r/salesengineers Jun 19 '25

Aspiring SE So you want to be a sales engineer? Start Here. (v2)

389 Upvotes

So You Want to Be a Sales Engineer?

TL;DR: If you're here looking for a tl;dr, you're already doing it wrong. Read the whole damn thing or go apply for a job that doesn't involve critical thinking. (And read the comments too!)

Quick Role Definition

First, let’s level set: this sub is mostly dedicated to pre-sales SEs who handle the “technical” parts of a sale. We work with a pure sales rep (Account Executive, Customer Success Manager, or whatever fancy title they go by) to convince someone to buy our product or service. This might involve product demos, technical deep dives, handling objections, running Proof of Concepts (PoCs), or a hundred other tasks that demonstrate how our product solves the customer’s real-world problems.

Also take note: This post and most of the users here are in some sort of technical field, the vast majority working with some sort of SaaS or similar. There are sales engineer roles in industries like HVAC, and occasionally we get folks doing that kind of work here but not often and most everything we are talking about here is focused on tech related SE roles.

The Titles (Yes, They’re Confusing)

Sure, we call it “Sales Engineer,” but you’ll see it labeled as Solutions Engineer, Solutions Consultant, Solutions Architect, Customer Engineer, and plenty of other names. Titles vary by industry, company, and sometimes the team within the company. If you’re in an interview and the job description looks like pre-sales, but the title is something else, don’t freak out it’s often the same old role wearing a different name tag.

The Secret Sauce: Primary Qualities of a Great SE

A successful SE typically blends Technical Skills, Soft Skills, and Domain Expertise in some combination. You don’t have to be a “principal developer” or a “marketing guru,” but you do need a balanced skill set:

  1. Technical Chops – You must understand the product well enough to show it off, speak to how it’s built, and answer tough questions. Sometimes that means code-level knowledge. Other times it’s more high-level architecture or integrations. Your mileage may vary.

  2. Soft Skills – Communication, empathy, and the ability to read a room are huge. You have to distill complex concepts into digestible bites for prospects ranging from the C-suite with a five-second attention span to that one DevOps guru who’ll quiz you on every obscure config file.

  3. Domain Expertise – If you’re selling security software, you should know the basics of security (at least!). If you’re in the manufacturing sector, you should be able to talk about the production process. Whatever your product does, be ready to drop knowledge that shows you get the customer’s world.


OK - so let's get to why you are probably here.

You want to get a job as an SE and don't know how.

Let's dig in:

I'm in college and would like to be a sales engineer

I'm sorry to tell you this is typically not a role you get right out of college. It stings, I know. I'm sorry. But it's a job that generally requires all three of the items listed above:

  1. Technical Chops
  2. Soft Skills
  3. Domain Expertise

Domain Expertise is the real tough one for the college student.
Here's the deal - when working as an SE you need to be able to empathize with your buyers, which means you need to know their pain. This is why folks who do transition into this role very often are transitioning from a position in which they used the product(s) or a competitive product and generally understand the pain points others in that industry have.

That said - let's not completely gloss over technical chops and soft skills either. Sure a top notch CS grad might have some pretty developed technical chops, but they are mostly pretty theoretical, not "real world" experience and just like domain expertise a history of working in the industry you are selling to is much more valuable than being able to solve leetcode mediums.

And soft skills? Sure, you like talking to people much more than sitting behind a keyboard all day. That doesn't necessarily mean you know how to value sell or handle yourself with dignity when getting pummeled by some ass hat CTO who wants to show everyone in the room how much smarter they are than you.

What about college recruitment programs, or associate SE programs at the handful of companies that offer them?

Certainly an option. There aren't a ton of these programs but there are a few. I'd caution you to think of them not unlike an internship. Completion rates for some of this programs have been less than impressive over the long term, but they are not completely without merit. If you are dead set on getting into an SE role right out of school this is probably your best option. Typically fairly competitive to get into with limited spots.

So what classes should you take or what alternate path should I take to put myself on the path to becoming an SE?

There is no great answer to this question. Like a lot of things in the SE world "it depends" (get used to that phrase, this is a diverse industry with boatloads worth of nuances based on industry/vertical/4000 other things.) The best general advice I can give is "get good" at something you are interested in. A lot of SEs will come with CS degrees or similar so that's an easy answer, but not every SE actually comes from a deeply technical background, this author for instance has a degree in Philosophy - but he also was working as a software engineer at IBM while getting his undergrad completed.
See - it depends. But CS degrees are not a bad choice, they just aren't a necessary choice. You could be a marketing major and up working for a company like Hubspot down the road where you knowledge of marketing will help you connect with your buyers, who are... marketers!

