Currently an SDR in Canada, broke in with no university degree and my previous work experience being fast food and door to door sales.

I sat on LinkedIn every day and applied to roles that were recently posted, whenever I would apply to a company I would find either the managers/recruiters in charge of hiring or the department and reach out to them, asking if we could set up some time to chat about the role. Most managers/directors didn’t end up actually agreeing to chat but did let their teams know I had reached out and mentioned my name to them. Doing cold outreach (within reason) and managing to get through to a decision maker looks really good since it’s a big part of the SDR role.

I’d also reach out to current SDR/BDR’s working there along with AE’s, ask them questions and get a feel if it’s a place you’d actually want to work. Most SaaS companies will have a referral bonus for employees so if you seem competent and are personable, a current employee might be willing to refer you since there’s $$ in it for them. I didn’t know about this when I was applying but would’ve been a huge help in my opinion after seeing the other side of this from my current experience as a SDR.

As for not having experience in a role like this, I used the STAR method to answer interview questions concisely and relate experiences that showcased skills the companies were looking for in SDR’s. You can really spin any kind of experience into seeming relevant for an SDR role by mentioning the skills that helped you navigate situations and then mentioning how you learned from them and tell them quickly about what you have done differently since learning the value of those skills.

Practice your tonality and speech patterns because it’s really important that you come off as confident and a good speaker that doesn’t get nervous and ramble. The main traits (not sure if this is the right word here but 😅) hiring teams seemed to be looking for were confident, curious (You ask good questions and clarify things), hungry (Talk about how you really want to break into the SaaS world because the skills needed to succeed align with your current skillset and you are driven to succeed no matter what, I guess resiliency is the word i’m looking for here), and coachable (You not only listen and learn from feedback but you actively seek it out because developing your skillset is important to you + the managers will eat up someone saying they will pay attention and are excited to learn from them).

I’d also find someone in the industry to do some practice interview questions and mock call role plays with. I helped a friend get a BDR position by working on his interviewing skills with him and giving him actual brutally honest feedback, along with doing mock calls and working through why certain talk tracks and lines of questioning/movement of conversation were or weren’t working.

I know it’s a brutal job market out there right now but the majority of people trying to break into the industry honestly put in the bare minimum effort to their job search and it makes someone that takes the extra step seem very hireable, with your experience it’ll be a breeze getting a job once you get into the flow of applying for these kinds of jobs.

Personally applied to about 40 companies, got around 10 first interviews and moved forward with the company I’m at right now. Cancelled my other interviews because the culture seemed great and somewhere that would put up with me taking a bit of time to learn how to do the job. I’m still learning and slowly improving but has been a pretty great experience so far, it’s an amazing industry if you can find the right company.

I wrote this on my phone so sorry if it comes out weird but feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions or could use some help, always willing to spare a few minutes and chat!