Sydney sales rep Claudia Roussel, 20, goes viral for ‘street interview’. Now she’s a role model for women in tech sales

Claudia Roussel was walking down the street during a visit to New York when the unexpected happened.

The Sydney-based 20-year-old was asked to do a “street interview” by a TikToker — but little could she have imagined it would be viewed by more than 6.4 million people.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Twenty-year-old Aussie goes viral for $120,000 salary in tech sales.

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Creator Suleyman Dolaev is known to approach strangers on the street and ask what they do and how much they earn.

And of his latest videos, none has achieved a greater viral reach than that featuring Roussel, who stunned Dolaev when she revealed she was a 20-year-old female working in tech sales.

“It’s so strange because some people have told me their friends sent the video to them, but they didn’t know that that person knew me,” Roussel tells 7NEWS.com.au.

“It was kind of like, ‘Oh, look at this girl’. And they’re like, ‘Oh, that’s actually my friend’.

“It’s so weird how viral it has gone.”

Roussel had just finished meeting a friend for coffee in New York and was about to head home on the subway when she decided to stop by SoHo for a last-minute shopping trip.

As she strolled through the streets, a stranger and his camera crew approached her for a street interview.

“He saw me from across the street and crossed the road, and he walked up with his camera crew. He seemed very much in a rush,” she recalls.

Coincidentally, Roussel had seen one of the interviewer’s videos on her TikTok feed the day before.

Excited about the opportunity, she agreed to the interview and opened up about her flourishing career.

“I work in tech sales,” she told Dolaev in the viral interview.

“I reached out to different companies that I was interested in working for straight out of high school, I study on the weekends — there’s a lot of hustle involved.”

When asked about her salary, Roussel revealed she was earning approximately $A120,000.

After the interview finished, she FaceTimed her mother, thrilled about the experience, but little realising just how much the video would take off.

That night, as she tried to sleep, her phone began buzzing with notifications.

“I was trying to get to sleep and my phone was off silent and all of a sudden I started getting notification after notification on my Instagram and TikTok,” Roussel says.

Within minutes, the video had gone viral.

As it circulated on social media, Roussel faced mixed reactions.

“Some people were saying, ‘Yeah, rich daddies and private schools will get you there,’ and others were like, ‘Step one: Be hot.’ It was an interesting experience,” she says.

While some comments focused on her appearance, others jumped to wild assumptions she had benefited from nepotism or questioned her work ethic.

“It’s insane … I was really just trying to tell my story, and then all of a sudden people are like, ‘She slept her way to the top’.”

Despite the negativity, Roussel chose to focus on the comments that mattered, especially the overwhelming support from younger girls and parents who found her story inspiring.

“It was an insane feeling,” she says, adding the feedback had motivated her to make the most of her new platform.

Comments include: “That’s seriously impressive … I have never heard of a 19/20-year-old Aussie earning $A120k with no uni degree.”

Another said: “As an Aussie, we claim her! Well done Claudia, great attitude.”

The 20-year-old soon had more than 150 LinkedIn messages, more than 50 comments and 200 TikTok messages all asking for career advice.

“I never would have thought of myself as a role model, considering I’m only 20 and I’m still trying to figure my life out,” she says.

As a young woman in tech sales, Roussel understands the growing interest in her field.

“Tech sales has been on the rise recently because people are learning that it’s a career you can undertake without a completed degree or tons of experience,” she explained.

“If you have the right attitude and hustle, you can do it!”

Now having had some time to sit with this newfound attention, Roussel posted a response video on TikTok, sharing more about her tech sales career.

It already has more than 330,000 views, and Roussel has found an audience to which to offer career insights and help more females find their footing in the industry.

“Sales can be rough. It’s so measurable, and there’s a constant pressure to hit quota,” she notes of the challenges in her field.

“I think while tech sales is really exciting, it can also be easily romanticised. But if you’re not putting the effort in, it can be tough.”