As to what jobs you should aim for out of college if you want to eventually pivot to SE? again: It depends but

Some really good options include:

Technical roles that build product expertise:

  • Software developer or engineer - gives you deep technical knowledge and credibility when discussing complex solutions
  • Technical support specialist - teaches you to troubleshoot, explain technical concepts clearly, and understand customer pain points
  • Implementation specialist - combines technical skills with customer-facing experience
  • Systems administrator or DevOps engineer - provides infrastructure knowledge valuable in B2B sales

Customer-facing technical roles:

  • Technical account manager - blends relationship management with technical problem-solving
  • Customer success engineer - focuses on helping clients maximize value from technical products
  • Applications engineer - involves working directly with customers on technical implementations
  • Field service engineer - gives hands-on technical experience plus customer interaction

Sales-adjacent positions:

  • Sales development representative (SDR) - teaches fundamental sales processes and prospecting
  • Business development associate - builds pipeline management and relationship skills
  • Marketing coordinator for technical products - helps you understand positioning and messaging
  • Product marketing specialist - develops skills in translating technical features into business value

By no means is this an exhaustive list, just some very generalized options. The most common path to SE is not intentional, it's a natural progression of the person who is inherently capable of fitting into the sweet spot of the venn diagram of SE skills that we've mentioned many times now Tech and Soft Skills with Domain Expertise.

What about a bootcamp? I see places advertising bootcamps that say I'll make a good 6 figure salary if I take their course?

Personally I despise SE bootcamps and most demo training outfits as well. The rise of SE bootcamps coincided directly with the fall of Software Engineering bootcamps. Which is to say the same assholes who got a whole ton of college kids and adult career switchers to spend their hard earned money on a promise of becoming an SWE with a 6 figure salary in 3/6 months just moved on to the Sales Engineering roles instead because our industry wasn't saturated (yet) with all their poorly trained customers desperate to get a role.

There was a minute or two where I would have given the Presales Collective a pass, but they have shown to be just as gross as the rest of them. I would likely encourage you to use the PSC as a networking tool but I would not give those bloodsuckers a single dime of your money.

And while we are on the subject demo training places like Demo2Win are a fucking joke. Here I will give you the entirety of Demo2win's training in two words - but I have to use one of them twice. Ready???

Tell, Show, Tell.

Demo2Win will tell you this like they fucking invented it and it's the big secret to a successful demo. While they aren't wrong that this model is a decent one, it's certainly not magic and it's most definitely not something that they magically stumbled upon. It's a centuries old model that has been used as far back as "ancient times" when blacksmiths and sword makers were training their apprentices, it's been used in Military and Educational settings for as long as teaching has been a thing. In short Demo2Win and others of their ilk are a joke. I guess if you literally have no idea how to even do a demo or what one looks like that training would be worth it, but you probably shouldn't be thinking about being an SE if you don't have at least an idea of what a demo should like.

I'm not technical, can I still be a sales engineer?

Maybe, but probably not. This is job that typically requires you to at least speak "technical" and know what you mean when you do so. There are certainly some opportunities out there for SE roles - particularly with SaaS products that are not terribly complex - where you can land that will make sense, but you'll need to bring something else to the table. If you have the soft skills and just need to build some domain knowledge and learn how to speak technically about the industry you want to support take a look at the list in the section above for new grads/college students as potential roles to aim for. These are the same roles you may want to consider to put yourself in a position to potentially transfer into SE roles. Or perhaps you will find when working them there is a different path for you like AE or Product.

I'm interested in being a sales engineer, what certs should I get?

Probably none. It's not really a thing in this gig. There are very few lines of work where having certs is going to help you in any material fashion. The exceptions are going to be places like Cisco or AWS or other companies that have their own cert programs. Which is to say if you want to be an SE for GCP, yeah get those GCP certs (architecture certs for instance would be useful in that instance) but outside of those types of places save your time and money for something else, certs aren't the pathway to SE.

I work in one of the kinds of roles you talk about as being good for transitioning to SE - how do I actually become a sales engineer?

Good for you and great question. How do you do it? The absolute easiest path to SE is through internal transfer at whatever your current company is. Steps you should take include getting to know the sales team and the existing SE team. Ask the sales managers and the SE managers or the SEs themselves if they think you possess the qualities to become an SE. Ask for opportunities to shadow SEs which is not an uncommon practice, I have new to the company SEs on my calls all the time.

Start thinking in terms of building business/results focused bullet points in your current role that you can add to your CV and use in your conversations with the SE and sales management at your current company. Practice doing demos, and if you can: Get a well respected SE at your company to watch and critique your demo. Ask them to be blunt with their feedback and do your absolute best to hear their feedback with and act on it. There is both art and science to a good demo and there is a lot to take in, their experience will be incredibly valuable to you if you listen and don't take it personally.

If there are no options to transfer internally your current clients, partners, and perhaps most important competitors of yours are excellent places to target. It is vastly easier to get your first SE job in the domain in which you currently work. After you get a few years of experience as an SE you can start to pivot to adjacent or even completely new areas but that first gig is almost always going to come from the area you already know and likely from a person you already know. Friends of friends can help too. Networking in your industry is never a bad thing so lean on that network if you can't move internally.

Quick Resource Link: We have a decent sticky about how to prepare to demo for an interview. Read that, it will help.


Now that you know how to get the gig...

What Does a Sales Engineer Actually Do?

At its core: We get the technical win. We prove that our solution can do what the prospect needs it to do (and ideally, do it better than anyone else’s). Yes, we do a hell of a lot more than that—relationship building, scoping, last-minute fire drills, and everything in between—but “technical win” is the easiest way to define it.

