Introducing myself and career advice

Hello everyone,

Long time lurker first time poster - I used this forum a bunch while studying for the GMAT, doing b-school apps, etc., Anyway, I wanted to introduce myself and ask for some career advice...

My situation is as follows - I am 29 years old and am currently half way through an MBA program at one of the better schools in the Chicago/Wisconsin area. I've spent most of my career after bachelor's working in Business 2 Business sales for large publicly traded corporations (mostly tech and medical) and always excelled at it. The main reason why I went into B2B sales is quite frankly it was the best income after graduating with a bachelor's. Just about every job offer I had upon graduating was around $50k salary but sales offered me the same salary plus the ability to make commissions which added significantly to my income. Although I never expected to go into sales, I excelled at it and became one of the best account execs at every company I worked for.


Unfortunately, I feel like I'm not in a place where I can't really move forward in my career. I'm over half way through my MBA and have good experience, lots of good references and tons of awards proving I am a top rep. I'm looking to start a new job, but although I'm able to get interviews no problem they always end up hiring someone else. I don't think its my performance at interviews because I've never had a problem with that. Most the jobs I'm applying for and get interviews for are higher level sales, analyst,etc type jobs with pay that's $70k $80k plus commission (OTE $100, $120k plus). It just seems like I'm easily able to land an interview for a job that would give me the potential to break that 6 figure barrier and I end up making it to 2nd/3rd round, but then they hire someone else. I don't know what to do whether to keep trying, switch careers, or do something else. We had a c-level speaker at my college from a large financial investment firm saying their average reps make $500k with their top reps making $1mil. I'm guessing this is all commission. I do know that top reps working for firms like NY Life and the other life insurance/investment type firms can make good money, especially if they're a driven sales person but it just seems like in a way a waste going through an MBA to do something that requires basically a 2-3 day certification. Hell I've even thought about packing it up and moving to Williston, ND to work on oil fields. My main motivation is honestly money, not so much prestige but on the other hand my signficiant others criticize me for even considering a position they say is 'below me' and shouldn't consider such positions. I don't really share those views though. My goal is to just work for the next few years, save as much money as I can and invest it and move back to my homeland in Europe and retire early.

Also I wanted to ask your advice about networking. The b-school I attend is about an hour drive from my house. As much as I'd like to move closer to campus to be around the other b-school students, campus activities, the various clubs, etc. it's not really possible. I always hear that networking is one of the most important things when doing an MBA. How do you manage that though if you're doing say an online program, or are a commuter or simply have a very busy schedule?


Any career, networking and other advice would be greatly appreciated.