Ask HN: Transitioning to a Solutions Engineer / Sales Engineer

Have been programming and building systems since I was 14. Nearing 10 years of work experience now, doing pretty well I'd say from a career point of view. Managing a small team in a niche area in tech.

However, I do dread doing the same job for say another 10-20 years. With my interests and skillsets (sourced from others), I feel I'd be better placed in a more people / business oriented role and am planning to transition into a Solution Engineering or Sales Engineer role where I can use both my deep tech knowledge and my sales skills.

1) Would love it if someone can share similar moves - how did you go about it, how has it worked out and tips if any ?

2) 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.

3) 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.

Don’t do it right now.

Your level will be meaningless. Nobody in sales cares about your experience unless you’re an industry “thought leader” pumping out articles, podcasts and keynotes.

More likely than not you’ll start as a regular SE. To get promoted, you’re going to have to sell.

You could try with a startup and be sales person #2 after the sales-only-sales-person-without-tech-experience. That’s a good way to learn the basics, get a title, and then move into an established company who will respect your background more and compensate you as such.

But it’s really, really not a good time to get into this. Anywhere.

It’s usually feast or famine, and it’s globally a famine - those with jobs are usually just getting base right now unless you’re at a lottery winner who’s selling into gov with expansion guaranteed.

Agreed on the current situation, not really thinking about right now. I have a good role now, with scope to grow and learn for the short term.

But considering this more of a long term question, might transition to Product and then Solutions Engineering as a pathway to maintain some sense of level or seniority.

I made this transition about 8 years into my career, moving from a software engineer specializing in performance to an OEM sales engineer customizing a product to hit a market’s performance needs. Some of the most enjoyable time of my career. Unfortunately, the sales people treat you as they’re inferior. Simply a tool in their bag of tricks to make their sale. As your innovation doubles their sales, somehow it was their amazing sales capabilities instead…

I eventually transitioned to an end customer sales engineer role, and found myself demoing a product that was effectively shrink wrapped software, searching for customer fit. In those roles it’s feast or famine, and current economy suggests it’s going to be famine for a few years. I’d recommend against making the transition for a couple years especially in these end customer positions.

I’m now back on the development side of the house, and my view of the product development is forever changed. While I’m looking for innovation to immediately improve customer experience, my colleagues are focused on ivory tower solutions that will make their own lives easier in 2 years. I feel I’m more aligned with what our executives want to achieve for our customers and business.

Although I recommend the experience in your career, don’t do it now unless you bring a unique skillset to the role which is a key differentiator for the product.