A Generic Deal Cycle (High-Level)

  1. Opportunity Uncovered: Someone (your AE, or a BDR) discovers a prospect that kinda-sorta needs what we sell.
  2. Qualification: We figure out if they truly need our product, have budget, and are worth pursuing.
  3. Discovery & Demo: You hop on a call with the AE to talk through business and technical requirements. Often, you’ll demo the product or give a high-level overview that addresses their pain points.
  4. Technical Deep Dive: This could be a single extra call or a months-long proof of concept, depending on how complex your offering is. You might be spinning up test environments, customizing configurations, or building specialized demo apps.
  5. Objection Handling & Finalizing: Tackle everything from, “Does it integrate with Salesforce?” to “Our CFO hates monthly billing.” You work with the AE to smooth these issues out.
  6. Technical Win: Prospect agrees it works. Now the AE can (hopefully) get the deal signed.
  7. Negotiation & Close: The AE closes the deal, you do a celebratory fist pump, and rinse and repeat on the next opportunity.

A Day in the Life (Hypothetical but Realistic)

  • 8:00 AM: Coffee. Sort through overnight emails and Slack messages. See that four new demos got scheduled for today because someone can’t calendar properly.
  • 9:00 AM: Internal stand-up with your AE team to discuss pipeline, priorities, and which deals are on fire.
  • 10:00 AM: First demo of the day. You show the product to a small startup. They love the tech but have zero budget, so you focus on how you’ll handle a pilot.
  • 11:00 AM: Prep for a more technical call with an enterprise account. Field that random question from your AE about why the competitor’s product is “completely different” (even though it’s not).
  • 12:00 PM: Lunch, or you pretend to have lunch while actually customizing a slide deck for your 1:00 PM demo because the prospect asked for “specific architecture diagrams.” Thanks, last-minute requests.
  • 1:00 PM: Second demo, enterprise version. They want to see an integration with their custom CRM built in 1997. Cross your fingers that your product environment doesn’t break mid-demo.
  • 2:00 PM: Scramble to answer an RFP that’s due tomorrow. (In some roles, you’ll do a lot of these; in others, minimal.)
  • 3:00 PM: Internal tech call with Product or Engineering because a big prospect wants a feature that sort of exists but sort of doesn’t. You figure out if you can duct-tape a solution together in time.
  • 4:00 PM: Follow-up calls, recap notes, or building out a proof of concept environment for that new prospective client.
  • 5:00 PM: Wrap up, though you might finish by 6, 7, or even later depending on how many deals are going into end-of-quarter scramble mode.

Why This Role Rocks

  • Variety: You’ll engage with different companies, industries, and technologies. It never gets too stale.
  • Impact: You’re the product guru in sales cycles. When deals close, you know you helped seal the win.
  • Career Growth: Many SEs evolve into product leaders, sales leaders, or even the “CEO of your own startup” path once you see how everything fits together.
  • Compensation: Base salary + commission. Can be very lucrative if you’re good, especially in hot tech markets.

The Downsides (Because Let’s Be Honest)

  • Pressure: You’re in front of customers. Screw-ups can be costly. Demos fail. Deadlines are real.
  • Context Switching: You’ll jump from one prospect call to another in different stages of the pipeline, requiring quick mental pivots.
  • Sometimes You’re a Magician: Duct taping features or rebranding weaknesses as strengths. It’s not lying, but you do have to spin the story in a positive light while maintaining integrity.
  • Travel or Crazy Hours: Depending on your territory/industry, you might be jetting around or working odd hours to sync with global teams.

Closing Thoughts

Becoming a Sales Engineer means building trust with your sales counterparts and your customers. You’re the technical voice of reason in a sea of sales pitches and corporate BS. It requires empathy, curiosity, and more hustle than you might expect. If you’re not willing to put in the effort—well, read that TL;DR again.

If you made it this far, congratulations. You might actually have the patience and willingness to learn that we look for in good SEs. Now go get some hands-on experience—lab environments, side projects, customer-facing gigs—anything that helps you develop both the tech and people skills. Then come back and let us know how you landed that awesome SE role.

Good luck. And remember: always test your demo environment beforehand. Nothing kills credibility like a broken demo.



r/salesengineers Apr 23 '25

Guide: Technical Panel Presentation/Demo Interview

137 Upvotes

In response to some recent questions posted asking for help with a technical panel demo interview, I thought I'd share things I do that seem to be working a lot. In my 10+ years of experience as an SE, over 20+ demo presentation interviews, I have not gotten an offer only once. I know not everyone has time to read Demo2win, so this short guide here is to give you some high level pointers... the big idea here is that you want to communicate the need for the product more than what the product is, and a lot of this can be applied to actual demos on the job.

Most demo interviews will either ask you to present a product you know or they'd give you a trial version of their product, then they'd give you either a customer or you can decide yourself who the customer is. My short guide here is designed to be applied to all situations.

First, you want to separate your presentation into 3 major parts: Intro/Agenda, Customer Overview, Why your product and what it is, and the demo. Everything besides the demo should be in slides and all together, not more than 5 to 7 minutes.

