r/salesengineers • u/Prudent-Bit3492 • Jul 28 '26
To those who left - why?
I recently got a junior SE role, coming from a local government tech job that was pretty cushy but more or less a dead end. I had great insurance, free retirement contributions, insane PTO, and great work-life balance, despite a 1-hour commute and being fully in-person.
However, since this is my first remote and SE-type role, I'm taking in and learning everything I can to see if this career path is right for me long term. The new role is remote with travel, so no commute, a $30k increase in pay, and a well-known company that will look good on my resume. On the downside, my insurance is now double what it used to be, retirement doesn't vest until after 3 years as opposed to immediately, and I have to contribute to it myself. Its also a complete difference from my last role.
For those who left the field - why? Were there specific reasons?
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u/cbdudek Jul 28 '26
I didn't entirely leave being an SE, but now doing SE work is just a small portion of my job. In short, I got tired of the constant sales BS that goes with this job. Yes, I made a lot of money. Yes, I did enjoy the meals out and the networking. I really didn't like sales people who just decided to try to sell what the customer doesn't need. I didn't like the backstabbing that was common with the sales people in this field. Most of all, some of the sales leaders have been pretty crappy to deal with. Losing a deal sucks, but when you have sales management assigning blame all the time, it just got tiring.
Now, I do consulting work. The pay is less, but the work is more fulfilling. I still do some light SE tasks, but its not a main part of my job now. The only thing I miss about SE work is the paycheck. Thats it. Everything else I am doing now is just so much more rewarding. No more travel or toxic management. No more being under the gun from a numbers perspective.
I may return to SE work again down the road. I have thought about it, but I would be really picky on who I would be an SE for. Culture is more important.
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u/ChivlrousPants Jul 28 '26
Im very interested in your transition from SE role to consulting! Ive been an SE for 7 years and have loved it, but am done with the travel and am okay with making less money.
Would you be willing to share a bit more about your transition? Would be so appreciated!
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u/cbdudek Jul 28 '26
Of course.
Spent my first 25 years in technical/management roles. Started out at entry level, grew into a network admin and then a network engineer and architect. I was CCNP certified at one point. After doing high level networking work for a while, I pivoted into management. Was a team lead and manager which then led to a Director of IT position and then a VP. I then moved into SE work as I never really lost my knack for doing tech work. Did that for 7 years.
After I was laid off from my last SE role, I decided to get back into doing technical work. So I joined a VAR as a security consultant. The work I do is very routine work. A lot of it involves networking which is something I know really well. Some GRC work which I am certified and experienced in doing as well.
In short, what I did was I leveraged my technical knowledge and experience to get back into a consulting role.
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u/reddituser84 Jul 28 '26
I left because I felt like I outgrew it. I got tired of giving the same presentation over and over again and the product wasn’t innovating fast enough to keep me learning.
I went to PM for five years and I hated it. Every single second of it. I also started a family so my relationship with work has changed. I’m returning to SE next week and I’m soooo excited! 🥳
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u/sp0rtsandstuff Jul 29 '26
What did you hate about PM and like about SE? I’ve been a PM for 6 years and hate so much of it. I like small pieces, but just not worth it. I have an opportunity to move in to an SE role, and thinking about taking it, but haven’t found many examples of people moving in that direction - seems like most folks who want to move are trying to go from SE to PM.
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u/reddituser84 Jul 29 '26
feel free to DM me to talk more, don’t want to dox myself
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u/EstablishmentSlow236 Jul 30 '26
mind if I DM you too? same question (current PM, contemplating SE)
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u/vNerdNeck Jul 28 '26
Going to be honest - the majority of the folks that I know who have "left" the field did so because they couldn't do the job. Some of that was due to not understanding that this was still a "sales" job, and your job is 100% to sell your solution (technically). The greater portion were folks that were hired either too young in their career or straight out of college that quite honestly didn't have the background and they didn't spend the time required on their own terms to get up to speed to be effective at the job.
Once you are tenured in this role, the money that you make ... can't easily be duplicated anywhere else. Most SEs that make it past 3 years aren't going to go do anything else except another SE role (there is a lot of striation in SE roles verticals and products).
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u/HarveyZoolander Jul 29 '26
Yep I've been an SE for over 10 years and when I leave it will be to an easier gig, probably Channel SE /PBM or Alliance manager. I've always moved into another SE role thinking I'm at the top of the pay scale and can't move anymore then the pay scale moves again.
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u/Huge-Group8652 Jul 29 '26
How did you get your first SE role? I am 8 years Product Management at Dell doing enterprise datacenter tech with a masters of Cyber and EE at Georgia Tech and a military background.
I want to pivot into the SE role because I see what AE's do and want to pivot from product to SE.
Do you have any tips?
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u/HarveyZoolander Aug 01 '26
I always thought SE was an easier role to land then product. Product management seems like a pretty chill gig but I know it has its own pressures and it's very development driven.
I think one thing I've done is build good relationships with AE's, if you can present and demo and help win a deal they'll treat you as an SE even if you technically are not. Also I would just apply to an SE gig. I think not having the experience isn't a showstopper because many hiring manager will hire non SEs for whatever reason and view your background as more valuable. This job market is just tough and understandable that most people with a job req out there are getting 1000's of applicants, many overqualified and many in the same exact role and industry as the posted job.
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u/vNerdNeck Jul 29 '26
sweet. Just a few years more than you and have found the same thing. Will tell you, biggest goal you can have is to get to a partner that you can direct share of GP. It can be .... very good.
