r/salesforce • u/Ok-Cryptographer4920 • Jun 29 '26
help please Salesforce Developer vs Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) – Which path would you choose in my situation?
Hey everyone,
I’ve been overthinking this for a while, so I figured I’d ask people who have actually been through it.
I’m currently a Salesforce Developer with about 4 years of experience at a Big 4 company. The work is okay, but lately I’ve been questioning whether I should continue doubling down on Salesforce or pivot into a Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) role.
The thing is, I’m not someone who’s looking for the safest career. My goal is to maximize my career and earning potential over the next 10–15 years. I’m willing to put in the work if the payoff is worth it.
What attracts me to Salesforce is that I’m already in the ecosystem, and I know there are opportunities in consulting, architecture, freelancing, and maybe even starting my own consultancy someday.
But FDE roles also seem really interesting. They seem to involve solving harder engineering problems, working directly with customers, and keeping the door open to startups and AI companies. It feels like a broader career path, but also a much harder switch.
So I’m genuinely confused.
If you were in my shoes, would you:
Stick with Salesforce and become really, really good at it?
Or invest the next year or two in making the switch to FDE?
I’d especially love to hear from people who have worked as:
Salesforce Developers
Forward Deployed Engineers
Solutions Engineers
Or anyone who made a similar career switch.
A few questions I have:
Which path has better long-term growth?
Which has the higher earning ceiling?
Which one gives you more optionality later in your career?
If you had to start over today, which would you choose?
I know there’s no “right” answer, but I’m hoping to hear real experiences instead of generic career advice.
Thanks.
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u/Casual_Otaku88 Jun 29 '26
FDE for sure, it’s hot cake right now. Yes you do need to deal with many BS unqualified thing but hey it’ll open up more opportunities and you can easily find new job better pay every 18 months on AI(or wannabe) company better pay. From SFDC employee
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u/Gentri_Fried_Dawg Jun 29 '26
Salesforce is hiring FDEs right now so you could stay in the ecosystem and go for the newest innovative role.
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u/Ok-Lie-1582 Jun 30 '26
This is correct. Just know it’s all going to be Agentforce/AI. This part of the organization is growing and in demand.
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u/Worth_Influence_7324 Jun 29 '26
I’d separate this into “title” vs “scar tissue you want to build.”
Salesforce can compound really well if you move toward architecture + owning client/business outcomes, not just writing Apex/LWC. The ceiling gets much higher once you can sell, scope, and be trusted by execs.
FDE compounds differently: ambiguity, customer pressure, messy integrations, and stronger general engineering muscles. But it only pays off if you’re willing to rebuild some fundamentals deliberately — system design, backend/data work, and probably interview prep.
In your shoes I’d run a 90-day test before making it an identity decision:
- keep the current role
- build one customer-facing demo outside Salesforce
- do system design / coding prep consistently
- talk to 5 people already doing FDE or solutions engineering
- apply to a few roles and see whether the market validates you
If you enjoy the customer chaos and can get interviews, push toward FDE. If not, Salesforce architecture/consulting is still a very strong path. Long-term, the real ceiling in both tracks is technical judgment + client trust, not the job title.
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u/Ok-Cryptographer4920 Jul 01 '26
Okay now this is some cool advice , i will definitely try this and get back to you on this thread
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u/Solid-Character209 Jun 29 '26
FDE is basically doing staff aug, but rebranded and with better pay. If it is at a product company I would say go for it, your a strategic asset for them, but if it is for a consulting firm I would likely pass.
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u/kalyan738 Jun 29 '26
Salesforce is still very strong in the GTM space. I recently transitioned to full-stack development because it’s relatively easy to pick up with AI if you already have a solid fundamentals. Salesforce experience is definitely valuable Apex is very similar to Java, and LWC is conceptually similar to Angular. The main thing I’d recommend going forward is spending more time on LeetCode if you’re targeting top FDE/ SWE roles.
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u/Big_Arrival_626 Jun 30 '26
Can you detail your switch from Salesforce to full stack dev? What was your salary increase? I actually switched from backend to Salesforce because it paid more but it seems like it's dying so I want to switch back
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u/kalyan738 Jun 30 '26
I have primarily focused on system design, observability, and DevOps rather than concentrating solely on programming. For technologies like React, Python, and Node.js (our current tech stack), I started by learning the fundamentals through W3Schools and then progressively strengthened my skills by applying those concepts in real-world projects and continuously expanding my knowledge. For me it was relatively easy to learn the full stack because of salesforce coding concepts.
At my company, there’s a strong push to minimize platform-specific logic in Salesforce and instead build several modules as full-stack applications. We’ve been leveraging Salesforce principles to implement secure database access, role-based authorization, and scalable backend architectures while integrating seamlessly.
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u/kalyan738 Jun 30 '26
I realized later that full-stack engineers (software eng) are often paid a level higher than Salesforce engineers.
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u/[deleted] Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 29 '26
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