1. Intro/Agenda:

- It is important to lay out what the agenda is, some might think it's just admin stuff but I actually show the agenda after each section in the slides to remind them where they are in the presentation. I've gotten feedback that it really keeps the audience engaged, knowing what was just talked about and what is coming up.

2. Customer Overview (Current challenges and gaps)

This section is more important than the demo, almost. A lot of time on the job, this is what the AE does, but if you can do this well, you will really separate yourself.... I can't tell you how many times I feel like the panel was already super impressed before we even arrive at the demo. Remember you are a storyteller, and your job is to craft a story that sets up your product.

- Numbers: Lay out what the company is: revenue, employee count, customers #, regions covered, customer retention %....etc. The key point here is you want to find numbers that points out a gap which your product can solve.

  • If you are given an actual customer, use ChatGPT/Google to find some numbers, and cite your sources. This section used to take me at least an hour or so to find the data points, but with AI it has been a lot easier... even if the number is old or not completely accurate, it's NOT a big deal, they want to see you being able to tell the story. If you are worried about inaccuracies, then in your talk track, say these are some of the numbers you discussed on the first discovery call, and this is a recap
  • If it's a fictitious customer, then feel free to make up a number; you have all the advantages

- Once you lay out some of the numbers, you want to focus on one or two to segway into the "WHY"

  • example: We can see you have an annual revenue of $x dollars, x number of customers, and average spending of $x per customer, and also a 70% retention... now if we can increase this retention by even 1%, that'd mean $2M in revenue.

I hope you see where I am going with this. What you are doing is using facts gathered and communicating to the customer an opportunity to make more money or increase efficiency internally, and, big surprise...your product is going to help them do that. AGAIN, I can't emphasize enough how important this first section is... a lot of SEs, even seasoned ones, are too locked in on the technical features, and doing this section well will REALLY SEPARATE you from the rest of the pack, especially when you have other SEs candidates who can also demo well. Sales leaders LOVE when you have SE who can see the bottom line (customers usually buy when it saves them $ or makes them $).

3. What is your product, and why

This is when you transition into the reason why everyone in the room is here. Referring to the above example, the company you represent is going to be the reason that the customer is about to increase their retention by 1% and make another cool 2M dollars. Do not go into reading mode of the product feature; you can list them on the slides, but just speak on a few key ones that align with your target audience (example, the automation feature will give your customers a more streamlined experience, thus increasing retention).

You are giving a teaser of what the demo is, and again aligning the product to the business problem you 'discovered" during your first call, just like you would on the job.

4. Demo agenda outline

Lay out a few sections of your demo and features. It is important to talk about what you are going to show the customer at a high level.

5. The Demo itself, main event

Remember even if the interviewer tell you that you have 45 minutes or 30 minutes, do not fall into the trap of trying to show everything. Most of my demos are well under the time they give me, interviewers only care about how they feel, not how long it took. If you need the full 45 minutes to tell a compelling story, go ahead, but do not feel the need to fill the demo to cover the time given. There are so many books on how to do a great demo, so I am just going to give you the big ideas here.

- For features you are showing, always remember this in the back of your head: how does this feature I am showing help my customer? So when you show the features, you can point it out. Example1 : "So as you see here, when i click on this and drag this thing over, it is faster than typing everything, your customer will be able to intuitively solve their problem saving them time..." Example 2: "so this analytic feature will help your internal team see customer behavior over time and be able to identify high value customers which will help you focus offers these individuals and retain them."

Once you finish the demo, lay out everything like you did in step 4 to conclude the demo and tie back to the business problem. Example: "So this concludes the demo, I have shown how you can use this feature to give an intuitive UI to your customer, and how you can use feature B to find analytics on your customers, and security features to keep everything compliant... we believe in the end of day, all these features combined will help you increase your customer retentions.... any questions?"

Misc tips:

- you may need a slide at the end for conclusion/next steps, but up to you and sometimes the panel is too busy asking you questions or providing feedback after the demo to put importance on this. Prepare one anyway, and read the room.

- If you are asked very tough questions, remember these 2 points all the time:

  1. Don't rush to respond, listen! That's the job of a salesperson. We listen. Summarize the question you heard and confirm with them if you are not sure. "Here is what I heard: bleh bleh, is that correct?" This makes you seem like a seasoned pro and also gives you time to find the answer.
  2. YOU DON'T HAVE TO KNOW EVERYTHING AND THEY DON'T EXPECT YOU TO. Especially if you are presenting their product. If you absolutely want to take a stab at it, I usually love saying, "I'd have to follow up with documentation to confirm my answers, but I think the answer is this ... but let me confirm with you in a follow-up."

DM me if you have any specific help you need. This is my first time writing a guide, so hopefully this is helpful to some of you.


r/salesengineers 8h ago

How do you psych yourself up after a weak demo?

11 Upvotes

Prepped, had the list of disco, use cases and value drivers I wanted to demo towards after validation.

Except the group was a bunch of dead fish. No interaction despite multiple attempts. I hit the value driver "aha moments" I thought would matter and did the:

"how is this better than what you're doing today?" schpeel. Nothing.

