HN Explorer

Ask HN: Are there other Sales Engineers on HN? Are you also lost?

2 points by heyimanse ↗ HN
Hey HN,

I'm an SE (sales/solutions engineer) and have been one for around 4 years now. If you don't know, it is basically a technical sales role, a blend of being personable and knowing enough to code POCs work with APIs etc, but in my case, at least, not a full blown developer.

HN content is often pretty dev heavy, for obvious reasons, so I was curious if there are other SEs out there like myself that lurk here constantly?

Additionally, I was looking for advice. I am 30, having a kid soon and totally lost in my career. Do I move to straight sales? Do I go like bootcamp route and really sharpen my programming skills?

Thanks

3 comments

[ 3.5 ms ] story [ 21.0 ms ] thread
throwaway789465
Hey there! I can sympathize with your situation. I have an engineering degree, but have taken jobs in software testing/QA and now an application support role, but definitely lost/confused in my career. I too am debating whether I should focus on building a portfolio and studying software development or continue down a less technical route. I have recently not "taken the reigns" of my career's direction, but I definitely need to soon now in my late 20s. I know about a lot of different technologies and on a high-level, how they interact, and what they are used for, but have no concrete experience or a portfolio of side-projects to showcase any know-how.

People have often mentioned I would make a good sales/solutions engineer, since I am descent at explaining technical topics to people and have a good understanding of how different technologies fit into a bigger puzzle, but after this latest job in support, I have become frustrated dealing with client's old infrastructure, performing configuration tasks after-hours, and chasing client's IT staff to return their support inquiries. After this most recent experience, I am thinking that going down the SE route is less-optimal than as a dev/engineer for what I value in a job.

At this point, I have been trying to brush up on my skills using hackerrank.com and attempting to put together a few small projects in hopes of building a bit of a portfolio on github. I have heard mixed reviews about bootcamps and am not sure I am ready to spend ~$10k + living expenses while not working or working part-time, and hence why I am trying to "bootstrap" on my own for a while. Have you considered doing this?

kmuffin
If you can program well, go into dev. If you would rather be a seller, I think you could make a lot more in the long run, and have more valuable life experience. I am currently trying to become a tech sales engineer right now, but not even sure if I will like it, so I a feeling lost too. All I know is I HATE dev lol