Thank you, this video helps. I am a Master's student in CS and thought to pursue a SE path, but now I think I should probably do Sone traditional Sde stuff and gain more experience before I can become a SE.
There's no one size fits all, but if you have a year or 2 of direct SWE experience that will definitely help. Also in your situation, if you can break into a mid size to larger company, they are generally more receptive to that and often help engineers make that transition. No exact science to this, keep me posted along the way and let me know if you have any questions!
Thank you so much for shooting this video. It was very informative, and I agree with you 100%. Sales engineering is not an entry-level role in any way shape or form. Not saying that you cannot find a position as a Sales Engineer if you don’t have previous experience however, the odds are against you. Conversely, I feel like the numbers speak for themselves I’m sure there’s been plenty of people that have graduated from different Sales Engineering bootcamps, but what’s the percentage of the people that have gotten a job? I also agree with you when you say that there’s been a lot of misleading Content out there as a relates to getting a job as a Sales Engineer. Like you said Starting roles like support representative, SDR, or Customer Success Representative can be steppingstones. Moreover, If I did not have any technical experience, I would learn how to code HTML 5, CSS3, Vanilla Javascript may be a little bit of react, and MySQL. and maybe pick up one technical certification just to be on the safe side.
This is definitely not hate. I have 20 years in retail sales management and customer service in different fields. It definitely isn't easy to break into tech. I think it's actually better to start as an sdr (step one) and work your way up. Not a lot of people want to wait for entry level experience to grow
Sales Engineers are typically the people with the *most* engineering/product/industry knowledge at any given company. The fact that anyone thinks they can jump into such a role without years of experience tells me they are themselves professionally immature or completely misunderstand what this role is. This is an end-of-the-road career for the seasoned veterans of tech companies that have truly mastered all sides of their craft (client facing & engineering sides). People who want to become SEs should be getting into post sales roles as developers or analysts, building technical skills and industry intuition, and then maybe consider positioning themselves for sales after a few years of successful experience under their belt.
Largely agree with everything you said and it's why I wanted to make the video. I don't necessarily fault individuals for not understanding the requirements, I think it's started with several influencers and online bootcamps that are setting false expectations and unfortunately providing an incomplete or outright false message about the career path.
@@techsales-higherlevels it’s a great video and I have to thank you for giving a voice to these frustrations. People simply want an easy route to the highest paying jobs in the industry, without even appreciating what these titles and roles mean to companies. The truth is some jobs are highly paid because there aren’t any shortcuts to reach the required skill set & experience.
I recently had a 3rd round panel interview with a recruiter who initially reached out to me followed by the AE followed by the customer success manager and then a second recruiter. I was wondering do I send a thank you email? And if so to who? Or am I doing too much
If you have their emails a short and sweet thank you should be sent. It's a nice touch and shows you went out of your way. If you don't I'd send one to your main point of contact there.
Shouldn't be as I provided numerous alternative paths. There are many ways to get to sales engineering. Pending where you're at one approach is going to be better than another.
Thank you, this video helps. I am a Master's student in CS and thought to pursue a SE path, but now I think I should probably do Sone traditional Sde stuff and gain more experience before I can become a SE.
There's no one size fits all, but if you have a year or 2 of direct SWE experience that will definitely help.
Also in your situation, if you can break into a mid size to larger company, they are generally more receptive to that and often help engineers make that transition. No exact science to this, keep me posted along the way and let me know if you have any questions!
Thank you so much for shooting this video. It was very informative, and I agree with you 100%. Sales engineering is not an entry-level role in any way shape or form. Not saying that you cannot find a position as a Sales Engineer if you don’t have previous experience however, the odds are against you. Conversely, I feel like the numbers speak for themselves I’m sure there’s been plenty of people that have graduated from different Sales Engineering bootcamps, but what’s the percentage of the people that have gotten a job? I also agree with you when you say that there’s been a lot of misleading Content out there as a relates to getting a job as a Sales Engineer. Like you said Starting roles like support representative, SDR, or Customer Success Representative can be steppingstones. Moreover, If I did not have any technical experience, I would learn how to code HTML 5, CSS3, Vanilla Javascript may be a little bit of react, and MySQL. and maybe pick up one technical certification just to be on the safe side.
Thanks Christian! And ya definitely not meant to be discouraging, just realistic
This is definitely not hate. I have 20 years in retail sales management and customer service in different fields. It definitely isn't easy to break into tech. I think it's actually better to start as an sdr (step one) and work your way up. Not a lot of people want to wait for entry level experience to grow
Great great great incite into SE realistically. Thank you 🙏🏾
Thanks for watching!
Is it possible to scheduled a 1:1 zoom with you?
What questions can I help with here? You can also email me at team@higherlevels.com
Sales Engineers are typically the people with the *most* engineering/product/industry knowledge at any given company. The fact that anyone thinks they can jump into such a role without years of experience tells me they are themselves professionally immature or completely misunderstand what this role is. This is an end-of-the-road career for the seasoned veterans of tech companies that have truly mastered all sides of their craft (client facing & engineering sides).
People who want to become SEs should be getting into post sales roles as developers or analysts, building technical skills and industry intuition, and then maybe consider positioning themselves for sales after a few years of successful experience under their belt.
Largely agree with everything you said and it's why I wanted to make the video. I don't necessarily fault individuals for not understanding the requirements, I think it's started with several influencers and online bootcamps that are setting false expectations and unfortunately providing an incomplete or outright false message about the career path.
@@techsales-higherlevels it’s a great video and I have to thank you for giving a voice to these frustrations. People simply want an easy route to the highest paying jobs in the industry, without even appreciating what these titles and roles mean to companies. The truth is some jobs are highly paid because there aren’t any shortcuts to reach the required skill set & experience.
I recently had a 3rd round panel interview with a recruiter who initially reached out to me followed by the AE followed by the customer success manager and then a second recruiter. I was wondering do I send a thank you email? And if so to who? Or am I doing too much
If you have their emails a short and sweet thank you should be sent. It's a nice touch and shows you went out of your way.
If you don't I'd send one to your main point of contact there.
It's only too much if your message is lengthy, comes off as desperate, and/or somehow makes you look bad. Short and sweet is the way to go
Got it thanks so much for the quick response! And thanks for always providing valuable content
Sounds about right
So I need a degree to be in tech then?
You almost always need a degree or extensive work experience for sales engineering specifically.
An SDR role is possible without a degree
Sounds very discouraging
Shouldn't be as I provided numerous alternative paths. There are many ways to get to sales engineering. Pending where you're at one approach is going to be better than another.