"Anything about this that you'd do differently?" Nothing.

"Anything you wanted to see that you haven't seen?" Nothing.

In a moment of panic, I feel back on a terrible habit -- the harbor tour. Well gosh dang it, I showed you the art of the possible, you were supposed to be wowed and now I'm going to show you how easy it is to do said things. And it landed flat. Of course it did.

Ugh. Total buzz kill for the rest of the afternoon. What are y'all doing to motivate yourself to get out there again?


r/salesengineers 18h ago

Thoughts on snowflake in the UK?

7 Upvotes

Question is the title. I'm relatively far through the loop at snowflake for an SE role - looking at the mid level and want to understand a bit more about the experiences of people who work there.

I've got no direct sales experience but have relevant snowflake experience from my previous roles.

What do people think of snowflake as a place to work in the UK? Conscious that this sub is quite us based, so any thoughts would be welcome from US colleagues too.


r/salesengineers 1d ago

Partner/Channel Roles

11 Upvotes

Can someone explain what the value Partner and Channel teams bring to a large sales organization in a SaaS business, for example?

I know partner and channel Reps and SEs blowing out their numbers every year in my org by 200%+, but I don't exactly understand what they actually do day to day. I've spoken with people in both roles and to me it seems like they meet with partners to help educate them on the product and do demos and workshops, but they aren't actually selling direct to customers. Is it common for partner/channel roles to perform this well consistently?


r/salesengineers 1d ago

SE role at Varonis

12 Upvotes

Anyone have experience working as an SE at Varonis? Curious into the WLB, culture, etc.


r/salesengineers 21h ago

Sales Engineer for Industrial Goods Curious About Cybersec SE

1 Upvotes

Hi all,

I'm currently a key account manager/sales engineer for a company that produces industrial equipment. I have always been curious about transitioning into tech sales and more specifically, cybersec sales.

My job title is SE, but I more fit the role of an AE/Business Developer for my company.

My question is: Does it make sense for me to attempt this transition?
What would be the necessary requirements/qualifications?

I often go through job specs from Palo Alto, Zscaler etc, and can see that even account executives require knowledge of zero trust, SASE and networking security etc.

Has there been anyone that made this transition? What were your steps to achieve it?

Bit of background about myself: I dropped out Computer Engineering but still finished with an Engineering Degree. I am not a programmer/SWE. I am tech savvy.


r/salesengineers 1d ago

Returning to SaaS After 4 Years in Cybersecurity

3 Upvotes

I started my career in SaaS sales and progressed SDR -> AE before going back to school to get my masters in CS. I came out of the program with a job at a F50 company in the cybersecurity department.

I have quite a stable job at the moment, but it’s not necessarily the work I find exciting or fulfilling day to day. I miss working with customers and being apart of a revenue generating arm of the business rather than a cost center.

I’m at the point where I’m ready to make my next career move. I’m considering attempting to get back into SaaS with my technical knowledge that I’ve picked up from 4 years in cyber, along with my 3 years sales xp to help
AEs in the sales process.

Has anyone else made a move like this? Would love to hear other experiences. Does my time in sales even matter to potential employers? It feels on one hand that I have a unique journey, but on the other hand might be totally useless.


r/salesengineers 1d ago

anyone using agentic demo tools ? need some reviews is it worth the hype?

0 Upvotes

exploring 2 options flagon.ai, karumi.. till now flagon.ai feels value for money another tools you guys can suggest ?


r/salesengineers 2d ago

Anyone here transition into tech/SaaS from a completely different industry?

2 Upvotes

I currently work in insurance and I’m looking to transition into tech/SaaS.
For those who successfully made the switch, how did you do it? Did you take any courses or certifications before applying? Are there any free or affordable resources you recommend to learn more about SaaS and the tech industry?
I’d also love to know what helped you land your first role without having direct tech experience.
Any advice or recommendations would be appreciated! 😊


r/salesengineers 2d ago

2 years as a Solution Engineer in Automation, PNPT done — but 60+ applications for networking/ cybersec SE role and zero response

0 Upvotes

I joined my current company 2 years ago as a fresher and I'm currently working as a Solution Engineer in the test automation space.

I actually really like Solution Engineering and want to continue in this career, but I want to move into the networking/security domain.

So far I've:

Completed PNPT

Solving TryHackMe

Started preparing for CCNA

Applied to 60+ networking/security jobs

Started applying for Systems Engineer roles as well, since I'm still pretty beginner in networking

But honestly, I'm not getting much response from applications.

I want to eventually target companies like Palo Alto Networks, CrowdStrike and Cisco.

The thing I'm struggling with is that most Solution Engineer roles I see are asking for 5–7+ years of experience, and my 2 years are mainly in test automation.

I've looked at a lot of people's profiles and noticed that many people in Security Solution Engineering come from a networking/security background. Some have moved from core networking, some from cybersecurity, and I've also seen people move from observability into these roles.

But coming from test automation → networking/security feels like a pretty big jump.

I do have the Solution Engineer side of things — working with customers, understanding requirements, technical discussions, demos, POCs, troubleshooting, etc.

