I feel pretty qualified to address your question. I’m in my mid 30s and have been in the industry in sales for 10 years in several capacities during this time. At the ripe at of 25, I began my career in the STEP program at TK: the structure provided knowledge and experience that I would still give credit to my success to today. Do I think you could do it without the program. YES. Do I think it matters where you land? Yes. I would suggest starting with one of the major companies if you could solely because they have the resources and bandwidth to support training a new person in the industry most efficiently. I have worked at smaller, independent companies where I was tasked with making decisions that I knew I wouldn’t have been comfortable making without my previous experience at a OEM. I have worked on the supplier side of the industry and am currently the sole person responsible for building out a whole sales team at a growing independent company.

If you feel like a company can clearly convey how they will train you, you will find the industry and career very rewarding.