How do I break into sales engineering? I’ve been asked that question a few times since I’ve started my career as a Sales Engineer. I’ve even wondered that myself before I got into this role. How does a human being go from being a software designer for example, to be a sales engineer when in order to be a sales engineer, you have to have experience as a sales engineer? How does that human being gain the experience of being an SE if he needs experience as an SE to get a job as an SE? It’s the chicken and the egg debate.

Here are some ideas anyone can try to get the job similar to the funnest job I’ve ever had:

1- Apply to any SE role you can find in the domain you want to be in. Worst thing that can happen is that you don’t hear back. Best thing is that you get a job out of it. Anything in between is good experience with being interviewed and meeting new people in your chosen domain. If you are lucky enough to meet with the SE Manager, you can use this opportunity to build a relationship. Being an SE, although technical, requires a lot of relationship building in order to gain trust. So practice building relationships with SE Managers.

2- After all this work, you may realize that you will not be getting a position as an SE without some customer interfacing experience. You have two options at this point as I see it. You can keep banging your head against the career wall by doing the same thing and applying to more SE positions (I’ve paraphrased the definition of insanity here), or you can do an intermediary step. Find a technical role that allows you to interact with customers. IT could be in a professional service team, field support, customer support, or any other role where you either have to visit customers, or get on a call with them to solve a problem. That’s what SEs do. I got my role as an SE after being in a Network Design role for a couple of years and proved that I can work with customers.

3- You can always reach out to SEs on LinkedIn and pick their brains. In my experience, people are willing to help. Take this podcast as an example. I would say a very high percentage of people who I contact out of the blue are willing to be interviewed so that they can help other people. So you can do the same. If you work for a company which has a sales force, then it most likely has some SEs. You can start by reaching out to those since this would be, in my opinion, the easiest move for you. You already know the product, so you would have to learn how to sell it.

Here’s an action item for all of aspiring SEs – connect with 5 SEs in your area on LinkedIn by next Friday and invite them for a coffee, or even a chat on the phone, to have a discussion on what it takes to be an SE. Try to start with SEs in your company, since that would be the easiest move for you.

Let me know how it goes in the comment section and let me know if you need help.

Cheers!