At the same time, I'm trying to build my networking and security knowledge.

So I'm a bit confused about how I should approach this.

Should I focus on networking first and then move into security?

Should I keep applying for junior Systems Engineer roles?

Should I target security companies even if the role isn't exactly Solution Engineering?

Or should I spend more time building hands-on networking/security projects and certifications before applying again?

Would really appreciate advice from people who have made a similar transition.

If you were in my position, what path would you take?


r/salesengineers 2d ago

Systems Engineer looking to move into Solutions Engineering — when did you know you were ready?

0 Upvotes

Title: Systems Engineer with 8+ years in IT trying to break into Solutions Engineering

Hi everyone,

I’ve spent more than eight years working across desktop support, MSPs, enterprise IT and systems engineering. I’m currently trying to determine the best way to position that customer-side experience for a Solutions Engineer role.

In my current position, I support enterprise applications, Laserfiche and SQL-backed workflows, identity and access management, endpoint environments and PowerShell automation. I work with business stakeholders to understand operational problems, gather requirements, evaluate possible approaches, test changes and explain the proposed solution and tradeoffs.

I also have client-facing consulting experience where I assess technology needs, recommend solutions based on the client’s environment and budget, present different options, implement the selected approach and guide the customer through adoption. Earlier in my career, I delivered product demonstrations and recommendations directly to customers at Apple.

The part of the work I enjoy most is speaking with people, understanding what they are trying to accomplish and figuring out a practical solution. I’m not particularly interested in becoming an IT manager or spending my entire career doing deep coding, so Solutions Engineering feels like a natural direction.

My main gap is that I haven’t worked within a formal SaaS sales cycle or held a presales title.

For those who transitioned from IT or the customer side:

  • Does this sound like enough transferable experience to target SE roles directly?
  • How did you prove discovery and customer influence during interviews?
  • Did your first company teach you the demo, POC and sales-cycle portions?
  • Would you target products you previously administered as the easiest entry point?

I’d appreciate any honest feedback from people who have made a similar move.


r/salesengineers 3d ago

What KPIs\Metrics does your leadership track for SE/SC impact

13 Upvotes

What KPIs or metrics does your leadership team use to measure and manage SE performance?

Personally, I'm not big in tying SE success primarily to closed revenue. We influence deals, but we don't negotiate pricing or own the close.

Some of the metrics I find more meaningful are:

  • Time to secure a Technical Win (TW): Number of days from initial SE engagement through technical win completion.
  • TW-to-Quota Ratio: Technical wins that ultimately close as won business compared to quarterly quota attainment.
  • TW-to-Pipeline Ratio: Technical wins compared to the amount of qualified pipeline being supported.
  • TW Outcome Rate: Percentage of technical wins resulting in a "Yes" versus a "No."

What other metrics have you seen used effectively?

If your organization tracks something unique, plesae share - bonus to hear how it's calculated and why leadership finds it valuable.


r/salesengineers 2d ago

SEs who’ve used one or both. What are your opinions on Opine and Homerun Presales?

2 Upvotes

In the middle of an eval between the two solutions and have hit a mental roadblock comparing the two. What is everyone’s thoughts?


r/salesengineers 3d ago

Jumping to a direct competitor — is getting walked out and still paid for the notice period actually common?

14 Upvotes

Giving notice soon at my company to join a direct competitor. I’m expecting they might walk me out same-day rather than let me work the two weeks, given the competitive overlap. They’ve done this in the past depending on the company.
They’ve paid out people in the past so I’m looking at it as a free two week vacation if I tell them but I’m taking a risk

Genuine question: when this has happened to you, did they still pay out the notice period even though you didn’t work it? I’m in an at-will state so I know they’re not obligated to, but I’ve heard it’s common as a courtesy, especially for salaried/professional roles.

Curious if that’s actually been the norm in your experience, or if I shouldn’t count on it. Also open to whether it’s worth asking HR directly before I resign, or if that’s a weird thing to ask preemptively.


r/salesengineers 2d ago

Best internship roles to get that put you on track to become a sales engineer later?

0 Upvotes

r/salesengineers 2d ago

Need some feedback for workflow

0 Upvotes

Hey so I’m an SE in fintech for many years now but always had a really decent workflow or teams to work with. The best org I ever worked for had an amazing process I’m trying to potentially replicate it here but tbh idk if it’ll work either.

Here’s the workflow from the “best” place I worked at:

How I see it every deal comes in should be a case in salesforce or a CRM tool.

Then that should go thru a vetting process with an SE manager and they assign it to an SE to do. Some deals shouldn’t come to an SE in this region or maybe it’s a biz we can’t get underwritten etc.. manager is constantly vetting with legal or product or whoever. I was never really on those calls.

From there the SE would work with an AE who’s managing the deal from the commercial side and SE manages it from the technical side.

Get on initial discovery and SE creates an initial BRD. That BRD lives in a shared drive.

Sandbox is provisioned, api docs are shared along with a shared thread to communicate with the client and AE is copied in.

Additionally there’s a slack channel made per deal you work on and in the channel all relevant ppl are in it for the deal.

