#250 The Long Journey From Military Man to Solution Engineer

Notes:

Where can a sincere dedication to giving value to others bring you in the sales engineering world? Why are humility and perseverance important character traits for any SE?

Anthony Powell Moze, or simply Tony Moze, was not an SE when he first came into the podcast back in 2021. Listeners will remember him from episode 153 as the guy who was transitioning from healthcare and psychology into sales engineering. Almost two years after that episode, we bring him back to the podcast, now an SE himself, to talk about his journey in finally landing an SE job.

If you are currently and actively seeking your first SE position, you will find this episode really helpful. But everyone in the sales engineering field, no matter how long we have been in our roles, will learn a few things in this episode about the importance of humility, asking for help, and networking in continuing to thrive as SEs.

Key Takeaways:

Why Tony transitioned from psychology to software development
How Tony discovered sales engineering
Why Tony opted to leave psychology rather than pivot within that industry
What a software development boot camp is and how it works
What is a business development representative (BDR) or sales development representative (SDR) is
The pros and cons of being a BDR or SDR
How Tony gamified his BDR role
The challenges you could face when finding your first SE job
An advice Tony received that changed how he approached job interviews
How being helpful to your network will go a long way when finding a job
How someone trying to break into sales engineering could help an already established sales engineer
An inside peek of an SE’s first eight months in his first tech job
Why asking for help is a superpower
The importance of humility

Quotes:

I have a heart for helping people and inspiring, that’s great value, but I also need to not just pay the bills. I also want to be able to thrive and do other things. — Tony Moze

I said to myself, I know I’m not going to be in this role for my whole career. But let’s make the best out of it. — Tony Moze

That’s great. I’m hitting the point of mastery. But what else can I do that can make a larger influence that can make more of an impact? — Tony Moze

I think you got interviews because you were able to connect with a tremendous amount of people; not only connect with a tremendous amount of people, you even offered value to those people. — Ramzi Marjaba

And after you build that network, you are not overbearing. You are not asking for stuff all the time. — Ramzi Marjaba

Networking is the best thing to do. It should be number one on your list. Two things: you should network and do it in a manner where you are a go-to-market person yourself. — Tony Moze

If you connect with someone on LinkedIn and they’re a sales engineer, at least the first touch point would be to react to their things: like, comment, share. If you find that useful, at least do that without having to feel like you have to come up with your own posts or whatever. Because it’s at least giving value in that manner. It’s also showing that you’re supporting this individual. — Tony Moze