guy is about 4 years older than me.
He went ahead and got his license to sell insurance that next week and got a job in sales with a company in the city. He said he was making about the same as he did as a Safety Consultant for the first year or so($115k), but then after that it basically changed his life. Fast forward to now, he’s an executive VP with a base salary of $245k on top of commissions (I believe uncapped) and is absolutely crushing it. He told me he was able to help pay off his sister’s and parents debt, and has been able to treat friends to amazing trips where he completely comps the bill. It wasn’t much of a bragging thing, but like he was genuinely proud to help like that (rightfully so).
I work as a logistics/ Supply Chain Analyst for almost three years now. I switched about a year ago from a previous company and am making roughly $90k a year now. This is the most I’ve ever made which is great, however I really haven’t enjoyed the role the way I thought I would and am always wondering how to continue to “move up the ladder” so to speak.
I also have 4 years of experience in brokerage as well as fleet management (worked up to account manager) for a major transportation company from 2019-2023. So I have experience in selling lanes to carriers and I understand the trucking/ transportation lingo as well as general rules and regulations in the industry. Brokerage wasn’t necessarily my favorite thing in the world, however I was making much less money as I was right out of college. I also feel a touch “lost” at times, and am wondering when it will all feel like it’s finally coming together. For context, I’m 29M and have about 7 years of “professional” experience.
It’s hard to deny that knowing what he makes now makes me wonder if I could go down a similar path. Does anyone have experience in this industry? Is he an anomaly? I understand it wouldn’t just be easy and it would be a grind, but I feel like my work now is a grind so why not give it a shot?
TLDR: Met someone making a lot of money selling trucking insurance, and am wondering if it’s worth looking at switching into. I have 4 years experience in transportation brokerage, fleet/ account management, as well as almost 3 years as a logistics/ supply chain analyst.