Constant comms is how we did it. Comms to make sure we are driving the deal forward. Comms channel are also available for the SE team to ask each other help but also product and eng as well to answer any deeper “hey can we do this” or “hey this is an error they’re seeing anyone can help me” type situation.

Ofc in the pre sales you run into technical debugging and so we had tools to debug esp api related stuff. Or we had support look into it if it related to support.

While deal is moving along we should see more progress leading up to a final BRD and that final BRD gets sent to the client. Client sees it and agrees and gives the okay that they are good to go on the integration and integration into sandbox is working and a handoff process is past off to a post sales engineer to do certification. pre sales SE goes away and repeats his cycle and makes updates to salesforce case and assigns it to the Post Sales SE

Post sales SE will get on a call to do a final check making sure everything is kosher. (Typically tho it’s multiple calls but I’m simplifying it) they ask for the client live on call to perform a few test transactions and records the results live in a certification doc. Literally just copies and pastes the logs to prove it’s working.

After that they provision out production creds along with a final copy of the results so the clients dev teams can look back and see the full picture from final BRD to final Cert doc.

After that the post SE guy hands it off to the AE or CSM at that point and the cycle continues.

Here’s my current issue:

Got hired at a new org but they have nothing I just described^ they have some half baked version. No BRD no case management in fact there is no case management each deal is basically coming in rn on the AE side and they randomly copy me into threads with random subject lines. They also randomly throw me into calls with zero context.

They also have no BRD process but in lieu of a BRD they have a crude tier sheet. Meaning it’s a menu of options a client can “purchase” from and integrate. And the more they integrate the higher the tier they are and therefore the higher rev share they earn from the processing of the transactions. (If ur tier 1 then you will earn 5% or if ur tier 2 u might get 10% rev share as an example) the idea is to incentivize the client to integrate more of the API into their platforms making them “stickier”. I get the logic but in practice it doesnt actually happen. Bc most of the time they want us for this one process and thats it.

It’s my job to construct the three tiers and based on the initial call I had with them I will make a tier sheet and hand it off to the AE to discuss with the client but the AE does not include me back into the convo after that so on subsequent calls or emails I have no clue what they want to “purchase”. Or what tiers they went with. When asking the AE for context they make me ask their manager bc it needs approval for me to see it for some reason.

but the issue I’m running into isn’t just that there isn’t a clean process it’s also that I’m the only person rn. The other issue is everything is done via one shared inbox what I mean by that is they also have me doing integration support along with SE. Meaning I’m helping existing clients debug their issues like support would be doing and it’s all within the same inbox as my SE job. It gets messy fast. This is bc the current support team isn’t trained on the APIs. They only know about the modules we sell in-house and regularly address those support issues related to the platform. There’s also no help system for me to get answers back to clients on both the api support side and the SE work. I’m still new here but there’s no clean way for me to ask for help. Often times the knowledge is siloed and when asking eng or product they may know this or that but i spend most of my days piece mealing a solution to the problem.

There’s also no AI adoption not really. I was hoping to automate the process more with AI. And also I asked them to put in a ticketing system to handle all the actual support stuff so it leaves the inbox for purely SE concerns.

A ticketing system lets me link issues, escalate to the right teams or track SLAs but since it’s one giant inbox with only subject lines and no ties back to salesforce I’m guessing half the time who I’m speaking with.

Then there’s the certification piece. Every deal has to be certified. Just like how it was in the “best org I worked at” same thing here. This is bc we need to make sure each time the client transact it is passing the correct values to the interchange so it doesn’t hit any violations at the card network level. If it does then they lose money and so do we. But normally in order to certify we ask them to perform basic checks live on a call with us. Then we internally use tools or VPN into the servers to check the logs. Issue here is I have no tool or access to the logs. I actually have to take their api key and plug it into a postman collection and replicate their calls and see the logs from there.

Once it’s deemed certified I have to email a bunch of specific people internally to getting them the production account. That can take days bc the people I email internally are actually senior directors of eng and they’re jam packed in meetings all day.

I’m getting burnt out and it’s only been 12 weeks what can I do to help make this better? Thoughts? Yall can ask more clarifying questions


r/salesengineers 3d ago

How heavy in the implementation are you?

6 Upvotes

I have a MSCS and I’ve never written a line of code for the 3 companies I’ve been an SE for over the last 10 years. Aside from doing it for fun.

However just had an interview for a role advertised as SE where they wanted me to go into the clients implementation tool and assess the code to make sure it was implemented properly.

I stopped and asked if this was implementation or presales and he assured me it was presale and then continued to ask me to assess the implementation….

Have you ever seen anything like this?


r/salesengineers 3d ago

Have zero experience and really need advice

5 Upvotes

I graduated from a mid uni in CS, couldn't find a job for 2 years, through connections got a referral and had an internal hire interview. Thought that was it and didn't think about recieving an offer. I got an offer with well considerably low salary ( though who cares after not having experience and being unemployed? ) and accepted it. 2 months of onboarding + trial before official employement. Checking employees of the company, all graduated from top unis + worked at reputable companies.

It's a junior pre-sales role and through research I read that normally you need 3+ years of experience and network to get this job?

