Plan a career in IT: goal - £100k PA.

Caporegime
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If this is quality of life why are you setting the main target as financial?

I mean, financial freedom is one of the biggest factors in QoL.

I'm sure most of us have seen the £70k figure banded about regarding salary and happiness, though that was quite a few years ago now and it's probably more like £100k in today's money.
 
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Man of Honour
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No, I mean sales/solutions engineers.

These are the tech roles that support the salesperson as part of the sales process.

Doing demos, proof of concepts, answering technical questions etc
How can they be doing demos, POCs, answering questions etc with no knowledge, no experience and only people skills?
 
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Ev0

Ev0

Soldato
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How can they be doing demos, POCs, answering questions etc with no knowledge, no experience and only people skills?
For a 60k OTE Sales Engineer role (so a base salary of around 42 most likely) that’s very much entry level to that type of role.

Although generally you possibly would have some minor tech knowledge before hand, but at that level not much.

With SE roles the SE skills are often key, the individuals who are good at those roles can generally learn whatever tech for what it is they are helping sell.

They will be taught what they need to know on the tech side, and at that level they likely won’t be doing it themselves to start with anyway.

Friend of mine has recently got his first SE role in a field of tech he has never done anything with before in his life, base salary 70k.

Honestly it’s another world compared to traditional roles, and seems absolutely barmy some of the numbers involved compared to what you have to do.
 
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Soldato
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Any role where you aren't effectively a "cost centre" will always pay well, as you directly link it to value. I've never heard the term Solutions Engineer, but I have worked with "Tech Pre Sales" people who have had some sport with me in designing solutions including their products. You genuinely select the product with the best team behind it, as it doesn't really matter how great the software is if the team you first engage are useless.

I think the bit we are ignoring tho, is how relentlessly passionate and focused these guys are. I wager 95% of humans get far too worked up with change to cope.
 
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Man of Honour
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I'm kinda glad there's low hiring at the moment, if I went into pre-sales I'd earn an extra 50% at least over what I do now, but I'd have to work & travel for it.

I'm happy being home 95% of the time and working as and when I please.
 
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Soldato
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The travel is what got me out of Pre-Sales, I couldn't stomach it and it's what keeps me away from most PSO roles in channel and at a lot of vendors. I did my time flying around SE Asia and running around the UK for 2 years and it wore me down so quick.

I'd go Vendor for a nice remote role, but happy in the Enterprise side possibly earning a bit less never having to leave the home office for work.
 
Man of Honour
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The travel is what got me out of Pre-Sales, I couldn't stomach it and it's what keeps me away from most PSO roles in channel and at a lot of vendors. I did my time flying around SE Asia and running around the UK for 2 years and it wore me down so quick.

I'd go Vendor for a nice remote role, but happy in the Enterprise side possibly earning a bit less never having to leave the home office for work.
I've managed to shoehorn myself in a position where I am able to avoid remote roles within reason.

I go to customer sites as and when I choose pretty much, most stuff I do is billable still and from home, best of both worlds.

My manager and PMs are super flexible, if my mrs is away working and we don't have childcare for whatever reason, I do my own hours and catch up early mornings/evenings etc. It means I can support my mrs still working, be a family man and work my own hours within reason. As long as my deliverables are met. Life is good, yet I still look at the market as it's hard to ignore the ludicrous sums available when they do come up.

Grass isn't always greener...
 
Soldato
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I'm kinda glad there's low hiring at the moment, if I went into pre-sales I'd earn an extra 50% at least over what I do now, but I'd have to work & travel for it.

I'm happy being home 95% of the time and working as and when I please.

I’m home over 95% of the time now post covid. Pre covid it was usual to be away 2-3 days a week.

I also lose less time to travel so can money.

Just gotta find the right role
 
Soldato
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Any role where you aren't effectively a "cost centre" will always pay well, as you directly link it to value. I've never heard the term Solutions Engineer, but I have worked with "Tech Pre Sales" people who have had some sport with me in designing solutions including their products. You genuinely select the product with the best team behind it, as it doesn't really matter how great the software is if the team you first engage are useless.

