Plan a career in IT: goal - £100k PA.

[sigma]

We pay analyst sales engineers 60k ote with no experience but the right personal skills and a good background understanding of tech.

That's crazy, who is we?

 

[kitkat9933]

Would your company take on Pharmacists, I'm no tech expert by any stretch however the IT helpdesk and data analysts generally trust me to perform tasks around the department as it saves them time. Not sure how I could show that in my CV though?

Potentially. The people skills are the most important part for sales engineers, the product specific tech can be taught.

 

[kitkat9933]

That's crazy, who is we?

A US SaaS company. These numbers for sales engineers are fairly common in hot tech firms.

The only issue is hiring is tight due to tech industry issues as a whole causing changes in operating models.

 

[sigma]

A US SaaS company. These numbers for sales engineers are fairly common in hot tech firms.

The only issue is hiring is tight due to tech industry issues as a whole causing changes in operating models.

Ah, so you mean entry level sales roles, not entry level tech roles.

 

[Throrik]

Wondering if they're also being paid US Wages for a UK role as I've worked in channel, and in SP and also Enterprise and nobody is paying Sales guys 60k base. Good on them if you've managed to get in with a unicorn.

 

[kitkat9933]

Ah, so you mean entry level sales roles, not entry level tech roles.

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

 

[kitkat9933]

Wondering if they're also being paid US Wages for a UK role as I've worked in channel, and in SP and also Enterprise and nobody is paying Sales guys 60k base. Good on them if you've managed to get in with a unicorn.

OTE not base. So its 80% base and 20% bonus for us. Most use 70/30 or 80/20

 

[sigma]

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 someone be a solution engineer with no experience and just people skills?

 

[Throrik]

OTE not base. So its 80% base and 20% bonus for us. Most use 70/30 or 80/20

Ah sorry did miss that bit, yeah 80/20 was the general consensus when I worked in Pre-Sales, but I've never been able to be comfortable with commission etc, or none guaranteed income. That's just a personal thing though.

 

[Josh]

80/20 in Solutions Artictect roles are common.

Base from 70k upwards, generally they don't need experience, it helps but as long as you have the gift of the gab and can present you stand a great chance.

Learning the product and how it fits into the environment is key, knowing how it fits and the technical aspects of it set you above the rest.

 

[sigma]

80/20 in Solutions Artictect roles are common.

Base from 70k upwards, generally they don't need experience, it helps but as long as you have the gift of the gab and can present you stand a great chance.

Learning the product and how it fits into the environment is key, knowing how it fits and the technical aspects of it set you above the rest.

Weird, the solutions architect roles I see require you to design stuff and have X number of years in highly technical jobs. Often with development backgrounds. Knowledge of technical frameworks, experience of certain technologies, robust knowledge of enterprise systems etc. How can people have all that without any experience? Unless we're talking about different things here?

Is a solutions sales engineer a specific role? Had a quick Google and it appears that it is.

Where are these roles? Sounds like I could do them with my eyes closed.

 

[Josh]

Weird, the solutions architect roles I see require you to design stuff and have X number of years in highly technical jobs. Often with development backgrounds. Knowledge of technical frameworks, experience of certain technologies, robust knowledge of enterprise systems etc. How can people have all that without any experience? Unless we're talking about different things here?

Is a solutions sales engineer a specific role? Had a quick Google and it appears that it is.

Where are these roles? Sounds like I could do them with my eyes closed.

Pre-sales for the big companies (HPE, Lenovo, AWS) etc.

You'll need industry experience for the architect roles but for not for the consultant side. You consult on the need, the architect builds it, the sales people sell it.

Easy 100k for an architect, I'd say 80+ for a consultant should be about right after commission.

 

[Ayahuasca]

@Diddums how's it going FoxEye 2.0?

 

[Diddums]

@Diddums how's it going FoxEye 2.0?

I'm only a month in to my new role, calm down

 

[kitkat9933]

Weird, the solutions architect roles I see require you to design stuff and have X number of years in highly technical jobs. Often with development backgrounds. Knowledge of technical frameworks, experience of certain technologies, robust knowledge of enterprise systems etc. How can people have all that without any experience? Unless we're talking about different things here?

Is a solutions sales engineer a specific role? Had a quick Google and it appears that it is.

Where are these roles? Sounds like I could do them with my eyes closed.

The industry uses solutions architects and solutions engineers a little bit interchangeably.

To me solution architects are senior solution engineers. At my organisation we have 6 grades of solutions engineers and 3 grades of architects. A grade 5 solution engineer (principal se) is equivalent to a grade 1 architect (solutions architect). I become a grade 3 architect after only 8 years in the industry.

To find entry roles, try looking for solution engineer roles with analyst, associate, junior etc at the title.

 

[kitkat9933]

Ah sorry did miss that bit, yeah 80/20 was the general consensus when I worked in Pre-Sales, but I've never been able to be comfortable with commission etc, or none guaranteed income. That's just a personal thing though.

Always need to see your base as what you want and anything else a nice to have.

In most places the 20% is close to guaranteed in any place you would want to work anyway. Most solutions engineers etc don’t get commission but targets to unlock their bonus.

 

[SpellowHouse]

Been toying with this idea for a few years now, on and off. I'm not afraid of a challenge and love coding, but never really pursued it.

Let's say the goal is £100k PA, a few questions:

• How quickly can this realistically be achieved (I'm not a dreamer who expects a massive salary from the get go)?
• What sort of starting salary would I be looking at?
• What would be the best / most specialized field to look in to?
• What would be the best steps to take?

For clarity, I'm on a decent salary already and have worked my way up from £50 a day moving furniture, to living very comfortably and I suspect I'll be on £100k in my current line of work in a few years anyway, so this would be more of a quality of life move than a financial one.

Any ideas?

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

 

[sigma]

The industry uses solutions architects and solutions engineers a little bit interchangeably.

To me solution architects are senior solution engineers. At my organisation we have 6 grades of solutions engineers and 3 grades of architects. A grade 5 solution engineer (principal se) is equivalent to a grade 1 architect (solutions architect). I become a grade 3 architect after only 8 years in the industry.

To find entry roles, try looking for solution engineer roles with analyst, associate, junior etc at the title.

I'm not junior, hence why, if 0 experience is required for the entry jobs, me with experience should be able to earn £500k (exaggerating a bit here) in the non-entry jobs.

 

[randomshenans]

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

I think it depends on where you are in life and what you want from it.

Hitting a certain number you realise that other things are more important, but it's a **** load easier to say that from beyond that number.

 

[randomshenans]

I'm not junior, hence why, if 0 experience is required for the entry jobs, me with experience should be able to earn £500k (exaggerating a bit here) in the non-entry jobs.

career to 500k thread coming up SigmaEye