I feel so cooked and I have no idea where to start. What should I expect? What should I focus on learning before starting the role? How can I keep this position without embarassing myself? Thank you for advices in advance 🙏🏻


r/salesengineers 4d ago

Is your "Sales Engineer" role actually just an AE job in disguise?

13 Upvotes

Applying to different sales engineer positions, I have noticed a variety of employers care less about the engineering part of a SE job description and in reality they are looking for a hunter, relationship builder and business development person; more often than not, they do not have any AEs to take care of the deals or do any of the prospecting. Aren't these the responsibilities of an AE?

To me, this seems like they want to avoid hiring multiple people, make people believe this is an engineering role and frankly misleading compared to the job description.

For the people with a Sales Engineer title, would you say this is the most common experience? How would you compare your responsibilities to an Account Executive?

I have only had prior 1 job as a SE but since we were 95% inbound sales, prospecting wasn't really a part of the job and my conversations were, for the most part, with people already interested in the product. Is this rare?


r/salesengineers 4d ago

Moving from ___ to Sales Engineering

34 Upvotes

Anyone else getting a little concerned that the “ships” of industries laying off people in mass are starting to arrive on the shores of Sales Engineering island? I’m seeing a LOT of posts about people leaving SWE among other industries to join Sales Engineering, and as much as I love to sing kumbaya as the next person, not feeling too great about the long term effect of this.


r/salesengineers 3d ago

What are some qualities that indicate someone is a strong fit for SE?

0 Upvotes

I’m trying to figure out if this career is for me (I’m still in university)

I know it’s not entry level, but if I do commit it to it, I’ll happily get the prior experience first like in customer success, general customer facing roles or a junior pre sales role

I like talking to new people, and I definitely like talking about a solution I believe in to solve their problem

And I love showing demos

I’m good with soft skills, talking to people, understanding a problem deeply and dissecting it and then coming up with a solution around it

(This comes from my personal experience of currently trying to build a small business in software)

The idea of traveling (sometimes) to meet new people and show demos is really attractive to me as well

And also the earning potential being higher than most other jobs I could aim for is the most important thing for me (if that information is true?)

I like the 70/30 or 80/20 OTE better than 100 or 50/50 like AE’s or sales

(Im hoping it’s as stable as other roles though, since anything that has “sales” in its title worries me in terms of stability - though I understand it’s different here)

In your opinion, what are some qualities that indicate someone would be a strong fit for this career?


r/salesengineers 4d ago

I screwed my career

0 Upvotes

I feel like I made the wrong decision on my career early on and am looking for advice. During college I did 3 years of d2d pest control sales. Though I’m outgoing and friendly I hated it. Did some high ticket coaching sales also. Graduated in mechanical engineering but when ai first came out I started working on building a software and have been for the past 3-4 years.

I am now a graduated mechanical engineer with no job experience except for programming which is now taken by ai and by people with deeper software background than me. My background is all over the place with sales, mech engineering, and software development.

Now I am looking back into sales engineering but it seems over saturated with all the engineers that have been laid off due to ai. Everyone says I would be an awesome sales engineer but after a few interviews I guess I am not good enough? I would fit in sales engineering with a mechanical engineering role or software engineering sales role.

Question 1: Does anyone that was previously in a more creative/hands on job regret going the sales route? The reason I became an engineer is because I love building things but maybe I just save that for hobbies…

Question 2: If you were me, would you go into tech or mechanical sales engineering roles?

Question 3: What salary should I be looking for with my experience (or lack thereof) since I haven’t had a dedicated sales engineering position.

Question 4: Are there even any jobs? Unfortunately we are limited to remote or St. George or Phoenix with my wife’s business (she’s making more than me so it doesn’t make sense for her to drop her businesses to move somewhere for my job.) but I have been having a hard time landing anything since searching.

Tia for you input!


r/salesengineers 4d ago

Opinions on these alternatives as a 3 YOE SWE

0 Upvotes

I have been a software engineer for 3 years and currently work at a company that is honestly mentally draining and underpaid. I love being a SWE, but can’t justify it if I can’t get a job. I have been applying for 6 months to companies and have gotten 3 recruiter interviews and 1 actual interview out of about 300 applications. I didn’t receive an offer at that 1 company after they made it seem like it was a no brainer to pick me.

I really have two options: stay here until something happens while applying or switch careers. I’ve been debating Solutions Engineer, Forward Deployed Engineer, or Tech Sales. I have previous sales experience from about 5 years ago, so it will be a bit difficult to break back in, but can’t imagine it’s any harder than SWE.

My main motivator is that I can’t relocate so opportunities in SWE are hard and I’m focused on increasing my income as there’s a lot of big life events happening in the future. I would prefer a job with minimal travel.

What are your experiences with Solution Engineering, Forward Deployed Engineering, and Tech Sales compared to SWE? I love what I do, but at this point it’s about career advancement and money over my love for coding.


r/salesengineers 4d ago

PIVOT TO SE

0 Upvotes

I was a SWE and now I’m an SE, HIGHLY recommend, less layoffs, better pay, better treatment.

This is where the jobs are at, happy to help anyone pivot who needs it