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I have two years of automotive/aerospace manufacturing experience and am looking for new opportunities. I recently applied to a Solution Engineer - Commercial Manufacturing, Automotive, Energy (MAE) role at Salesforce, and it sounds like a great fit. Is anyone willing to offer me a referral or advice on how to move forward in the hiring process? Salesforce
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Sales Engineering to me is all about enjoying problem solving and solutioning, but preferring client facing interaction. While Google 1 has a point about “ability to accept you’re in a sales role”, there are a few things to consider:
1) SE’s, in my experience, are treated MUCH better than sales people and very much appreciated by both prospects/clients and their employers. I’ve been on the sales side and cannot stress this enough
2) pay is variable, but based on multiple sellers (if not entire sales team) performance and tends to be weighed heavier to salary (typically 70/30% to 80/20%).
3) Revenue is quantifiable, but impact for sellers is a bit harder. This gives the perk of being tied to revenue (high upside) while making it much less difficult to point out negative performance - offering surprising job stability relative to sales
I’m a huge fan of SE life and would be happy to talk to you about it. If you want to weigh heavier on doing the development compared to talking about it, Solutions Engineering is the client-side equivalent of Sales Engineering. After sales closes the deal, the Sales Engineer typically hands off notes for the Solutions Engineer to actually do the work with the client.
Sorry for the long winded answer. DM me if you want to chat!
Positive:
Applying engineering skills with real problem
Meeting customers and partners
Exposure in the field / industry
Pay most likely will be related to sales figure so in a good year you can be doing very well
Things to consider:
You will not be developing engineering products. You are bridging the gap between business and tech instead.
Ability to accept you are in a Sales role
Politics will be there, anywhere
Growth depends on sales number so it could varies a-lot.
My undergrad is in mechanical engineering. I spent several years in that space and made the switch to sales engineering and tech sales. There's a lot more upside for your career from a growth standpoint and pay. There's nothing more quantifiable than generating revenue for a business and that visibility can be great depending on how high on the ladder you want to climb.
How did you make that switch?
I graduated with the same major! It’s a good major if you are the generalist type and then you can deeper into something else that you are passionate about. If you are good with people than sales eng would be good. Sales can be mentally tough, don’t take all the rejections personal. Feel free to connect on LI happy to chat with you and help out a fellow ISE grad. Fun fact - Tim Cook is an ISE too! Good luck!
In my white collar roles a great sales engineer is practically priceless because sales reps (generally) aren't wired for the tedious aspects of stand ups, maintenance, troubleshooting, etc. An SE can make a break an deal. If it is only for 1 year or two you'll have cross functional capabilities straight e/Dev gentlefolks wont