I think the bit we are ignoring tho, is how relentlessly passionate and focused these guys are. I wager 95% of humans get far too worked up with change to cope.

Same thing as tech pre sales but under differ names.
For a 60k OTE Sales Engineer role (so a base salary of around 42 most likely) that’s very much entry level to that type of role.

Although generally you possibly would have some minor tech knowledge before hand, but at that level not much.

With SE roles the SE skills are often key, the individuals who are good at those roles can generally learn whatever tech for what it is they are helping sell.

They will be taught what they need to know on the tech side, and at that level they likely won’t be doing it themselves to start with anyway.

Friend of mine has recently got his first SE role in a field of tech he has never done anything with before in his life, base salary 70k.

Honestly it’s another world compared to traditional roles, and seems absolutely barmy some of the numbers involved compared to what you have to do.
it’s true. Barmy numbers.

Would agree it’s about the person, everything else can be taught but some technical skill set is useful. Eg being able to get around even if not super proficient in code etc
 
Soldato
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I've managed to shoehorn myself in a position where I am able to avoid remote roles within reason.

I go to customer sites as and when I choose pretty much, most stuff I do is billable still and from home, best of both worlds.

My manager and PMs are super flexible, if my mrs is away working and we don't have childcare for whatever reason, I do my own hours and catch up early mornings/evenings etc. It means I can support my mrs still working, be a family man and work my own hours within reason. As long as my deliverables are met. Life is good, yet I still look at the market as it's hard to ignore the ludicrous sums available when they do come up.

Grass isn't always greener...
I'm in a similar position. Sometimes I make a big effort (wife is away this week) and pop into the London office for 5 hours... tomorrow I'll do a 200mile round trip for 5 hours of work.... and then Thursday I'll do the same 200 miles round trip again. But on average, it is like 95% home.

I wouldn't even say "I'm comfortable" and doing benign stuff, so it is a win/win...

Redundancies are kicking off tho and I sure could use £100k and a year out :D
 
Soldato
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Grass isn't always greener...

This is the main key thing for me, I learnt this the very hard way. I went from a job I loved to a job which paid a fairly significant amount more and hated it, and then had about 2 and a half years of a few different jobs. Found one which had amazing benefits but the pay was fairly bad so I took the current role which has been a good choice for the last 2 years.
 

Ev0

Ev0

Soldato
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Redundancies are kicking off tho and I sure could use £100k and a year out :D

As in the other career thread, 2 weeks ago I was made redundant from my pre sales role ;)

There’s stuff out there so not too worried yet, just frustrating.

On the travel front, I’ve always been in the camp of I’m not being away all week so have always been in roles where the travel is pretty minimal.

I’m my prior role I’d maybe go somewhere 2 or 3 times a month, and the role I’ve just exited pretty much only had 3 or 4 trips in 8 months.

Maybe the products I work with have meant it’s not always required, others will be different.

But I absolutely love being an SE or whatever we want to call it, it’s not for everyone but I’ve loved it.

It’s been my go to role when looking now, although I have been toying with some other related areas in the product space, so will see what happens!
 
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Soldato
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As in the other career thread, 2 weeks ago I was made redundant from my pre sales role ;)

There’s stuff out there so not too worried yet, just frustrating.

On the travel front, I’ve always been in the camp of I’m not being away all week so have always been in roles where the travel is pretty minimal.

I’m my prior role I’d maybe go somewhere 2 or 3 times a month, and the role I’ve just exited pretty much only had 3 or 4 trips in 8 months.

Maybe the products I work with have meant it’s not always required, others will be different.

But I absolutely love being an SE or whatever we want to call it, it’s not for everyone but I’ve loved it.

It’s been my go to role when looking now, although I have been toying with some other related areas in the product space, so will see what happens!
Contracts will need renewing....businesses will need transforming.... Easier to stay at the forefront than the rear :D
 
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