My transition into my current role brought me reminiscing about how I moved into a pre-sales role at VMware to begin with nearly 5 1/2 years ago.

So I’m gonna write about it cause it was a blast! In case it’s not obvious, I highly recommend it if you’ve been curious.

Look, the truth is there isn’t enough IT people in this world to meet the demands of organizations today. It’s the reason why the industry pays well. It also sure is a small world! I’ll get back to that one day.

Prior to joining VMware, I had been in IT for 15 years as an admin and an architect at various companies. I had done a startup(you HAVE to do it if you live in Silicon Valley at least once. It’s like trying pot at least once in California. Not that I would know. :)). I had done a Fortune 500 company, I had been a consultant/hired gun, I had worked in semiconductors companies. I had had fun as a global architect for a large public company. While working for a large company, a colleague(who also now works at VMware – I told you the IT industry is small) and I wondered out loud what it would be like to be a VMware SE like our current one(who STILL works at VMware as an SE. We love him.). Shortly afterwards, my colleague and I went our separate ways and he eventually ended up at VMware as an SE and we lost touch.

A few years later, I was working at a smaller company and loving it since they took absolute great care of me. I got a call from a recruiter at VMware. Us IT folks are always getting calls but I don’t answer most of them since my grass patch was pretty darn green. (Employers take note – take care of your IT staff and you will not need to worry about turnover and loyalty) However, I had great respect for VMware because it was vSphere that gave my IT career it’s longevity and, let’s admit it, high pay. At that point, I had been on call 24x7x365 for 7 years straight. I was done with operating IT. I was bored. I had done it all. vSphere, Windows, Unix, NetApp, Citrix, Cisco, Palo Alto Network, freaking telco too! I had even done it at a global scale. I was not interested in doing the same thing twice. What can I say? Girlfriend bores easy.

I knew I was either going to check out an SE role or go back out as a hired gun/professional services. I just hadn’t decided which. Well, VMware decided that for me when that recruiter called and I knew that VMware was a company I would be excited to work for. I won’t belabor the interview process at length. Short version is my experience was very relevant and my buddy who was already in VMware gave me pointers. This last point is very important for those of you who are looking to get into a company. Try to make friends with someone who has the role you want and ask them to help you in the process. For presales SE’s, we’re practically trained and psychologically wired to service others. I owe my buddy a great debt for helping me and he knows who he is.

*Tangent for a minute in case any of you are wondering “What is an SE?”

SE stands for Sales Engineer. The role has now been given different names. The function is still the same. It’s the technical sales portion of a sales team. You help prove the technical aspects of a solution/technology/whatnot to an end customer. It’s also been called Solutions Engineer and in some places, Solution Architect. I won’t debate the titles here as it has become contentious.

I will never forget that when I took the job, my then manager said to me, “Remember Frances, this a presales job.” I remember what he said. I just didn’t understand what that meant!

So this point I WILL belabor because it is a KEY difference when you transition from IT to an SE. When you are in IT, you are often viewed as an expensive cost center. Your paycheck comes out of the companies operating budget. Think your home’s utility bill. That’s what you are to the company. I know it’s sort of base of me but when it comes to the financials, that’s what you are. When you are in sales, you are in front of the money coming into the company. The company is relying on your abilities to help bring the money in that pays the light bills(or the IT guys too). If you are making fun of or putting down sales and marketing today, you are pooh poohing on the folks who help YOU pay YOUR mortgage and bills. Think about that. The person that brings the money in pays for him/herself and four of your buddies at the company. That’s the sales team’s job. So please show them some love!

Now it also means a portion of an SE’s pay is directly tied to the sales they are involved in. There are many variations and it’s way beyond the scope of this post but regardless, the SE doesn’t get his /her whole paycheck unless they meaningfully help sell something. This process is NOT black or white. In sales, many things can be ambiguous. For example, the sales person writes up the order in the system but the SE was the one that prove the tech worked. They both get compensated according to their employment agreement but they will not make equal amounts. This is not a post about what’s fair or not but serves to highlight that there are a lot of grey areas in sales. And they need that flexibility to make things work. Ok, ok, woman. What is the point? The point is – I wasn’t getting paid unless something got sold and I wasn’t guaranteed my whole paycheck as a result. Whoa, then don’t you just make sure you sell? Well, yeah, DUH! But when I was a client, do you think you could make me write you a PO when you needed one? Nope, I don’t think so! Not so easy now, huh? Yeah, THAT is what was meant when my manager said that the role was presales. A big fat portion of your paycheck is an open question mark and you may not see that portion based on sales activity.

