Hey everyone, I’ve been working in SaaS as an AE, doing discovery + demos for nonprofit orgs. I’m aiming to pivot into Sales Engineering because I love the consultative and technical side of selling. Would love any tips on making the jump. Is there a particular certification you'd start with? Community is everything - thanks!
Thank you for your response! I was currently a part of a round of layoffs. Before this, I had introduced the idea and it was a welcomed idea. My two focuses will be the use of AI and Cyber Security. There are so many certs out there and would love any insight you have based on your experience. Sometimes, it's difficult to understand which options may be 'best' or 'best suited' for my goals. Thanks again - I really appreciate it.
I wouldn't waste time on certifications. Aside from a handful of exceptions, certifications encourage rote memorization of facts and test your ability to narrow down a set of multiple choice answers for closed-ended problems. If you want to become an SE, do what SEs do. Pick a domain -- any domain -- and learn it intimately. Build projects and write about your process, what you learned, and the challenges you faced. Presumably you will use tools as part of this process - use your AE experience to summarize the business value such tools can bring, who the target user is, and how you might pitch them if you were selling said tools. A hiring manager will be infinitely more interested in someone who does this than the dime-a-dozen candidates who spent their time on certs.
Hi! From my Experience, you need deep technical knowledge about the industry that you will work in. I for myself am a technical Consultant for Cyber Security at a big distributor, and I got offered a Sales Engineering role several times. You need deep technical expertise not only in the Product you are selling (obviously) but also the broader spectrum. For example, you get offered a SE role at ZScaler. You not only need to know how ZScaler works technically, but also how Networking and Cyber Security works in general. You will encounter several different Networks and Products of all kind of sorts, which is why you need to know what you are saying and understand the Customers needs technically. As you probably know, the SE role isnt an entry level role, which has its reasons. I would guess mostly people with 3-5+ years of IT Experience can venture into an SE role. Have you talked about your wanted change with your current Org? I can give you some examples of good Certs, but we need to know your industry first (Cyber Security, Networking, HR Software etc.).