The Path to Sales Engineer | Devon's Story
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- Опубліковано 15 вер 2024
- If you'd like to connect with Devon, you can find him on LinkedIn: / devmontgomery
Many of our viewers have asked about sales engineering and I was very fortunate to have Devon reach out after watching some of our past videos to talk about his experience as a Lead Sales Engineer. He shares some great insights not only on his journey from an Engineer to SDR to Sales Engineer but also discusses things I do not have in-depth knowledge on like requirements for the SE role as well as long-term career paths.
If there is any takeaway (among many others) Devon shared that he wasn't sure the move to tech sales/sales engineering was going to be great when he first started, but he took the chance anyway and has since found a lot of success. That very much resonated with my personal experience moving into tech sales. If you are given an opportunity and willing to continue to educate yourself and improve, you will only create more opportunities for yourself over time.
Many thanks again to Devon for sharing his perspective, I hope you get a lot out of it.
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Many thanks to Devon for the insights! If you don't know, we did a follow up and deeper dive here: ua-cam.com/video/Re5e1xTI988/v-deo.html
"Drop the ego" -- love it, great advice, thanks Devon.
Former SDR here turned presale professional.
Loved hearing his story 👌
Thanks for watching!
Loved this interview! Informative on the path to SE and the possibility after. Will definitely be connecting with you both!
Whoa!Thank you so much for sharing this interview . It really answered many looming questions for me. Gained refreshing insight into what merging into SE from SDR experience could look like.
I’m currently in a Tech sales bootcamp, but even before starting I knew I wanted to become a SE. Never saw anyone that had actually accomplished this until now.
I appreciate you both.
Thanks for watching! If you have any questions along the way let us know!
Just got my first SE role and this was very eye opening, enjoyed the video.
Great to hear, good luck in the role!
Great interview! This answered a lot of my questions.
This is such a good interview!
Thanks for watching!
This is awesome! I'm a manufacturing engineer looking to go into sales engineering. This is definitely the path I might take! I want to connect with you ASAP!
Nice. Let me know if I can help with any questions and feel free to connect with Devon on LinkedIn as well for more Sales Engineering specific questions as that gets a bit out of my depth
The SE’S I see getting jobs and sticking come from 7 to 10 years at F1000 or tech heavy billion dollar companies. That engineer can listen to business goals and covert them to solutions.
Agreed, the most successful SEs I've worked with typically have had a host of engineering and engineering related jobs by the time they become SE.
Are you an SE yourself?
@@techsales-higherlevels Former SE at F5 now AM at Palo
exact path I want to go!
Let us know if you have any questions
This explains a lot, I’ve recently graduated an SE bootcamp and I’ve been struggling to get interviews. After watching this I might look towards SDR and AE positions. My question is do hiring managers look for specific things in resumes and cover letters before reaching out?
Hiring managers for SDR/AE roles or SE roles?
@@techsales-higherlevels SE
@Dave Guillaume can I ask what bootcamp you went to
@@rmitchmitch3182 careerist and im now doing course careers
@Dave Guillaume thank you, careerist isn't good in your opinion?
How hard is it to transition from a QA to an SE? I became a QA to get into tech but I believe my people skills are suited more for a SE.
What have you been doing in QA up to now?
I’m new to looking into this. But, I’m surprised he took such a long track to get into an SE role. Why not just interview for an SE role from a mechanical engineering background? Why go through a boot camp, and take on an entry level position to get there?
Sales engineers almost always have industry experience before becoming SEs. It is very rare that a new grad, even in engineering, would be hired for an SE role.
Most SEs I know had at least ~3 years of experience before being considered.
@@techsales-higherlevelsok that makes sense. I’m a senior software dev looking to transition into sales engineering. I have 20+ years of experience, so I was planning on trying to land interviews. Just wondering what to expect. Working on soft skills to prepare.
@ChicagoJ351 nice, I highly recommend finding people in your network or at target companies that have made that transition and reach out to them as well. No expectation of referral or anything, but many love helping those on a similar path. Happy to help along the way if I can, keep me posted
How hard is it to transition from an SDR to an SE? I became an SDR to get into tech and become an AE, but realized I'm more interested in the tech and want to do an SE role.
What's your background? Usually you'd want to start networking at the company and start building a technical skillset if you don't have a tech background
@@techsales-higherlevels Can you elaborate more on the best technical skillset to have for an SE job in tech?
I have a Bsc in Physics and most of my research at the time involved a lot of Python development. I also have a Quantum Computing certificate. But after graduating began working as an SDR for 1 year now focusing on the sales process. I tried networking but the company has a hiring freeze..
Is my educational background and research projects enough or do I need professional technical experience? Btw thanks in advance.
@@scrotiemcboogerballs2133 ya I would definitely say that puts you in a great position. I think it's on you now to network internally with SEs and SE Managers to let them know this exact situation. Everyone is looking for great SEs, they are hard to find. Given your technical background they could probably chart out a path for you over ~6 months to get relevant certs/experience then hire you into SE once a position opens up
@@techsales-higherlevels That definitely gives me confidence, thank you.
Generally what's the best certs to have for the industry? I'm eager to get started but there's many different brands.
I figure my own company's certs would be a start but they aren't hiring SEs for 2 yrs so I might have to look elsewhere anyways. They also just did layoffs
@@techsales-higherlevels But how to get certs/experience without working as an SE? For example I tried starting IBM Certified Professional Sales Engineer, but it wouldn't let me
What’s his updated LinkedIn? That link doesn’t work
I'll check with him thanks for the heads up
7:50
What is a SER?
or is it SDR?
SDR. Sales development representative
He got in when it was hot. If you're watching this, it's too late.
@higguma disagree. Devin broke in in a common way and had an engineering background before making the transition. He did not take a bootcamp like careerist, etc....
I've said in other videos that bootcamps are not a realistic way to break into sales engineering, especially if you do not have any tech experience.
This is a dried up well, there was a hiring frenzy during covid and now it's gone. Nobody had 2 years post grad to kiss a** and then they just might get in to a terrible company.
What's your point? The whole purpose of this video was to show a realistic path to sales engineer. I've made several videos acknowledging that Sales Engineering in particular is not an entry role, and that I thought SE bootcamps were very misleading.
Devin broke in in a much more common way which was to get engineering and customer facing experience, and after a few years in the industry he successfully made the transition.
And for reference, I'm still seeing a lot of hiring on the SDR front. I agree, sales engineers that are getting hired now have to have experience. That is not the case in a direct sales role.
This interview was amazing…is Devon on LinkedIn?
Link is in the description, glad you got a lot out of it!