I forgot one more thing. Your technical aptitude carries less weight as an SE. Getting the technical win at a customer is what you're evaluated on.
Since you're almost always working with engineers and technical stakeholders at the customers you're selling to, you need to be able to talk the talk to fit in, gain their trust and help them see the value of what you're selling.
But those skillets alone won't get the technical win. This is where the sales part of sales engineering matters, and it matters a lot.
A quick example: a common mistake many new SEs coming from consulting make while giving demos is showing customers everything about a product step-by-step instead of showing them only what the customer said they care about (which you, hopefully, learned in the initial discovery call) and/or what they need to see (because other similar customers usually care about those things).
The former comes very naturally to consultants, as that's a big part of the job, but giving demos this way makes it much easier to NOT show what the customer needs to see AND increases the likelihood of you showing a deficiency in the product that can reduce interest or, if it's bad enough, kill the deal.
You won't come across those kind of skills unless you (a) founded a company and try hard to build business or (b) work in sales. But these skills make or break SEs.
I have two resumes: eng.resume.carlosnunez.me and consulting.resume.carlosnunez.me. The `consulting` resume highlights my strategic/sales side whereas the `eng` resume shows off my engineering work.
resume.carlosnunez.me symlinks to eng since that's what I want to highlight, but I'll share `consulting` if the role is interesting enough.
My pleasure!
I forgot one more thing. Your technical aptitude carries less weight as an SE. Getting the technical win at a customer is what you're evaluated on.
Since you're almost always working with engineers and technical stakeholders at the customers you're selling to, you need to be able to talk the talk to fit in, gain their trust and help them see the value of what you're selling.
But those skillets alone won't get the technical win. This is where the sales part of sales engineering matters, and it matters a lot.
A quick example: a common mistake many new SEs coming from consulting make while giving demos is showing customers everything about a product step-by-step instead of showing them only what the customer said they care about (which you, hopefully, learned in the initial discovery call) and/or what they need to see (because other similar customers usually care about those things).
The former comes very naturally to consultants, as that's a big part of the job, but giving demos this way makes it much easier to NOT show what the customer needs to see AND increases the likelihood of you showing a deficiency in the product that can reduce interest or, if it's bad enough, kill the deal.
You won't come across those kind of skills unless you (a) founded a company and try hard to build business or (b) work in sales. But these skills make or break SEs.
Even more gems than the previous post!
Btw, not sure if you're aware, your 2 resumes are linked to the same content
Thanks for catching that! That's on purpose.
I have two resumes: eng.resume.carlosnunez.me and consulting.resume.carlosnunez.me. The `consulting` resume highlights my strategic/sales side whereas the `eng` resume shows off my engineering work.
resume.carlosnunez.me symlinks to eng since that's what I want to highlight, but I'll share `consulting` if the role is interesting enough.