More than 230 juniors and seniors flocked to the Squires Student Center on Virginia Tech’s campus at the start of the 2019 Fall semester to vie for the sales industry’s most coveted jobs and internships. Now in its 3rd year, Sales Industry Day is one of the Pamplin College of Business’s most successful career fairs and has grown steadily in its endeavor to match Virginia Tech student talent with the nation’s top businesses and corporations.

Students attend the Sales Industry Day job fair each fall at Virginia Tech.
Students attend the Sales Industry Day job fair each fall at Virginia Tech.

The professional sales-oriented job fair has long attracted some of the country’s most prestigious companies offering top positions in professional B2B sales with corporations such as Pepsi Co., CVENT, Ferguson and Gartner amongst others attending. And this year, a record number of student candidates can expect an unprecedented 100% placement rate for those looking to land an internship or job position in the industry.  

The strong job placement rate is due to the sales industry’s robust growth outlook which is predicted to have its strongest hiring forecast in the past 12 years according to multinational staffing firm ManpowerGroup’s 2019 Employment Outlook Survey. Additionally, recent statistics by the U.S. Department of Labor estimate that professional sales positions are expected to increase 7 percent by 2026, making professional sales one of the most rapidly growing job sectors in the US.

Virginia Tech students meet one-on-one with recruiters from the country’s top professional sales companies.
Virginia Tech students meet one-on-one with recruiters from the country’s top professional sales companies.

For professional sales, the forecast reveals just how in demand B2B sales professional positions are, especially for those candidates that enter the work force with training and highly developed skills.

“For students that have gone through Virginia Tech’s Professional Sales Program, we’re seeing each one come out of recruiting season with at least one offer in-hand if not several,” says Brian Collins, Director of the Sales Center at Virginia Tech. “We’ve strived to be one of the top college professional sales programs in the country, and the demand that we’ve seen for our students in the job market is a strong marker for that.”

Students going through the Professional Sales Program are exposed to rigorous and unique classes designed to hone the skills and attributes that top recruiting companies seek. Courses such as the Buyer Seller Relationship, Advanced Professional Selling, and Sales Force Management are offered each semester as part of the program’s curriculum. Students also have the opportunity to earn a spot on the school’s national sales competition team, which competes in sales role play competitions throughout the US each year.

Sales Industry Day job fair takes place each fall at Virginia Tech and is open to students of all majors.
Sales Industry Day job fair takes place each fall at Virginia Tech and is open to students of all majors.

The Virginia Tech Professional Sales Program and the Sales Center at Virginia Tech are part of an ongoing mission to provide students with industry forward resources and top skill development courses. Housed in the Marketing Department within the Pamplin College of Business, the program also offers a minor in Professional Sales as well as concentrations and course offerings for Tech students in majors and colleges outside of the college of business.

For more information on the Professional Sales Program, please visit the center’s site or contact Brian Collins at collinbr@vt.edu.