As others have said OTE is on target earnings, not over target earnings.
Sales jobs (b2b or recruitment) are hard work, there's no two ways about it.
I've been working 12 hour days 5 days a week for the last 4.5 years as an engineering recruiter to the oil and gas industry. I cannot stress enough that you will not have time for a social life during the working week.
If you have made plans but a client asks you for something at 6pm, then its tough and you're working until 10pm.
The money has been great and I've had some truly wonderful experiences that I don't think would have been possible otherwise.
I started on £18k basic and made £32k overall in my first year (OTE was £30k, almost the entire office surpassed targets).
Last year (year 4) I made £25k basic and made £45k overall. I've also got a decent pension already built up and I've had a company car for the last 3 years.
Look for a company with low turnover of staff. I worked in IT recruitment for a grand total of 6 weeks before I took the oil and gas job. That was awful, the targets were unreasonable, the commission was crap and people regularly broke down in tears in the office. I was the 8th person to leave (from an intake of 10) in 6 weeks.
In my company my manager had been there 10 years and my other colleagues 3 or 4 years plus when I started, that's a good sign. Take a look around when you interview, do people look happy?
There will normally be sales boards up in any target driven office.. are people generally achieving what your target will be?
After the first fiasco I went into sales with my eyes open as I had some good advice from acquaintances so I'll share that. Go in with an idea of what you want to achieve and then have an exit plan.
My plan was always to clear my debt from university, buy a house and get married. Then get out with enough money in the bank to retrain comfortably.
It doesn't sound a lot but I think I would have struggled in most other roles straight out of uni to cover the above £50k while at the same time maintaining a pretty good lifestyle.
Despite the long hours the perks have been pretty good. I've eaten in a number of Michelin starred restaurants, been to the Savoy more times than I care to remember.
I've had a presidential suite at the top of a hotel in Marbella and last month spent £1500 taking a client out for a meal at the top of the shard (the wine was £400 a go and we had 3 bottles).
Only work professional recruitment or high end sales.
By that I mean look for companies interested in the big picture, high margin stuff.
It's better to do the work getting one job covered for a £160k salary (£28k fee) than running around like a blue arsed fly trying to cover 8 jobs at £20k.
In professional services you're also likely to be dealing with managers in a lot of companies, it isn't ever going to hurt to have those contacts.
Engineering (building services and rail are big at the minute), finance, IT (management and director level) and marketing recruitment are good examples of busy markets at the moment.
At the end of this month I finish here and I'm going retraining as a caseworker with HMRC. The money is crap (£23k) but now I've done what I set out to do its more important to me to enjoy a better work life balance (37.5 hours a week is going to feel like part time!). I'll pick up some qualifications and fund some of my own and hopefully its the start of a new chapter.
The above is an honest account of my experience, I've had days where I've felt so burnt out I never wanted to go back to the office and I've had days where I've enjoyed myself so much I thought I would never leave. It's a mixed bag!