Ask HN: Career Advice for Sales Engineer

3 points by throwingSE 8y ago ↗ HN

I'm working as a Sales Engineer for a Cybersecurity vendor. I love my job especially the fact that it exposes me to the technical as well as the business side of things. That is also exactly what I hate about it.

It's hard for me to know which side to focus on for my future, and what steps I have to take to get there.

I talk to my friends we went to school together in CS (I'm 29) who are now developers and they have a clear path of where they are heading. They are mastering technologies and have a solid profile as "developers". The only development I do is quick Python scripts automating some of my tests but I never get to build / work on an actual product or learn more about Software Engineering practices in general.

This is depressing because the only path I see for myself is "senior sales engineer". I don't see how I can ever have advancement to a more significant role in any company (VP of engineering ....not even VP of sales. I'm on neither side.)

My dreams to found a company are dying because frankly, I'm a worse developer than I was when I finished college 5 years ago. Day after day I feel like I don't have what it takes to build a product.

Yes, I get to know more about Cybersecurity (nothing really fancy other than configuring firewalls and explaining SSL and IPSec to new hires at our customers) but where can that really take me in the future? (I cannot found a Cybersecurity company because they are basically just software companies developing a Cybersecurity product. And I can't code competitively like I used to).

What do I do? How can I architect my career?

Sorry about the rant. I just wanted to get this out.

Any advice is welcome.

Thanks

2 comments

[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 14.4 ms ] thread

ThatNiceGuyy 8y ago ↗

While not exactly the same I was in a similar position around a year or so ago. (Networking Space). I also loved the fact that I was exposed to both sides of the business but felt an urge to advance more rapidly technically. The right answer for me was to slowly move out sales into more technical roles i.e. SE > Support > Ops. The way I figure it, I can flex my non-technical skills later in my career. However in the immediate, grind on my technical acumen.

Obviously only you can make the right decision based off what you think is best. Just don't be gun shy to do so.

2c.

throwingSE 8y ago ↗

Thank you for the advice.

May I ask how you made the shift? Did you do it in the same company? Same industry?

Did you need to do something else aside to make your resume more appealing for those roles?