Why Solution Engineering?
There are a lot of reasons why people are so eager to get into Solution Engineering (SE). One of the most popular reasons is that SEs have traditionally ALWAYS been remote. When Covid landed a few years back, all of a sudden everyone was sent home and got used to working from the comforts of their own home. Today, more and more companies are pushing their employees back to the office, however, SEs remain remote. Which makes sense, if you think about what the role of an SE is. We talk to, and visit, customers on a daily basis, so it doesn't really make sense for us to go to an office and try to find a quiet spot to conduct these customer sessions.
If not having to drive to an office everyday isn't enough, SEs also get paid to travel the world. This can be a touchy subject for some, as many people don't like to travel, while other's love this part of the job. Fear not, there's fully remote (non-travel) and field (travel) SE roles. Understanding these structures is a topic your mentor can help you with.
Finally, Solution Engineering is FUN. SEs are highly respected resources in any organization. We get to constantly learn new things and stay on the cutting edge of technology. We get to work with a broad range of people, both in the organization and in working with customers. SEs work with Product Managers, Customer Service, Customer Success Managers, Sales Reps, Industry Analysts, Developers, and potentially across many more departments within the organization. On the customer side, you'll meet people in every industry sector, tour their headquarters or other facilities, and learn about their business.
This is where the "fun" comes in. As an SE, you never know where your week will take you. In a single week, you could be at a conference in Las Vegas one night, Tesla headquarters the next, and working from the beach on a Friday.
There are many other reasons why SE roles are so sought after, but the prestige of the role and the work life balance it provides are probably the most popular reasons.
Use The Skills You Have To Your Advantage
We hire candidates without technology degrees, or even sales experience, to become Solution Engineers (SE) all the time. So the question you may be asking is "why"? The first thing to understand when answering this question is this: SE skills need to be extremely broad, but nothing is more important than soft skills, and this is the key area to focus on if you're looking to break into presales. Soft skills is a broad topic, but in general, an SE must be able to demonstrate
- leadership
- coordination
- listening skills
- objection handling
- ability to manage meetings
- empathy
- articulate value
- handle questions
- give/receive feedback
- see the "big picture"
- continuous learning
- research skills
The list goes on and on. This may sound like an overwhelming list, but candidates should use these skills to their advantage.
Soft Skills > Technology Skills
First of all, soft skills can be learned and, more importantly, practiced. Working with an experienced coach can help one develop these skills and understand where the skill gaps are. Secondly, these are the more difficult skills for hiring managers to find in potential candidates. It's very easy for companies to go out and find people with specific technology skills, but much more difficult to find someone with both technology experience and a wide array of soft skills. Oftentimes, managers will settle on someone with a good personality, someone that shows a willingness to learn, and ultimately someone that will fit in with the team. Keep in mind, none of us know everything!
So what's the advantage for someone that's new to the industry? Well, the fact of the matter is the technology is EASIER to teach people than the soft skills. Today's SaaS solutions are designed to be easy, so anyone with the willingness to learn can understand how to configure a software solution for a customer demonstration. It's much more difficult to train someone on the soft skills list above. So, use that to your advantage.
There's also a chance you have some of the technology skills, and don't even know it. Have you ever been a practitioner (i.e. end user) in a company where you used software on a daily basis? Ever been part of a project team (even as an end user tester) that implemented a new piece of software? I know someone that worked for a staffing company as a Recruiter, and was therefore intimately familiar with Talent Acquisition systems. Not only was she familiar with the various recruiting systems, but being in the industry, she understood both the candidate, recruiter, and hiring manager experiences. She was able to use those skills, despite never being an SE before, to get hired as a Senior SE for an HR Technology vendor.
Ask For Help
Finding a mentor, either here at Mentorcruise, or elsewhere, will be a critical step for those without SE experience. The hiring process for an SE can be daunting, so it's important to find a mentor that's experienced with not only the SE hiring process, but understands what recruiters and hiring managers are looking for. First of all, in order to get an interview, the candidates resume AND LinkedIn profile have to be optimized for SE roles. Today's recruiting systems use AI to score and rank candidates before a human even looks at a resume. Only candidates with optimized resumes are going to even get to the interview stage.
The typical SE interview process consists of multiple steps, and will usually be at least 4 stages: short call with recruiter, call with hiring manager, call with potential peer, mock demo. Each step is crucial, and candidates need to be prepared and focused on highlighting the skills that each person in the process is looking for.
These are the areas mentors can help. Find someone that understands ALL of the above.