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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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I ETS'd straight into an SE role after also working in cybersecurity (13+yrs AD). It was definitely a great choice.
Things that helped me:
- Some level of extroversion. I'm an Ambivert (According to the USAREC Psychologist's Personality Inventory) and at least in my experience have found that being able to become energized from the customer interactions and closely empathize with their experiences greatly improves the customer's perception of you. The goal of any SE is to become a trusted advisor. Unfortunately, extreme technical competence is not enough and the customer doesn't usually have the benefit of long term engagements to measure your capabilities. I've worked with incredibly smart people that customers would ask to never come back because they lack social anything. Quickly gaining trust is a matter of confidence, posture, presentation, and honestly a bit of showmanship.
- Leverage your military experiences but don't let them define you. I left the Army after they DA directed me for recruiting duty. In my interview I talked about my year as a recruiter and how it relates to soft skills of persuasion and salesmanship. I left military jargon out of the discussion entirely unless the interviewer identified themselves as prior military.
- The ability to tell an engaging story, conduct demos in a manner that the product/solution appears effortless to use, executive speech skills, and comfort white boarding everything.
- Enjoy building labs. The best SEs I've worked with are all hardcore nerds. Huge home network setups and other kinds of tech wizardry.
- A strong understanding of the business drivers and decision makers. Best in breed is nice in theory but rarely the iron clad rule some will pretend it to be. Understanding Opex, Capex, fiscal purchasing cycles, compliance requirements, and the various kinds of soft drivers like limited manning and overcommitted cycles.
- Strong technical skills in the fundamental areas of the tech you want to sell. You are unlikely to be expected to know the Vendor's products at an expert level. Instead they'll expect you to demonstrate expertise in the field (e.g. applying for SE at Splunk but expert in HP ArcSight).
- Network. Best way to get any job is let other people sell you first.
Feel free to reach out if you have questions.
Great summary above. I would mark homelab optional (with the cloud and all we have new reality), replace with a general interest in technology to a desired nerdiness level.
Demo is important, but should be the pinnacle of engagement, not opening up with it. See next for details.
Listening. One more time, Listening. You are an expert, but you must restrain yourself from overwhelming the customer with all that knowledge. It's not a pissing contest. Really understand the customer's problem and tell a story/demo taylored to their challenges.
Litmus test. Explain cyber security to your grandma. If you lose her after 2 minutes, you failed. SE is pretty much tasked with masterfully simplifying very complex concepts for people who may not have time/desire to spend understanding the inner depth of technology. I'd call this the most important skill, ability to water down complex things and explain ELI5 style. Seriously.
M1 did a great job explaining the job. I personally think it’s one of the best tech jobs where you can develop both technology and soft skills that can make great impact to the company’s growth.