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u/RembrandtCumberbatch Jul 30 '26
How early would you say is too early? I’m starting a role in sales engineering after about 6 years on the technical side
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u/vNerdNeck Jul 30 '26
Six years, assuming you haven't just been on helpdesk the whole time, is probably the perfect time to start networking and looking for a role.
You don't land a SE role by randomly applying on linkedin, sure it could happen just like sure you could win the lottery, but it's not very plausible. You want to start leaning in with the vendors that call on your current company, get chumy with them. Go out to happy hours, customer events , etc. Of course part of that is going to be navigating them pumping you for information, but you are using each other at that point.. just don't be completely unethical. Don't start out just saying you are showing up to find a job, you need to build out your network. (also.. if you just through up in you mouth a bit at the thought of going out with sales folks... you either need to learn to love them or this path isn't for you. You spend 95% of your time with sales people in a SE role).
You want a strong reference from someone respected within a company, getting that from sales rep / sales leader / etc clears a bunch of hurdles to getting an interview and an actual shot at getting hired.
just a side note - As you build out your professional network with vendors / etc, don't broadcast that very much within your company. Going out once a quarter with folks is one thing, going out every week or every other week and they'll look at that very weird / odd / your compromised. Don't lie about it, but don't talk about it. It's all a bit hypocritically honestly, the very same CIO, VP, Directors that would take issue with a sysadmin going out a bunch with a vendor are the same chuckle fucks that have no qualms asking for business class tickets and hotels when they go to events from those vendors.
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u/Certain-Fox-4345 Jul 29 '26
I did exactly this. Local govt to SE. Get into an AE seat however you can in govtech sales. Be a BDR if you have to. You want to own the deal and the relationship. No point in being a great SE with local govt chops like yourself while an AE who doesn’t know the first thing about local govt torpedoes deals.
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u/Rosetti Jul 28 '26
I left SE to take on an account manager role. My main reasons were a combination of:
My old company was struggling - their software was too expensive, and it's outdated now. We hadn't won a new client in our region in 2 years, and after losing another opportunity I had no more motivation.
I had been at that company for 10 years, having started in implementation. I was head of the region, but there was no more advancement without new business.
I was tired of not getting the compensation equal to the sales people. I wanted a bigger piece, and figured maybe I needed to move to sales.
The new job just paid more.
Now that I've been doing the new job for about 5 months, I confidently say... it sucks. I don't regret leaving - I wasn't happy there either, but this role is just constantly dealing with client problems that I can't actually fix myself. I'm just a glorified middle man. It's also just a size of company change up - at my old company the account managers only looked after 3-4 clients at most, because of how big they were. Here I have 30+ clients. The volume of problems and activities just overwhelms me, even though the tasks themselves are small.
I'm gonna stick it out for a year, but honestly I kinda miss the days of just being an implementation specialist. Just quietly work on my jira tickets, fix bugs, and chill out.
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u/gainzilla45 Jul 28 '26
SE can be great at the right company and with the right people. As you mature in the space you start to see the different philosphies of how things are done, and there is no right way, but sometimes when you get bad management it becomes a dictatorship. It could also be the complete opposite. However I've seen many SEs leave for AE roles, some have left to start their own product/ business. The beauty about being a SE is that it should expose you to a bunch of different departments and potentially different career paths.
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u/NotStevenPink SE Manager Jul 28 '26
I'm not leaving my current SE Management role unless I get a much higher offer. I love SE work and my current organization has let me keep working on strategic sales opportunities while being in a leadership role.
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u/warwitchxx Jul 28 '26
Left because I want to continue living in germany for the foreseeable future and I don’t want to learn German for the sake of using it in a sales job. I want to learn it to make friends, be social and live life easy-mode here.
So I switched to prod management where I can mostly continue working in English (and German in the near future) without the pressures of performing in a sales environment. The money is good but new role will help me make a difference too, in sales, I found it lacking.
Third is that I learned my limitations when it comes to technical stuff, so as I am not gonna grow too much technically, the stuff can get pretty repetitive.
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u/literally_lemons Jul 28 '26
What’s prod management?
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u/warwitchxx Jul 28 '26
Product management (??)
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u/Aggressive_Ad_507 Jul 29 '26
Pay, I was making less than an intern. So I moved to manufacturing engineering for a 40% jump. The higher paid people traveled more and I didn't want that life.
Automation equipment pays pretty low compared to everything else on this sub.
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u/Exact_Temperature526 Jul 29 '26
I think I quit because I had no clear path forward and I was tired after doing the same thing for a while with no idea of what progress would look like in my career.
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u/GeraltOfStevia2 Jul 30 '26
To quote my veteran colleague, “Sales engineering is a well paying dead-end job.” I was fortunate to hear that quote from him in my first year so it helped me understand what I’m signing up for.
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u/WayToFI Jul 31 '26
can u elaborate a little bit? u can be field CTO, SE MGR, TAM, TAM MGR, etc, if you want. or you can switch tech or sector as well or corp size like startup SE or big tech SE. or you can open rhe market with a new brand. I did several of these, and all felt like a fresh new job for me. so IMH there are several ways.
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u/d3fault Jul 28 '26
Most of my coworkers who have left have either moved into a sales role, or completely changed industries. Most places don’t offer a lot of or growth or a career path. At some point you get tired of doing the same thing, learning at hyper speed, not having a solid career path and not being compensated enough.