From pub shifts to tech sales: how Jo stopped applying and hoping.

You finish a shift. The bar is wiped down and your feet ache. You open LinkedIn and apply for three more sales jobs. You've done this so many times you've lost count. Nobody writes back. Not a no. Not anything.

After a while, the silence feels personal. Maybe sales was a silly idea.

Jo knows that feeling. He had made a career change aimed at tech sales and gone back to university to finish his degree. While he studied, he worked in a pub and sent application after application. In his words, he was "firing off applications on LinkedIn" and getting nowhere.

Today he works in tech sales. Watch his story in his own words.

Here's what changed, and what you can use this week.

Why hundreds of applications can get zero replies

Start with the trap. You can't get a sales job without experience. You can't get experience without a sales job.

Job boards make it worse. One click makes you one of hundreds of people on the same advert. The hiring manager skims a pile of CVs that look the same, and yours has a pub job on it.

Recruiters work for the employer. Their job is to fill the role fast, often with someone who has done it before.

So more applications is not the answer. Jo sent hundreds. He got "no results at all."

1. Swap "apply and hope" for a plan

The first thing Jo points to is a plan. "It gave me a clear, easy-to-follow blueprint for going out and winning the role I wanted," he wrote. "Before that, I was applying and hoping, with no results."

He called out two parts of that plan.

The first was "a clear understanding of the role and what it looks like day to day." If you can't describe the job, you can't show you can do it. Most entry-level sales roles are about starting conversations. Calls, emails and messages to people who don't know you yet, so a meeting gets booked. When you can talk about that work in plain terms, you sound like someone who is ready for it.

The second was help with "how to reach out and communicate in a way that shows I can do the job, both before and during the interview process." Sales hiring has a quiet test. The way you contact a company is a sample of how you'd contact a buyer. A short, specific message to the right person shows more than a long cover letter.

Try this week: pick ten companies you'd love to work for. Not a hundred. Learn what they sell and who they sell to. Then reach out to one person at each with a message you'd be happy for a buyer to read.

That's the shift Jo describes in his video: a "clear framework to go out and win interviews at companies you really wanted."

2. Turn vague feedback into real fixes

Jo had been to interviews before. The feedback didn't help him get better.

You've probably had it too. "We went with someone with more experience." "Not quite the right fit." These lines tell you that you lost, not why.

Jo said the second big help was "unraveling the feedback you get and turning it into things you actually need to do differently." In his written answer, he credited "a supportive team who could quickly see the real reasons behind the generic feedback I'd had in previous interviews."

Generic feedback usually hides something specific. "More experience" can mean you didn't link your past work to the job. "Not the right fit" can mean you didn't ask good questions, or didn't sound sure you wanted sales.

Try this week: straight after any interview, write down every question you found hard. After two or three interviews, look for the pattern. That pattern is your to-do list. Better still, go through it with someone who has hired salespeople.

3. Get put in front of the people who hire

The last step is the one that got Jo hired. "I got a job through the promotion to sales leaders after completing the course."

This is the part most job hunters never get. Instead of being one CV in a pile, Jo was put in front of sales leaders as someone who had done the work.

That promotion is part of the meritt programme today. meritt is the AI that gets you a job in sales. Think of it as your talent agent. You learn and practise with AI lessons, including cold calling and AI skills. You earn a certificate. Then each monthly cohort is promoted to thousands of sales leaders. The programme costs £299.

No one can promise you a job, and we won't. What we can do is help you show up ready, and make sure the right people see you.

What it took from Jo

This wasn't instant. Jo fitted it around the rest of his life. "I spent my free hours going through the course," he wrote.

It started paying off before he even finished. "Before I had even finished, I was getting through multi-stage interviews at some of my favourite tech companies."

Then the offer came. "Shortly after I had landed a role at a very technical company, which fits perfectly with my background."

Jo sums it up in three steps. A clear plan to win interviews. Feedback turned into fixes. Promoted, then hired.

Your next step

If you're where Jo was, sending applications into silence, the fix is not more of the same. Learn what the job looks like. Reach out like a salesperson. Treat feedback as a to-do list. Then get in front of the people who hire.

Try a free lesson at learn.meritt.io/try to practise the real work. When you're ready, see the full programme at learn.meritt.io/course.