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OOH! I JUST DID THIS! I transitioned into a sales engineering role after 15 years of being a sysadmin/SRE/DevOps consultant. I really like traveling for work

by nunez 4y ago

OOH! I JUST DID THIS! I transitioned into a sales engineering role after 15 years of being a sysadmin/SRE/DevOps consultant. I really like traveling for work (can't do that as a full time engineer) and focusing on positioning our products into where companies want to go long-term without sacrificing my engineering chops. > Would love it if someone can share similar moves - how did you go about it, how has it worked out and tips if any ? It went well. Several folks recommended that I do it after they saw me present a demo on a thing I built. I told an account exec (salesperson) that I was interested, and the rest was history. As for travel: I travel A TON now! I've even done multiple cities a week; a first for me. This is very industry dependent though, but generally speaking, you'll be traveling way more (AEs travel a lot). > How does the levelling work ? If I need to change roles would I have to take a downgrade or a paycut ? About Staff Engineer level now. Depends on the company and where you're currently at comp-wise. I actually got a comp increase in the move, but I don't make those FAANG uber bucks ($250k < x < $300k). SEs, like AEs, are generally paid on salary and commission and don't receive bonuses or equity (if they do, it is usually nominal). However, where an AE might get a 50/50 split, an SE might get 70/30 or 80/20. Also, commission is usually uncapped, and some companies might have accelerators and other incentives in place to help AE/SE pairs exceed their numbers. This is why some AEs do things like 0/100 salary/commission splt; all it takes is one whale of a deal to make it worth it! (Also, if your AE is good, they are definitely making more than you, and possibly more than principal engineers at FAANGs. They absorb A TON of risk though.) > Any specific skillsets or certifications I should pick up ? I am pretty sure if given an interview I can take it from there, but seems hard to get into a field without experience at a senior-ish level. At the end of the day, you're there to help an AE close deals. If you're here on HN, I'm going to guess that you're new to sales. If that's the case, you'll definitely need to spend time learning the sales-y part of your job. This adjustment is challenging. It's weird to not have my technical abilities be the thing my performance is measured against (though you definitely need to have it, and having more of it is an edge, if your sales/soft skills can counterbalance it). I would start by reading "Mastering Technical Sales" by John Care. It's the quintessential book on being an SE. It teaches you useful concepts, like the art of doing discovery and identifying pains (you'll hear these terms a lot), driving demos (you'll do these a lot), and more. I would also join the /r/salesengineering sub on Reddit. It's a small community that's really useful and focused.

techstacktoe 4y ago
Thanks for the detailed write up ! Helps. I'll check out the book and the subreddit. > This adjustment is challenging. It's weird to not have my technical abilities be the thing my performance is measured against (though you definitely need to have it, and having more of it is an edge, if your sales/soft skills can counterbalance it). This is actually one of the reasons holding back as I feel like I am giving up a tangiable hard skill I have (tech / being judged on tech) to a more riskier performance barometer. But hey, need to risk it to get the rewards I guess.
- nunez 4y ago
  I would read the book regardless of whether you choose to make the move or not. It'll give you a good idea of what the day in the life of an SE is like. I found it to be accurate. As for being afraid of giving up that hard skill: 1. Unlike going into actual sales or management, you don't give it up entirely. Your technical skills are still very valuable. It will give you confidence when you demo stuff and clout amongst engineering types (which are key to getting the technical win). It's just not THE thing that your performance is measured against. 2. Having presales experience will help you significantly if you choose to go back into full time engineering. You'll have a better idea of what customers want and how sales are made. This will help you gauge when/how to build the right thing and approach sales-y/business people. In fact, my biggest pet peeve with engineering is that unless you're working at the earliest stages of a startup, you're so far removed from what customers actually want but are incentivized on your tech prowess. This creates perverse motives that tend to be more complex and anti-customer in the name of software craftsmanship and scalability.

by nunez 4y ago

techstacktoe 4y ago

Thanks for the detailed write up ! Helps. I'll check out the book and the subreddit. > This adjustment is challenging. It's weird to not have my technical abilities be the thing my performance is measured against (though you definitely need to have it, and having more of it is an edge, if your sales/soft skills can counterbalance it). This is actually one of the reasons holding back as I feel like I am giving up a tangiable hard skill I have (tech / being judged on tech) to a more riskier performance barometer. But hey, need to risk it to get the rewards I guess.

nunez 4y ago
I would read the book regardless of whether you choose to make the move or not. It'll give you a good idea of what the day in the life of an SE is like. I found it to be accurate. As for being afraid of giving up that hard skill: 1. Unlike going into actual sales or management, you don't give it up entirely. Your technical skills are still very valuable. It will give you confidence when you demo stuff and clout amongst engineering types (which are key to getting the technical win). It's just not THE thing that your performance is measured against. 2. Having presales experience will help you significantly if you choose to go back into full time engineering. You'll have a better idea of what customers want and how sales are made. This will help you gauge when/how to build the right thing and approach sales-y/business people. In fact, my biggest pet peeve with engineering is that unless you're working at the earliest stages of a startup, you're so far removed from what customers actually want but are incentivized on your tech prowess. This creates perverse motives that tend to be more complex and anti-customer in the name of software craftsmanship and scalability.