You may be thinking at this point that this does not sound ideal, especially if you are coming from a salary position for decades. It is the people who take a leap of faith and willing to risk for the potential that will ultimately not resent the decision. What does that mean? It means you must also realize that in sales, you may not make your sales quota and get a portion of your pay in a quarter, but it also means that if you slay that quota, you will be paid MORE than you even signed up for. A lot more. Just how much more are you talking about? Depending on the company, you could have a cap on how much but it’s usually pretty mind blowing or some companies in the past have had no cap. That’s how the rumor’s of sales people making millions a year come from. Now the SE’s ability to make money is constrained by having a lower percentage of their pay tied to sales whereas sales people have a much higher percentage assigned to the quota.

I have seen AE’s (Account Executives, aka sales people)become SE’s and SE’s that have become AE’s. Some SE’s have converted to AE’s because they wanted the money more. Some AE’s have become SE’s because they liked the technology more.

A large part of being an SE is being missed if you only focus on compensation.

No ownership of infrastructure – it’s just not your problem anymore.

This can be freeing for those of us that once were “root.” You leave the power of holding up the company but you free yourself and your paycheck from the day to day responsibilities of infrastructure.

I chose to take my many years of experience and share with a larger community through VMware. I have not regretted my decision and absolutely love helping the community. It has brought me in contact with many of you and given me many opportunities. My opinion is most IT people continue in this line of work because we are ultimately service people. We work to make other’s lives more productive at our organizations. In this way, we contribute meaningfully to the business. I continue that service in every one of my roles.

Being an SE means you are a public facing portion of a company.

You represent a company in your day to day interactions. I’ve had the good fortune of representing VMware and it is a active duty to do right by both the company and our clients. This necessarily means you will have a platform from time to time to share your knowledge. Aka, you will become a speaker in some form or another. So get your stage presence under control. Yeah, I know. I get sweaty palm syndrome too before I speak. Every time. This is one area I had not anticipated and I feel like the devil is coming for my soul in the five minutes before I go on stage. And it’s been an incredible area of growth and reward that I enjoy. I do believe each of us in IT should do this. We don’t have enough folks that share what they are working on or the challenges they are facing. All customers, partners and vendors need to understand the challenges we face in technology if we are to the solve them together. My examples of this are speaking at VMUG events either on technology or other aspects of our industry, submitting for VMworld speaking gigs (which I have not gotten …yet!), participating in one off events like EBC’s(Executive Briefing Centers) and more.

The opportunity to work on the technology and demonstrate the potential to the public.

As a part of a vendor, you have the chance to get hands on with the technology without many restrictions and can build content (think blogs, videos, podcasts, etc.) about the technology. You can explore new ways to use the tech, creative ways to use existing tech, your own way of delivering that tech, and a chance to discuss the new tech being introduced. I am inspired by watching my colleagues deliver, create, and ultimately contribute to customers and the greater community. You can still do this as an individual at a company. I find that this work is more recognized and appreciated when you represent a company. It aligns with your company’s business objectives. Examples of this include participating in general or specific podcasts to discuss technology, helping an internal effort to improve products, writing about a problem you had to solve, providing feedback to product and documentation, etc.

There is so much more to the presales arena that I could not possibly do it justice. However, these have been the highlights in my last five years.

It is true that you do not have to scale an SE job to all of what I have detailed. This is simply to demonstrate the potential you would have. The potential for personal skillset growth. The potential to become a visible community member. The potential to influence a company’s product. The potential to go beyond the IT realm that you currently rule as admin. I was once the PEBCAK. This transition has brought me endless opportunities to learn new technologies, public speaking skills, writing skills, and networking skills. Being an SE is a novel interpretation of your IT skills and it can become much more than sales. So give yourself license to re-imagine your own career!