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Ask HN: Have tried switching career to a different field as software developer?
Hello HN,
I would love to hear you experience if you have tried switching your career to a different field especially Investment Banking or PE.
Or even tried something like sales or product management.
If so what have been trade offs and how were you able to adapt
- mikewarot 5y agoI made gears for 5 years... it was fun to learn, but the pay and commute were unbearable. Don't do that. 8)
- ianschmitz 5y agoI came the other way from the trades as a journeyman welder/ironworker working primarily for structural steel erection companies.
- avl999 5y ago> steel erection companies Nice!
- aynsof 5y agoA few years ago I made the jump from DevOps/SRE/sysadmin work over to sales engineering. It's actually been a great fit for me so far! I always felt like I wasn't built for pure tech positions - I'm not the kind of person who can code for eight hours at a time, and that's what many of my previous employers seemed to want from me. I love presenting, I enjoy helping people, and I like a fast pace and a broad variety of work. Sales engineering has been a great fit. The tricky tradeoffs for me have mainly been around interacting with the sales org. Some of the sales folks can be... you know how sales folks can be. They can have big personalities. And their incentives can be different to mine - where I am right now they're measured purely on attainment, and I'm measured on broader customer success. So it's been really important for me to understand how they work, how they're incentivised, how I can best help them while still ensuring my customers get the best outcome. The other tricky thing for me is being part of a group whose sole purpose is to sell. I never thought I'd be doing that - ringing the bell, ABC, coffee's for closers, etc. So it's really important for me to be selling a good product that will actually help customers, and to be able to be honest about its benefits and potential downsides. The minute someone tells me to sell something I don't believe in is the minute I get out of sales. But I'm the whole it's been a great move. I've learned (and am still learning) a lot.
- dbrmr 5y agoHi, I am also considering this. Do you have some directions/resources/advice/courses/certification, etc. Thanks.
- happycry 5y agoHey, if you’re interested in a switch, we’re hiring for technical sales. Always up for a chat if you want: zohaib [at] resemble dot ai
- mr_o47 5y agoJust curious how did you leveraged your devops experience and transitioned to sales engineer
- readonthegoapp 5y agoSales engineer like most things is chicken and egg Presales is the same thing but with a bit more grunt work so could be a good place to start There are many titles for it Solutions engineer architect consultant etc There are old books but they useless Best I could think is to write a ebook yourself that way you find out firsthand what the job is Update it annually as you learn more SE at some companies is just straight sales At some companies it is just dev nerd shit w a willingness to do braindead demos all day long Be careful what you wish for